Self-Hosting Discourse: Build a Modern Community Forum

Forums aren't dead -- they've just been overshadowed by Discord servers and Reddit communities that control your content and lock it behind walled gardens. Discourse is the most capable open source forum platform available today. It powers communities for projects like Rust, Netlify, Graylog, and thousands of others.

Unlike a Discord server where conversations vanish into an endless scroll, Discourse creates organized, searchable, permanent discussion threads. Unlike Reddit, you own the data and set the rules. If you need a community platform for an open source project, a business, a hobby group, or any community, self-hosted Discourse gives you full control.

What Discourse Offers

Discourse was built from the ground up as a modern reimagining of forum software. Here's what sets it apart from legacy platforms like phpBB or vBulletin:

• Real-time updates -- New posts appear without page refreshes
• Trust levels -- Users automatically earn privileges based on participation, reducing moderation burden
• Threaded and flat discussion -- Topics flow naturally with quoting, replies, and suggested topics
• Rich editor -- Markdown support, drag-and-drop images, oneboxes (URL previews), and code syntax highlighting
• Full-text search -- Fast, accurate search across all content
• Email integration -- Users can reply to topics via email, and new topics can be created by emailing the forum
• Single Sign-On (SSO) -- Integrate with GitHub, Google, SAML, OIDC, or a custom identity provider
• Plugin ecosystem -- Voting, solved topics, chat, calendar, custom layouts, and more
• Moderation tools -- Flagging, post approvals, user suspensions, word filters, and spam prevention
• API -- Full REST API for automation and integration

Installation: The Official Docker Method

Discourse has a strong opinion about installation: use their official Docker-based setup. This isn't a typical Docker Compose workflow -- Discourse uses its own discourse_docker launcher that manages the container lifecycle. While unconventional, this approach is battle-tested and recommended by the Discourse team.

Server Requirements

Discourse is resource-hungry compared to most self-hosted software:

• CPU: 2 cores minimum (4 recommended for active communities)
• RAM: 2 GB minimum (4 GB recommended; 1 GB can work with swap)
• Storage: 20 GB minimum (grows with uploads and posts)
• Email: Working SMTP is required -- Discourse cannot function without it

A $12-24/month VPS (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr) handles most small-to-medium communities well.

Step-by-Step Setup

# Clone the official Discourse Docker manager
sudo -s
git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker.git /var/discourse
cd /var/discourse

Run the setup script:

./discourse-setup

The script will ask for:

• Hostname: forum.yourdomain.com
• Admin email: Your email address (you'll get an activation link)
• SMTP settings: Server, port, username, password

SMTP is not optional. Discourse uses email for account activation, password resets, notifications, and the mailing list feature. If email doesn't work, your forum is effectively broken.

SMTP Options

You need a transactional email service. Options ranked by ease of setup:

Example SMTP configuration for Mailgun:

SMTP server: smtp.mailgun.org
SMTP port: 587
SMTP username: [email protected]
SMTP password: your_mailgun_password

Starting Discourse

After the setup script completes:

./launcher rebuild app

This builds the Docker image, runs database migrations, and starts the application. The first build takes 5-10 minutes. Visit https://forum.yourdomain.com and follow the setup wizard using the admin email you provided.

Docker Compose Alternative

If you prefer a standard Docker Compose setup (for integrating with other containers), it's possible but unsupported by the Discourse team. The official discourse_docker launcher is strongly recommended for production use because it handles Discourse's complex build process and migrations.

For development or testing, the Discourse team provides:

# For testing only -- not recommended for production
services:
  discourse:
    image: discourse/discourse:latest
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - discourse_data:/shared
      - discourse_log:/var/log
    environment:
      - DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME=forum.yourdomain.com
      - DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS=smtp.mailgun.org
      - DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT=587
      - [email protected]
      - DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD=your_password
      - [email protected]
    restart: unless-stopped

  discourse-db:
    image: postgres:15
    volumes:
      - discourse_pg:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: unless-stopped

  discourse-redis:
    image: redis:7
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  discourse_data:
  discourse_log:
  discourse_pg:

Essential Configuration

After the initial setup wizard, here are the settings to configure first (Admin > Settings):

Security

• Force HTTPS: Enable (should be default)
• Minimum password length: Set to 12+
• Enable two-factor authentication: Strongly recommended for admins

User Registration

• Login required: Whether visitors must log in to read content
• Must approve users: Manual approval for new registrations (useful for private communities)
• Invite only: Disable open registration, only allow invited users

Email

• Reply by email: Allow users to reply to notification emails to post (great for increasing engagement)
• Mailing list mode: Users can opt-in to receive every post as an email

Trust Levels

One of Discourse's best features is its automated trust system. New users start at Trust Level 0 and earn higher levels through participation:

This system means your most active, trusted members gradually get moderation powers without you manually promoting them. It significantly reduces the moderation workload for community managers.

Useful Plugins

Discourse has a healthy plugin ecosystem. Some essentials:

• discourse-solved -- Mark topics as solved (great for support forums)
• discourse-voting -- Feature voting for product feedback forums
• discourse-calendar -- Event calendar and scheduling
• discourse-chat -- Built-in real-time chat (Discord-like)
• discourse-reactions -- Emoji reactions on posts beyond the basic "like"
• discourse-data-explorer -- Run SQL queries against your forum data

Install plugins by adding them to your app.yml configuration:

hooks:
  after_code:
    - exec:
        cd: $home/plugins
        cmd:
          - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-solved.git
          - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-voting.git

Then rebuild:

cd /var/discourse
./launcher rebuild app

SSO Integration

Discourse supports several authentication methods:

• Social logins: GitHub, Google, Twitter, Facebook (built-in)
• OIDC/OAuth2: Connect to Keycloak, Authentik, Authelia, or any OIDC provider
• SAML: Enterprise SSO integration
• DiscourseConnect: Discourse's own SSO protocol for making your app the identity provider

For self-hosters running Authentik or Authelia, the OIDC integration is the cleanest path. In Admin > Settings > Login, configure the OIDC provider URL, client ID, and client secret.

Discourse vs Flarum

Flarum is the other major open source forum platform. Here's how they compare:

Choose Discourse if:

• You need a battle-tested platform for a large or growing community
• Email integration is important (mailing list mode, reply by email)
• You want automated moderation through trust levels
• You need rich plugin support
• You have the server resources (2+ GB RAM)

Choose Flarum if:

• You need a lightweight forum on limited hardware
• You prefer PHP hosting (shared hosting works)
• You want a simpler, faster setup process
• Your community is smaller and doesn't need heavy moderation tools
• You prefer a more minimalist aesthetic

Maintenance and Backups

Updating Discourse

cd /var/discourse
git pull
./launcher rebuild app

Updates typically take 5-10 minutes. Discourse has a built-in update notification in the admin dashboard.

Backups

Discourse has built-in backup functionality (Admin > Backups):

• Schedule automatic backups (daily recommended)
• Backups include the database, uploads, and configuration
• Download backups to off-site storage

For belt-and-suspenders protection, also back up the underlying Docker volumes:

cd /var/discourse
./launcher stop app
tar czf discourse_backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz shared/
./launcher start app

Verdict

Discourse is the gold standard for self-hosted community forums. It's opinionated in its installation process and hungry for resources, but what you get in return is a mature, feature-rich platform that can scale from a small hobby community to a major open source project forum. The trust level system alone is worth the setup effort -- it turns your most engaged members into volunteer moderators organically. If you need a serious community platform and have a VPS with 2+ GB of RAM, Discourse is the clear first choice. If you're resource-constrained or want something lighter, look at Flarum.