Commento vs Spectrum
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
Spectrum
Open-source platform for building online communities
| Feature | Commento | Spectrum |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,781 | ★ 10,837 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Disqus, Facebook Comments | Discord, Discourse |
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 Spectrum if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 10.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Commento or Spectrum better?
Neither is universally better. Spectrum 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 Spectrum free and open-source?
Yes. Commento is licensed under MIT and Spectrum under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Commento and Spectrum with Docker?
Commento: yes. Spectrum: yes.