Forem vs Mbin
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Forem
Open source community platform behind DEV
VS
Mbin
Community-driven fork of the kbin aggregator
| Feature | Forem | Mbin |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 22,760 | ★ 426 |
| First released | 2019 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Discourse, Reddit |
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Forem or Mbin better?
Neither is universally better. Forem has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Forem and Mbin free and open-source?
Yes. Forem is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Mbin under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Forem and Mbin with Docker?
Forem: yes. Mbin: yes.