Discourse vs mlmym
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Discourse
Modern open-source community discussion platform
VS
mlmym
Old-Reddit-style alternative front-end for Lemmy
| Feature | Discourse | mlmym |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 11 · At risk |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 47,889 | ★ 287 |
| First released | 2013 | 2023 |
| Replaces | phpBB, Reddit |
What are Discourse and mlmym?
Discourse
Discourse is a free, open-source platform for community discussion, forums, and mailing lists. It offers real-time updates, trust levels, and an extensive plugin ecosystem.
- Real-time forum updates
- Trust-level moderation
- Rich plugin ecosystem
- Email-in posting
mlmym
mlmym is a lightweight alternative web interface for Lemmy that mimics the classic old.reddit.com design. It connects to any Lemmy instance and renders a fast, minimal experience.
- Old Reddit style UI
- Works with any Lemmy instance
- Very lightweight
- Fast page loads
Discourse vs mlmym: key differences
Discourse is written in Ruby, while mlmym is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Discourse versus MIT for mlmym. Mlmym is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Discourse. Discourse is the more established project (first released 2013), while mlmym arrived in 2023. Discourse has the considerably larger community, at 47,889 GitHub stars versus 287.
Why pick each one
Choose Discourse if…
- Polished modern UI
- Strong moderation tools
Watch out for
- Resource-hungry
- Opinionated Docker setup
Choose mlmym if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Discourse or mlmym better?
Neither is universally better. Discourse has the larger community, while mlmym is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Discourse and mlmym free and open-source?
Yes. Discourse is licensed under GPL-2.0 and mlmym under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Discourse and mlmym with Docker?
Discourse: yes. mlmym: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Discourse or mlmym?
mlmym has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Discourse. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.