Question2Answer 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?
Question2Answer
Free open-source Q&A platform in PHP
VS
Spectrum
Open-source platform for building online communities
| Feature | Question2Answer | Spectrum |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,669 | ★ 10,837 |
| First released | 2010 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Stack Overflow, Quora | Discord, Discourse |
Why pick each one
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 Question2Answer or Spectrum better?
Neither is universally better. Spectrum 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 Spectrum free and open-source?
Yes. Question2Answer is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Spectrum under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Question2Answer and Spectrum with Docker?
Question2Answer: yes. Spectrum: yes.