Discourse Hosting (Discourse.org) vs Reddit

Self-host either: open-source alternatives compared. · Category: team chat & community

Both Discourse Hosting (Discourse.org) and Reddit are in the team chat & community category. 2 open-source projects (Discourse (self-host), Flarum) self-host as a replacement for both — listed below alongside the picks unique to each.

	Discourse Hosting (Discourse.org)	Reddit
Category	Community / forum hosting	Threaded community / forum
SaaS pricing anchor	Standard $50/mo (managed Discourse Cloud); Business $100/mo; Enterprise from $300/mo	Free with ads; Reddit Premium $5.99/mo (ad-free + premium avatars)
Self-host options listed	3	3

Replaces both — 2 shared open-source picks

These open-source projects appear on both /discourse-cloud/ and /reddit/ — picking one solves the migration off either SaaS.

Discourse (self-host)discourse/discoursealivereplaces both

GitHub: ★ 47.0k · last commit today
License: GPL-2.0
Setup time: 30min — `discourse_docker` standalone install on a fresh Ubuntu
Monthly cost: $10-20/mo VPS + Mailgun/Postmark/Resend SMTP relay (~$10/mo for 50k emails). Discourse needs ≥2GB RAM.

Flarum flarum/frameworkalivereplaces both

GitHub: ★ 6.71k · last commit today
License: MIT
Setup time: 20min docker-compose (PHP + MySQL/MariaDB)
Monthly cost: $5/mo VPS; PHP-FPM stack is light.

Picks unique to each

Discourse Hosting (Discourse.org) only

NodeBBalive
GPL-3.020min docker run (Node + Redis or Postgres or MongoDB)$5-10/mo VPS.

Reddit only

Lemmyalive
AGPL-3.030min docker-compose (Rust backend + Postgres + UI + pict-rs for images)$5-10/mo VPS for a small instance; storage scales with image uploads.

In a terminal? npx os-alt discourse-cloud or npx os-alt reddit prints either side — how the CLI works →

FAQ

Which open-source self-host alternatives replace both Discourse Hosting (Discourse.org) and Reddit?

2 open-source projects appear on both /discourse-cloud/ and /reddit/: Discourse (self-host), Flarum.

How many self-host alternatives are listed for Discourse Hosting (Discourse.org) and Reddit?

3 for Discourse Hosting (Discourse.org), 3 for Reddit.

Are all the self-host alternatives free?

Yes — every listed option is open source. Your cost is the VPS or hardware that runs it.