Discourse vs Bettermode
Two of the top three customer community platforms, compared rule by rule on published facts.
In short
- Discourse has 93 points and Bettermode 63, 30 apart on our customer community software rules.
- Discourse earns more on price, members and access, moderation and answers, your data and security; Bettermode earns more on connections.
- Cheapest paid plan with a custom domain: Discourse $100/mo, Bettermode $149/mo.
- Only Discourse meets: free plan, unlimited members, accepted answers, open source, self-hosting and two-factor sign-in.
Discourse93/100 #1 of 8
Best for: Companies that want a moderated, open-source support forum on their own domain.
Bettermode63/100 #3 of 8
Best for: Companies that want a branded customer community with CRM and support-desk integrations.
Points by group
| Group | Discourse | Bettermode |
|---|---|---|
| Price of 18 | 13 | 4 |
| Members and access of 23 | 23 | 17 |
| Moderation and answers of 13 | 13 | 6 |
| Connections of 19 | 17 | 19 |
| Your data of 13 | 13 | 6 |
| Security of 14 | 14 | 11 |
| Total | 93 | 63 |
Rule by rule
What each vendor publishes, and the points it earns. Sources are on each product page.
| Rule (points) | Discourse | Bettermode |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan (6) | Yes 6 | No 0 |
| Cheapest paid plan with a custom domain (12) | $100/mo 7 | $149/mo 4 |
| Unlimited members (6) | Yes 6 | No 0 |
| Custom domain (3) | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| Single sign-on (10) | Yes 10 | Yes 10 |
| Groups with their own permissions (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Moderation tools (8) | Report queue, Approve before posting, Ban or suspend members, Spam or word filters 8 | Report queue, Approve before posting, Spam or word filters 6 |
| Accepted answers (5) | Yes 5 | Not published 0 |
| Named integrations (8) | Slack, Salesforce, Zendesk 6 | Slack, Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot 8 |
| Public API (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Webhooks (3) | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| Export your community data (6) | Yes 6 | Yes 6 |
| Open source (4) | Yes 4 | Not published 0 |
| Self-hosting (3) | Yes 3 | Not published 0 |
| SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Written uptime guarantee (3) | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| Two-factor sign-in (3) | Yes 3 | Not published 0 |
Discourse
Discourse suits teams that want an open-source support forum with documented moderation, an API and webhooks. Pro at $100 a month covers a custom domain and unlimited members. It also names SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. The catch: no HubSpot integration is listed, and the written uptime guarantee is Enterprise only.
Bettermode
Bettermode suits companies that want a hosted community on their own domain and can pay for it. Starter costs $149 a month, but webhooks, OAuth2 and the CRM and support-desk integrations start at Growth, at about ten times that price. Member caps apply on every plan, and the vendor pages do not mention two-factor sign-in or marking an accepted answer.
Both products are scored by the same rules: how we score customer community platforms.