Question2Answer 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?
Question2Answer
Free open-source Q&A platform in PHP
VS
Lobsters
Computing-focused link aggregation and discussion site
| Feature | Question2Answer | Lobsters |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,669 | ★ 4,814 |
| First released | 2010 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Stack Overflow, Quora | Reddit, Hacker News |
Why pick each one
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 Question2Answer or Lobsters better?
Neither is universally better. Lobsters has the larger community, while Question2Answer is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Question2Answer and Lobsters free and open-source?
Yes. Question2Answer is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Lobsters under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Question2Answer and Lobsters with Docker?
Question2Answer: yes. Lobsters: check the project docs for container support.