head to head · open source
giscus vs wp-discourse
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars, 491 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. wp-discourse has 544 stars, 113 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. giscus leads on adoption by 2,143% (12,204 vs 544 stars). giscus is written in TypeScript under MIT; wp-discourse is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. giscus has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, wp-discourse 21%. wp-discourse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (comments), 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.
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Side by side
| giscus | wp-discourse | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 544 |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-05-26 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 491 | ⑂ 113 |
| 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 wp-discourse if
- You want the wp-discourse feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and wp-discourse 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 wp-discourse
WP Discourse Note: the wp discourse plugin requires = PHP 5.4.0. The WP Discourse plugin acts as an interface between your WordPress site and your Discourse community. The plugin is not a substitute for Disqus like commenting systems. Use Discourse for Comments: Automatically creates a forum topic for discussion when a new blog post is published. Associates WP author accounts with their respective Discourse accounts. Does not require DiscourseConnect. Replies from the forum discussion can be embedded in the WP blog post. Select which replies to display based on post score and commenter "trust level" see docs…
read the full wp-discourse overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is giscus or wp-discourse more popular?
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars and wp-discourse has 544. giscus has the larger community by that measure.
Are giscus and wp-discourse free?
Both are open source. giscus is licensed under MIT and wp-discourse under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between giscus and wp-discourse?
giscus is written in TypeScript and wp-discourse 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 wp-discourse?
Choose giscus if you want the larger community (12,204 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose wp-discourse if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.