What is Discourse? | Discourse - Civilized Discussion

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| Discourse - Civilized Discussion</title> <meta name="generator" content="Jekyll v4.3.4" /> <meta property="og:title" content="What is Discourse?" /> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" /> <meta name="description" content="Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet." /> <meta property="og:description" content="Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet." /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.discourse.org/about" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.discourse.org/about" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Discourse - Civilized Discussion" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://www.discourse.org/a/img/srcset/discourse-about.jpg" /> <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> <meta property="twitter:image" content="https://www.discourse.org/a/img/srcset/discourse-about.jpg" /> <meta property="twitter:title" content="What is Discourse?" /> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@discourse" /> <script type="application/ld+json"> {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","description":"Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.","headline":"What is Discourse?","image":"https://www.discourse.org/a/img/srcset/discourse-about.jpg","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.discourse.org/a/img/favicon.png"}},"url":"https://www.discourse.org/about"}</script>  <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.discourse.org/a/img/logo-card-image.jpg" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/about.css?1732562568450055598" media="screen" type="text/css" /> </head> <body class="about"> <a href="#main" id="skip-to-content" class="skip-link">Skip to content</a> <header role="banner" class="site-header-navigation"> <div class="site-header-navigation__container"> <div class="site-header-navigation__logo"> <a href="/"> <svg width="385" height="104" viewBox="0 0 300 40"> <use xlink:href="/a/img/logo.svg#logo-large"></use> </svg> </a> </div> <nav class="navigation" aria-label="Main menu"> <button class="navigation__button navigation__button--open js-open" aria-label="Open menu" aria-expanded="false" type="button">☰</button> <div class="navigation-list-wrapper"> <button class="navigation__button navigation__button--close js-close" aria-label="Close menu" aria-expanded="true" type="button">×</button> <ul class="navigation-list"> <li class="navigation-list__item"> <a href="#" class="navigation-list__link navigation-list__link--has-child"> About </a> <ul class="navigation-list__sub-item-list js-dropdown-list" aria-hidden="true" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Resources submenu"> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="/about"> What is Discourse? </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="/team"> Who we are </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="/customers"> Customers </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="/wall-of-love"> Wall of love </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="/partners"> Partners </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="/jobs"> Careers </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="navigation-list__item"> <a href="/features" class="navigation-list__link"> Features </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__item"> <a href="https://discover.discourse.org" class="navigation-list__link plausible-event-name=Discover+Nav+Link"> Discover </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__item"> <a href="/enterprise" class="navigation-list__link"> Enterprise </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__item"> <a href="/pricing" class="navigation-list__link"> Pricing </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__item"> <a href="#" aria-haspopup="true" class="navigation-list__link navigation-list__link--has-child"> Resources </a> <ul class="navigation-list__sub-item-list js-dropdown-list" aria-hidden="true" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Resources submenu"> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="https://blog.discourse.org"> Blog </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="https://meta.discourse.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Community </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="https://try.discourse.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Demo sandbox </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="https://blog.discourse.org/tag/getting-started/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Getting started </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="https://blog.discourse.org/tag/community-management/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Community management </a> </li> <li class="navigation-list__sub-item"> <a href="https://blog.discourse.org/tag/use-cases/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Use cases </a> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </nav> </div> </header> <header id="main" class="header-container"> <div class="content-wrapper"> <h1>What is Discourse?</h1> <p class="lead"> Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. We make it easy to have meaningful conversations and collaborate anytime, anywhere. </p> </div> </header> <main> <nav class="main-container"> <ul class="about-faq__list"> <li class="about-faq__list--item"><a href="#exist">Why do we exist?</a></li> <li class="about-faq__list--item"><a href="#different">What’s different about it?</a></li> <li class="about-faq__list--item"><a href="#get-it">How do I get it?</a></li> <li class="about-faq__list--item"><a href="#browser">What are the requirements?</a></li> <li class="about-faq__list--item"><a href="#license">What license is the code under?</a></li> <li class="about-faq__list--item"><a href="#tech">What is it built with?</a></li> </ul> </nav> <div class="stats-wrapper"> <div class="content-wrapper"> <ul class="stats"> <li> <span>20,000</span> websites </li> <li> <span>25</span> countries </li> <li> <span>14</span> million users </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="main-container"> <div id="exist" class="about-faq"> <div class="about-faq__question"> <h3>Why do we exist</h3> </div> <div class="about-faq__answer"> <p> At Discourse, our mission is to democratize online community and teamwork by raising the standard of civilized discourse on the Internet. We achieve this through delivering the best community and forum software. </p> <p>We started in 2013 with <a href="/team#cofounders">3 co-founders</a> unusually passionate about online discussion. Today, we have over <a href="/team">100 team members</a> and are trusted by some of the largest companies in the world.</p> </div> </div> <div id="different" class="about-faq"> <div class="about-faq__question"> <h3>What’s different about it?