PieFed 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?
PieFed
Federated discussion and link aggregation platform
VS
Spectrum
Open-source platform for building online communities
| Feature | PieFed | Spectrum |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Python | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 600 | ★ 10,837 |
| First released | 2023 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Discord, Discourse |
Why pick each one
Choose PieFed if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
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
Frequently asked questions
Is PieFed or Spectrum better?
Neither is universally better. Spectrum has the larger community, while PieFed is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are PieFed and Spectrum free and open-source?
Yes. PieFed is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Spectrum under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run PieFed and Spectrum with Docker?
PieFed: yes. Spectrum: yes.