Forem vs mlmym
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
mlmym
Old-Reddit-style alternative front-end for Lemmy
| Feature | Forem | mlmym |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 22,760 | ★ 287 |
| 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
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 Forem or mlmym better?
Neither is universally better. Forem 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 Forem and mlmym free and open-source?
Yes. Forem is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and mlmym under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Forem and mlmym with Docker?
Forem: yes. mlmym: yes.