SHSelfHostIndex

Discuit 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?
DI Discuit Open-source community discussion platform VS SP Spectrum Open-source platform for building online communities
FeatureDiscuitSpectrum
CategoryForums & CommunityForums & Community
LicenseAGPL-3.0BSD-3-Clause
LanguageTypeScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcedocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 546★ 10,837
First released20232017
ReplacesRedditDiscord, Discourse

Why pick each one

Choose Discuit if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in TypeScript
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Discuit details

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
Spectrum details

Frequently asked questions

Is Discuit or Spectrum better?

Neither is universally better. Spectrum has the larger community, while Discuit is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Discuit and Spectrum free and open-source?

Yes. Discuit is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Spectrum under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Discuit and Spectrum with Docker?

Discuit: yes. Spectrum: yes.

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