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Discourse Reviews

User Rating

4.2/5 (Based on 64 Ratings)

Rating Distribution

  • Excellent

    34.4%
  • Very Good

    53.1%
  • Average

    10.9%
  • Poor

    1.6%
  • Terrible

    0%

User Sentiments

Open Source, Customization Options, Ease of Use, Effective Community Management

Complex Initial Setup, Confusing Tagging System, Limited Plugin Availability, Occasional Navigation Issues

Do You Use Discourse?

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Review Summary

Discourse is highly praised for its user-friendly interface, customizable features, and strong community support. Users appreciate its intuitive design, which makes it easy to navigate and use, even for those new to online forums. The platform's extensive customization options allow users to tailor their experience, including branding, themes, and user roles. Additionally, Discourse's active and helpful community provides valuable resources and support to users, contributing to its overall positive reputation.

Pros

  • Simple and easy to use: userfriendly interface, quick setup and configuration, easy customization.
  • Active community: regular updates and improvements, supportive and responsive community.
  • Powerful customization options: extensive plugin library, flexible theming system, customizable permissions and roles.

Cons

  • Limited outofthebox features: basic functionality, may require additional plugins or extensions for advanced features.
  • Occasional performance issues: can experience slowdowns or outages during periods of high traffic or with large datasets.
  • Steep learning curve for advanced features: extensive documentation and resources available, but some users may find it challenging to navigate the platform's complexities.

AI-Generated from the text of User Reviews

Reviews
JH

Jerome H

January 28, 2025 Source: G2.com
Friendly user interface
What do you like best about Discourse?
a great platform to learn and share ideas about relevant topics
What do you dislike about Discourse?
i enjoy every single bit of using this platform
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
assisting me with meeting new people who have vast knowledge about my contract with labelbox.
Read more
SL

Sarah L

March 14, 2023 Source: G2.com
Truly a place to build civilized conversations- with lots of customizations!
What do you like best about Discourse?
We chose Discourse about five years ago because we wanted to create a place for an in-depth conversation about new research that was coming out in occupational therapy. And it has delivered! I am consistently amazed by the quality of conversation that the platform fosters.
What do you dislike about Discourse?
Recommendations to others considering Discourse?
The added bonus has been all of the customization options on the platform. This has allowed us to roll out new tools we did not anticipate initially. The best surprise was when they recently updated the layout to prioritze sidebar navigation-it gave the platform a freshness to rival other social platforms!
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
One thing to be aware of with Discourse is that it gives a lot of flexibility, but we've had to leverage a developer to capitalize on creating our more advanced tools. Overall, we've been pleased with this tradeoff though! And, luckily, Discourse really does provide amazing support for more complex projects.
Read more
SL

Sara L

March 8, 2023 Source: G2.com
Discourse- the community platform you never knew you would love so much!
What do you like best about Discourse?
I have worked with a number of all inclusive, expensive, enterprise level community platforms. I was unaware of Discourse until my last job.
What do you dislike about Discourse?
Recommendations to others considering Discourse?
I was really impressed by the flexibility and opensource nature of the product. The pricing is great which makes this a viable option for SMD level businesses.
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
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MC

Michael C

March 3, 2023 Source: G2.com
Great for community discussions and announcements
What do you like best about Discourse?
Discourse is really easy to use and allows an open discussion in a forum style platform. It's quite customizable where you can create different topics and categories, and also tracks user engagement.
What do you dislike about Discourse?
Discourse is quite a robust platform, and depending on how the company uses and organises it, it can be quite overwhelming. Fortunately, they have a fantastic bot that teaches you the basics and get you up-to-speed.
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
We like to use Discourse for community discussion threads and company/team announcements. It's a way to help us seperate from our knowledge-base and have a simpler workflow.
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FS

Filippo S

September 25, 2022 Source: G2.com
Well structured discussion forum
What do you like best about Discourse?
.main resource for internal communication and support outside of live channels
What do you dislike about Discourse?
interface is very minimal and flat, but not necessarily simple and intuitive
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
Provides an online discussion platform to engage in product discussion
Read more
WN

