Forem vs Lobsters
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?
Forem
Open source community platform behind DEV
VS
Lobsters
Computing-focused link aggregation and discussion site
| Feature | Forem | Lobsters |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Ruby | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 22,760 | ★ 4,814 |
| First released | 2019 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Discourse, Reddit | Reddit, Hacker News |
Why pick each one
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
Choose Lobsters if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Active community (4.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Forem or Lobsters better?
Neither is universally better. Forem has the larger community, while Lobsters is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Forem and Lobsters free and open-source?
Yes. Forem is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Lobsters under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Forem and Lobsters with Docker?
Forem: yes. Lobsters: check the project docs for container support.