--- title: Discourse canonical: https://saasranked.com/software/discourse/ category: Customer Community Software points: 93 rank: 1 of 8 facts_checked: 2026-10-09 --- # Discourse Open-source forum software with a free hosted plan and unlimited members from $100 a month. 93 points out of 100. #1 of 8 customer community platforms. Vendor: Civilized Discourse Construction Kit. Website: https://www.discourse.org/ - A free hosted plan exists, with 2 staff seats, 500k page views a month and 5GB storage [1]. - Pro costs $100 a month and adds a custom domain, API and webhook access, with unlimited members [1]. - SSO with OpenID and OAuth2 is listed from the $500 Business plan; DiscourseConnect is offered to Pro, Business and Enterprise [1][6]. - Discourse names SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2013 on its security page [4]. - The software is open source under GPL-2.0 and has an install guide for self-hosting [3]. Verdict: Discourse suits teams that want an open-source support forum with documented moderation, an API and webhooks [1][5][8]. Pro at $100 a month covers a custom domain and unlimited members [1]. It also names SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 [4]. The catch: no HubSpot integration is listed, and the written uptime guarantee is Enterprise only [1]. Best for: Companies that want a moderated, open-source support forum on their own domain. ## Points | Criterion | Line | Value | Points | Note | |---|---|---|---|---| | Price | Free plan | Yes | 6/6 | A free hosted plan is listed; the page does not describe it as a trial or give an end date [1]. | | Price | Cheapest paid plan with a custom domain | $100/mo | 7/12 | Pro, $100 a month, includes a custom domain. No yearly price shown [1]. | | Members and access | Unlimited members | Yes | 6/6 | Pro lists unlimited members at $100 a month [1]. | | Members and access | Custom domain | Yes | 3/3 | Custom domain is listed on Pro [1]. | | Members and access | Single sign-on | Yes | 10/10 | Business lists SSO (OpenID and OAuth2); DiscourseConnect, a signed-payload SSO, is offered to Pro and up [1][6]. | | Members and access | Groups with their own permissions | Yes | 4/4 | Pro lists custom groups and private categories; features page lists self-managing usergroups [1][2]. | | Moderation and answers | Moderation tools | Report queue, Approve before posting, Ban or suspend members, Spam or word filters | 8/8 | Flag queue [2]; approval of new users' posts and Watched Words [9]; suspension of users [10]. | | Moderation and answers | Accepted answers | Yes | 5/5 | Discourse Solved lets authors and staff mark a reply as the solution; bundled with core [7]. | | Connections | Named integrations | Slack, Salesforce, Zendesk | 6/8 | Official Zendesk and Salesforce plugins; official chat integrations plugin supports Slack. No HubSpot found [11][12][13]. | | Connections | Public API | Yes | 8/8 | Pro lists API access; Discourse points to a documented API site [1][5]. | | Connections | Webhooks | Yes | 3/3 | Pro lists webhook access; docs describe events such as post_created sent by HTTP POST [1][8]. | | Your data | Export your community data | Yes | 6/6 | Pricing FAQ says you can back up all data from your browser at any time [1]. | | Your data | Open source | Yes | 4/4 | Licensed under GPL-2.0 or later on GitHub [3]. | | Your data | Self-hosting | Yes | 3/3 | The repository links an install guide for production setups [3]. | | Security | SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 | Yes | 8/8 | Security page names SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2013 [4]. | | Security | Written uptime guarantee | Yes | 3/3 | Enterprise lists a 99.9% uptime guarantee [1]. | | Security | Two-factor sign-in | Yes | 3/3 | Features page describes authenticator apps for account security [2]. | ## Plans | Plan | Price | Per month (USD) | |---|---|---| | Free | Free [1] | $0 | | Pro | $100/month [1] | $100 | | Business | $500/month [1] | $500 | | Enterprise | Quote [1] | - | The pricing page lists monthly prices only; no yearly billing is shown [1]. ## Strengths - Unlimited members on every plan, including Pro at $100 a month [1]. - Names SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2013, with a public bug bounty on HackerOne [4]. - Documented REST API and webhooks for post, topic and user events [5][8]. - Free to self-host under GPL-2.0, with an install guide [3]. - Official plugins for Zendesk and Salesforce, and chat integrations that include Slack [11][12][13]. ## Limits - The free plan has 2 staff seats, 10 categories and 5GB of storage [1]. - Salesforce plugin is available on Enterprise plans only [13]. - The pricing page lists OpenID and OAuth2 SSO from the $500 Business plan, and SAML at an added cost [1]. - The 99.9% uptime guarantee is listed only on the quote-priced Enterprise plan [1]. ## Sources 1. [Discourse pricing](https://www.discourse.org/pricing), Discourse, accessed 2026-10-09 2. [Discourse features](https://www.discourse.org/features), Discourse, accessed 2026-10-09 3. [discourse/discourse](https://github.com/discourse/discourse), GitHub, accessed 2026-10-09 4. [Discourse security](https://www.discourse.org/security), Discourse, accessed 2026-10-09 5. [Discourse API documentation](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-api-documentation/22706), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 6. [DiscourseConnect (official single sign-on)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourseconnect-official-single-sign-on-for-discourse-sso/13045), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 7. [Discourse Solved (accepted answer plugin)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-solved-accepted-answer-plugin/30155), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 8. [What are webhooks and how to use them](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-webhooks-and-how-to-use-them/49045), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 9. [Tips for preventing spam](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-preventing-spam/264020), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 10. [Consequences of warnings, silencing and suspensions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/consequences-of-warnings-silencing-and-suspensions/283019), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 11. [Discourse Zendesk](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-zendesk/68005), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 12. [Discourse Chat Integrations](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-chat-integrations/66522), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09 13. [Discourse Salesforce](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-salesforce/218267), Discourse Meta, accessed 2026-10-09