Discourse vs Guild
Discourse and Guild are both community platforms tools. Discourse is aimed at developers and enterprise, while Guild is aimed at enterprise and small businesses. Only Discourse has a free plan.
Discourse
Modern open-source forum software
Guild
Professional community platform, closed in October 2024
| Pricing | Open source · $100 | Paid |
| Starting price | $100/mo | Not published |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Built for | Developers, Enterprise | Enterprise, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web | web, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2013 | GB · 2017 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Discourse if
Companies and projects that want durable, searchable community knowledge.
- Searchable, SEO-friendly knowledge
- Open source and self-hostable
- Mature moderation
Look elsewhere if: Casual real-time chat communities (Discord).
Choose Guild if
Nobody; the product no longer exists.
- Professional focus
- Privacy
- No ads
Look elsewhere if: Any community; pick Circle, Bettermode or Slack instead.
Discourse vs Guild pricing
Discourse
- Self-hosted$0Open source (GPL), run on your own servers
- Free$0Hosted; 2 staff seats, 500k page views, 5 GB storage
- Pro$100/mo5 staff seats, 20 GB storage, 15+ plugins
- Business$500/mo15 staff seats, 100 GB storage, priority support
- EnterpriseCustomUnlimited staff, 1M+ page views, 99.9% uptime
Guild
Discourse · Key features
- Threaded discussions with categories and tags
- Trust levels and moderation tools
- Real-time chat channels
- Discourse AI: summaries, search, related topics
- SSO and API
- Plugins and themes
Cons
- Less real-time feel than Discord
- Self-hosting requires maintenance
- Hosted plans pricey at scale
Guild · Key features
- Professional groups (historical)
- Messaging (historical)
- Events (historical)
- Member profiles (historical)
- Moderation (historical)
- Ad-free (historical)
Cons
- Service closed on October 1, 2024
- No longer available to new or existing users
- Communities had to migrate elsewhere
Discourse vs Guild: FAQ
Do Discourse and Guild have a free plan?
Discourse has a free plan. Guild has no free plan.
Which is better for small businesses, Discourse or Guild?
Guild lists small businesses as a core audience, while Discourse is aimed more at developers and enterprise.