Commento vs Forem
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted forums & community options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Commento
Privacy-friendly embeddable discussion widget
VS
Forem
Open source community platform behind DEV
| Feature | Commento | Forem |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,781 | ★ 22,760 |
| First released | 2017 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Disqus, Facebook Comments | Discourse, Reddit |
Why pick each one
Choose Commento if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
Choose Forem if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 22.8k GitHub stars
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is Commento or Forem better?
Neither is universally better. Forem has the larger community, while Commento is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Commento and Forem free and open-source?
Yes. Commento is licensed under MIT and Forem under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Commento and Forem with Docker?
Commento: yes. Forem: yes.