head to head · open source
giscus vs roadmap
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars, 491 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. roadmap has 567 stars, 121 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped yesterday. giscus leads on adoption by 2,052% (12,204 vs 567 stars). giscus is written in TypeScript under MIT; roadmap is written in PHP under MIT. giscus has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, roadmap 21%. roadmap was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| giscus | roadmap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 567 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-05-26 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 491 | ⑂ 121 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick giscus if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick roadmap if
- You want the roadmap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and roadmap fits your workflow better
About giscus
[giscus][giscus] A comments system powered by [GitHub Discussions][discussions]. Let visitors leave comments and reactions on your website via GitHub! Heavily inspired by [utterances][utterances]. [Open source][repo]. 🌏 No tracking, no ads, always free. 📡 🚫 No database needed. All data is stored in GitHub Discussions. :octocat: Supports [custom themes][creating custom themes]! 🌗 Supports [multiple languages][multiple languages]. 🌐 [Extensively configurable][advanced usage]. 🔧 Automatically fetches new comments and edits from GitHub. 🔃 [Can be self hosted][self hosting]! 🤳 Note giscus is still under…
read the full giscus overview →
About roadmap
Roadmap Welcome to Roadmap, the open source software for your roadmapping needs 🛣 Features Completely customisable roadmapping software Mention users in comments Upvote items to see which has more priority Automatic slug generation Filament admin panel 💛 Simplified role system (administrator, employee & user) OAuth 2 single sign on with your own application Automatic OG image generation including branding color you've setup (saves in your storage, around 70kb per image), if title is too long it will strip automatically as well, example: Requirements PHP = 8.4 Database (MySQL, PostgreSQL) GD Library ( =2.0) or…
read the full roadmap overview →
More in Community & Social
Related comparisons
More Collaboration & Feedback projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Collaboration & Feedback field.
Frequently asked questions
Is giscus or roadmap more popular?
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars and roadmap has 567. giscus has the larger community by that measure.
Are giscus and roadmap free?
Both are open source. giscus is licensed under MIT and roadmap under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between giscus and roadmap?
giscus is written in TypeScript and roadmap in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, giscus or roadmap?
Choose giscus if you want the larger community (12,204 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose roadmap if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.