# Discourse review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Open-source discussion forum software with hosted plans Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Discourse is forum software for communities, customer support and product feedback, built around topics, categories, trust levels and badges. It is open source and also sold as hosted plans that include chat, AI features and plugins. Plans scale by staff seats, storage and email volume rather than by member count. - **Category:** Courses & Communities - **Made by:** Discourse - **Website:** https://www.discourse.org - **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you grow: the free plan stops at 2 staff seats and 10 categories. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Discourse has a free plan, and paid plans start at $100 per month. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Free hosting plan: 2 staff seats, 10 categories, 5GB of storage, 20k emails a month and 500k page views a month. - **Free trial:** Free trial on Pro and Business, no credit card required up front. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | 2 staff seats, 10 categories, 5GB storage, 20k monthly emails and 100k AI daily credits. | | Pro | $100 per month | 5 staff seats, unlimited categories, 20GB storage, 100k monthly emails, API and webhook access, 15+ plugins. | | Business | $500 per month | 15 staff seats, 100GB storage, SSO, workflows, events, gamification and priority support. | | Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited staff seats, 99.9% uptime guarantee, custom migration and design services; sold through sales. | Read from https://www.discourse.org/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Discourse before buying. ## Key features - **Topic-based forum:** Organizes discussion into categories and tags with unlimited members on every hosted plan. - **Trust levels and badges:** Members earn abilities as they participate, and badges reward chosen behaviors. - **Built-in chat:** Adds channels for short-form conversation alongside long-form topics. - **AI and translation:** Uses daily AI credits and translates content into a plan-dependent number of languages: 2 on Free up to 10 on Enterprise. - **Plugins and API:** Official plugins plus an API that covers what the interface does; API and webhook access starts at Pro. - **Mobile apps:** Free iOS and Android apps with push notifications for hosted communities. ## Good for - Public forums, support communities and product feedback boards - Organizations that want open-source software with a hosted option ## Worth knowing - The free plan caps staff seats at 2 and categories at 10. - SSO, workflows, events and gamification are on Business ($500 a month) and above. - Plans are sold by staff seats, not by members; members are unlimited. - It is a discussion forum, not a course platform, so it has no built-in course checkout. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Discourse is open-source forum software with hosted plans, including a free one for small forums. The free plan caps you at 2 staff seats and 10 categories, and SSO, events and gamification wait on the $500 Business plan. - **Value for money: B.** A free hosted plan exists, and Pro is $100 a month, above the $49 middle of courses and communities tools. SSO and events need Business at $500. - **Free plan and trial: B.** The free plan gives 2 staff seats, 10 categories, 5GB of storage and unlimited members, which a small forum can live on. - **Features: C.** Topic forum, trust levels, chat, AI and translation, plugins and an API. The listing's gap: SSO, workflows, events and gamification need Business, and there is no course checkout. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. A hosted forum needs categories, settings and moderation set up before it feels like yours. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iOS and Android apps, with plugins and an API. No desktop app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Discourse's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among course and community platforms - Discourse's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 35 of the 41 other course and community platforms we grade, and level with 2. - It stands best on value for money (B, above 35 of 41) and worst on features (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $100 a month, against a middle price of $49 for the category: 30 of the 36 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 12 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/courses-communities ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Discourse you would be making chat that a whole team counts on staying up. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 35 of the 41 other course and community platforms we grade. It costs $1,200 a year. Discourse is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: Chat that a whole team counts on staying up. - You could not: A members' space with posts, chat and events that people keep coming back to. - You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page. - You could not: An API that other software can build on. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Community, Open source, Public API, AI features, Team chat ## Alternatives - [Bettermode](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bettermode): Branded community platform with Q&A, events and AI search. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bettermode-vs-discourse) - [Circle](https://toolgpa.com/tools/circle): Community platform with courses, events, payments and branded apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/circle-vs-discourse) - [Mighty Networks](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mighty-networks): Community platform with courses, livestreams and paid memberships. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/discourse-vs-mighty-networks) - [Khoros](https://toolgpa.com/tools/khoros): Enterprise community and social media platform with AI tools. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/discourse-vs-khoros) - [Disciple Media](https://toolgpa.com/tools/disciplemedia): White-label community app for iOS, Android and web. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/disciplemedia-vs-discourse) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.discourse.org/pricing - https://www.discourse.org/open-source - https://www.discourse.org/features Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/discourse Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).