Happy Valley

Discourse vs Kommunity

Discourse and Kommunity are both community platforms tools. Discourse is aimed at developers and enterprise, while Kommunity is aimed at creators and small businesses. Both have a free plan.

Discourse

Modern open-source forum software

Kommunity

Community and event platform for RSVPs, tickets and paid memberships

PricingOpen source · $100Freemium
Starting price$100/moNot published
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Built forDevelopers, EnterpriseCreators, Small businesses, Developers
Platformswebweb, ios, android
CountryUS · 2013TR
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 Kommunity if

Meetup-style groups, tech communities and clubs that want free events, RSVPs and discussion in one place.

  • No monthly fee to run communities and free events
  • Events and community discussion in a single product
  • Call for papers support is rare among community tools

Look elsewhere if: Creators building course-heavy paid membership sites or large ticketed festivals (Circle, Mighty Networks, Eventbrite).

Discourse vs Kommunity 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

Kommunity

  • Free$0Communities, events and RSVPs free; 5% fee on earnings plus Stripe
  • CustomCustomAdvanced features and custom terms for high-volume organizers

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

Kommunity · Key features

  • Public, private or secret communities with a discussion feed
  • Free RSVP events or ticketed events with multiple ticket types
  • Waitlists, screening questions and QR code check-in
  • Built-in live streaming for online events
  • Call for papers and speaker management for conferences
  • Paid subscriptions, sponsorships, ads, job posts and donations

Cons

  • 5% fee on paid earnings on top of Stripe fees
  • Paid plan features and pricing are not published
  • Short native integration list beyond Zapier

Discourse vs Kommunity: FAQ

Do Discourse and Kommunity have a free plan?

Yes, both Discourse and Kommunity have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Which is better for small businesses, Discourse or Kommunity?

Kommunity lists small businesses as a core audience, while Discourse is aimed more at developers and enterprise.

Not sure yet?