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Self-host Reddit
Threaded community / forum ·
Category: team chat & community
Reddit is the dominant link-aggregator and threaded-discussion platform — subreddits, voting, comments, ranked feeds. The self-hostable replacements split into two camps: federated link-aggregators (Lemmy, Kbin) that mimic the subreddit/upvote shape and federate via ActivityPub, and modern forum software (Discourse, Flarum) that rebuilds the long-form discussion side without the ranked-feed structure.
Reddit pricing anchor: Free with ads; Reddit Premium $5.99/mo (ad-free + premium avatars).
- GitHub
- ★ 14.4k · last commit 1d ago · 130 open issues
- License
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AGPL-3.0 - Setup time
- 30min docker-compose (Rust backend + Postgres + UI + pict-rs for images)
- Monthly cost
- $5-10/mo VPS for a small instance; storage scales with image uploads.
Migration sketch. Pull the official compose from join-lemmy.org. Lemmy is the closest one-for-one Reddit clone — `/c/<community>` replaces `/r/<subreddit>`, you get upvotes, ranking, and a federated cross-instance feed via ActivityPub. There's no clean way to import Reddit subreddits' content (Reddit's API closures in 2023 broke most archivers), so treat Lemmy instances as fresh communities seeded with your own content + crossposts.
Good fit forCommunities that want a Reddit-shaped federated home and value the upvote/downvote ranking model.
Weak atMobile clients are improving but inconsistent; smaller global reach than Reddit's network effect.
- GitHub
- ★ 47.0k · last commit today · 139 open issues
- License
-
GPL-2.0 - Setup time
- 30min — official `discourse_docker` standalone install
- Monthly cost
- $10-20/mo VPS — Discourse needs at least 2GB RAM and external SMTP; Mailgun/Postmark/Resend handle the email cost line.
Migration sketch. Run `discourse-setup` from the official `discourse_docker` repo. For migration: Discourse has community importers from Reddit (`scripts/import/reddit.rb` reads a JSON archive of your subreddit if you have one). Discourse trades the ranked feed for a chronological topic list with rich threading; better fit if your community valued long-form discussion over upvote-ranking.
Good fit forLong-form communities, support forums, and mature subreddits that ran more like discussion boards than link-aggregators.
Weak atNot a vote-ranked link aggregator — the front page is chronological, not algorithmic.
- GitHub
- ★ 6.71k · last commit 1d ago · 89 open issues
- License
-
MIT - Setup time
- 20min docker-compose (PHP + MySQL/MariaDB)
- Monthly cost
- $5/mo VPS; PHP-FPM stack is light.
Migration sketch. Use the community `mondediefr/docker-flarum` image or compose directly. Flarum is a modern lightweight forum — extension-driven, fast, mobile-friendly. Reddit migration is manual: export subreddit posts via PRAW (if you still have moderator API access) → CSV → bulk-import via the Flarum API. Best treated as a fresh forum.
Good fit forSmaller communities that want a clean, light forum and aren't married to upvote ranking.
Weak atNo federation; smaller plugin ecosystem than Discourse; needs MySQL/MariaDB.
In a terminal? npx os-alt reddit prints this table —
how the CLI works →