William Nelson

June 16, 2022 Source: Trustpilot.com
Love how well it runs and open source
Love how well it runs and that it's open source. I have Discourse installed on a VPS that meets the minimum requirements. To my surprise it runs great. Really enjoying all the plugins also, such as the one to notify people on Discord when thread made. Great job guys, appreciate it.
Read more
TM

Teddy M

May 26, 2021 Source: G2.com
Discourse - An amazing platform
What do you like best about Discourse?
Discourse was very straightforward to install, the Let's Encrypt integration is amazing. Discourse is an amazing platform with even more of an amazing design. My team enjoyed using it a lot. The cost of running is also very small. Overall it is a great experience.
What do you dislike about Discourse?
I didn't really like that you can't deploy Discourse without a domain. It was very hard for me to use Discourse with my mail server at first, although I quickly got around that by using the numerous Discoruse tutorials available.
Recommendations to others considering Discourse?
I highly recommend to use a one click installation, it is much more easier than the regular installation (both are supported by Disocurse as far as I am aware, so no need to worry for support). Also, be prepared to wait and retry. You more than likely won't nail it on the first try. I also recommend you get some extra RAM and run a mail server on your VPS/dedicated server (if you already haven't done so), as this quite literally saved my installation from failure, because without a mail server - your installation is broken and if you don't have MailChimp or other popular mail platforms but instead have your own mail server (which is not locally hosted), chances are - you might fail.
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
Recently, communication within my department has went down. And it wasn't only there, it seemed like all platforms we tried were just like the other ones - non-customisable, costy, and way too simple. Discourse was simple, but the "simple" which actually was fine with us.
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VI

Verified User in Religious Institutions

February 13, 2019 Source: G2.com
By far the best (and most affordable!!) option for community software
What do you like best about Discourse?
Discourse is already amazing. Yet, the pace of development is staggering.
What do you dislike about Discourse?
Recommendations to others considering Discourse?
You can interact directly with the co-founders, developers, and the rest of the Discourse community at meta.discourse.org. That's something you probably won't get with any other community software!
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
Read more
KA

Kimberly A

January 31, 2019 Source: G2.com
Best for community solutions
What do you like best about Discourse?
It is a open source software, where the main topics can be discussed orderly. It doesn't matter how big or small the project is, you'll find the adequate tool to find a solution and talk about it within your community or the people you want to reach. For example, you'll be able to do surveys, bookmark, chat and keep track of your main interests. It's not only easy to host, but also easy to follow up.
What do you dislike about Discourse?
It's a relatively new forum, where people aren't used to the privacy terms, for example, private messages not being private to the admin. Also, constant updates means interface changes, you need to adapt.
Recommendations to others considering Discourse?
It's a helpful tool to organize your projects and give them a follow up. It doesn't matter if you are a business or not, give it a chance by adquiring the 14 day trial. Anyway, I do recommend to buy the licence as you will find this software the best for your community organization towards future and ongoing projects.
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
Efficient organization between a whole group of people regarding an specific subject. Ease to contact other members and let them know what's going on at the moment.
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VE

Verified User in Entertainment

January 28, 2019 Source: G2.com
The best forum software out there and open source too!
What do you like best about Discourse?
Its very useful for replacing the old mailing list software with an open source and user friendly experience. It also helps for users to choose and use forum threads without the user interface by subscribing via mailing list mode. It's also good for open communication for the whole organization too.
What do you dislike about Discourse?
At first, I wasn't sure how to use tags since everything was lowercase and it feels a bit messy for an user-centric experience. Also, private messages can be seen by administrators which sometimes it might not be clear enough to the public.
Recommendations to others considering Discourse?
Discourse is perfect for every community and possibly could be one of the best forum softwares out there too. It could make a difference for start-up companies or small businesses in order to move forward on a slow pace.
What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?
It's an open source and configurable with many other add-ons in order to help with integration with other services. Also, every conversation are trackable easily without having the risk of being lost or disappear in a big storm of many many other messages too.
Read more

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