</h3> </div> <div class="about-faq__answer"> <h4>All-in-one</h4> <p> No more needing multiple providers to build your online community. In addition to our product, our services include hosting, design and custom development, making us a complete solution for all kinds of organizations from small teams to large enterprises. </p> <h4>Multifaceted Communication</h4> <p> Discourse combines the depth of discussion with the immediacy of real-time chat, enhanced by features like expressive emoji reactions and the ability to seamlessly incorporate videos and images, fostering more impactful conversations and valuable resources for your community. </p> <h4>Moderation</h4> <p> Say goodbye to bots, spam, and bad actors. Our trust system means that the community builds a natural immune system to defend itself from trolls, bad actors, and spammers — and the most engaged forum members can assist in the governance of their community. </p> <h4>Customization</h4> <p> Customize everything from button text to email templates with no coding required! We have an extensive list of officially supported plugins and a powerful theming engine that enables you to build out whatever functionality your audience needs. </p> <h4>AI</h4> <p> Community Managers, members and moderators can experience better discussions and easier forum management with our <a href="/plugins/ai">Discourse AI</a> plugin. We offer a wide range of modules that can be enabled independently to assist with a variety of community needs. From summarizing topics and chat channels to getting assistance composing a message to toxicity detection and more. </p> <h4>Open Source</h4> <p> There is only one version of Discourse – <a href="https://github.com/discourse/discourse" target="_blank"><em>the awesome open source version</em></a>. There’s no super secret special paid commercial version with better or more complete features. Our open API can fit into any workflow and can integrate with just about any online platform. It’s your space, your data, your community. </p> </div> </div> <div id="get-it" class="about-faq"> <div class="about-faq__question"> <h3>How do I get it?</h3> </div> <div class="about-faq__answer"> <p> Try our <b><a href="/pricing">official hosting</a></b> (get up and running in less than 5 minutes), host Discourse on your own server using <a href="//blog.discourse.org/2014/04/install-discourse-in-under-30-minutes/"> the 30-minute installation guide</a> or explore services from <a href="/partners"> our partners</a>. </p> <p> Discourse is <a href="https://www.github.com/discourse/discourse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> 100% free open source forum software</a>, now and forever. </p> </div> </div> <div id="browser" class="about-faq"> <div class="about-faq__question"> <h3>What are the minimum browser requirements?</h3> </div> <div class="about-faq__answer"> <p> Discourse is designed for the next 10 years of the Internet, so the minimum browser requirements are high. </p> <p> Discourse supports the <strong>latest, stable releases</strong> of all major browsers and platforms: </p> <ul> <li>Microsoft Edge</li> <li>Google Chrome</li> <li>Mozilla Firefox</li> <li>Apple Safari (including Safari on iOS 15.7+)</li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="license" class="about-faq"> <div class="about-faq__question"> <h3>What license is the code under?</h3> </div> <div class="about-faq__answer"> <p> The <a href="//www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> GNU General Public License, version 2</a>. </p> <p> We happily accept pull requests, however, we do ask that you sign a <a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributor_License_Agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Contributor License Agreement</a> so that we have the right to relicense your contributions. </p> </div> </div> <div id="tech" class="about-faq"> <div class="about-faq__question"> <h3>What was it built with?</h3> </div> <div class="about-faq__answer"> <p> Discourse is a JavaScript application that runs in your web browser, using the <a href="//emberjs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ember.js</a> framework. </p> <p> The server side of Discourse is <a href="//rubyonrails.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ruby on Rails</a> backed by a <a href="//www.postgresql.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Postgres</a> database and <a href="//redis.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Redis</a> cache. You can deploy our standard Discourse <a href="https://docker.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Docker</a> container on any virtualized cloud server (Digital Ocean, Amazon EC2, Rackspace, Azure) with 1 GB RAM. </p> </div> </div> </div> </main> <footer class="site-footer"> <div class="site-footer__wrapper"> <div class="site-footer__top"> <div class="site-footer__col"> <a href="/" class="site-footer__logo"> <img src="/a/img/logo-white.png" alt="Discourse white logo" height="70" />® </a> </div> <div class="site-footer__col"> <h6>Features & Pricing</h6> <ul class="site-footer__list"> <li> <a href="/pricing" class="site-footer__link"> Pricing </a> </li> <li><a href="/features" class="site-footer__link">Features</a></li> <li><a href="/plugins" class="site-footer__link">Plugins</a></li> <li><a href="/ai" class="site-footer__link">Discourse AI</a></li> <li><a href="/migrations" class="site-footer__link">Migrations</a></li> <li><a href="/integrations" class="site-footer__link">Integrations</a></li> <li><a href="https://docs.discourse.org/" class="site-footer__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">API</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="site-footer__col"> <h6>Company</h6> <ul class="site-footer__list"> <li><a href="/about" class="site-footer__link">What is Discourse?</a></li> <li><a href="/team" class="site-footer__link">Who we are</a></li> <li><a href="/customers" class="site-footer__link">Customers</a></li> <li><a href="/wall-of-love" class="site-footer__link">Wall of love</a></li> <li><a href="/partners" class="site-footer__link">Partners</a></li> <li><a href="/jobs" class="site-footer__link">Careers</a></li> <li><a href="https://blog.discourse.org" class="site-footer__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Blog</a></li> <li><a href="/legal" class="site-footer__link">Legal Terms & Notices</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="site-footer__col"> <h6>Community & Support</h6> <ul class="site-footer__list"> <li><a href="https://try.discourse.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="site-footer__link">Demo sandbox</a></li> <li><a href="https://meta.discourse.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="site-footer__link">Community</a></li> <li><a href="/contact" class="site-footer__link">Contact us</a></li> <li><a href="https://blog.discourse.org/tag/updates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="site-footer__link">Releases</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/discourse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="site-footer__link">Follow us on Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/discourse/discourse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="site-footer__link">Discourse on GitHub</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="colophon" class="site-footer__bottom"> <p> Content is by-nc-sa, Discourse® and Discourse Forum™, Copyright © 2024 Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc. 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