Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to My forum project; a different philosophy than Discourse
tl;dr: http://pony-forum.com, forums are in again, baby! Longer version that breaks character limit: https://gist.github.com/ndarville/4753948 I was abroad earlier last week, so I unfortunately was not there to join in on the discussion of Jeff Atwood’s Discourse[1]. Discourse has received a lot of attention, and revitalizing the forum software of yore is suddenly part of the public conversation. As such, I feel I should bring your attention to my own forever project[2], which has been years in the making from the idea stage. I am not planning on “launching” it any time soon, but the…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. My forum project; a different philosophy than Discourse launched in 2013; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
Discourse 2.0▲291Civilized discussion for your community, redesigned ✨
2018 · blog.discourse.org · its alternatives →
- 2
Hi, I'm Will. I'm 24, autistic, and have OCD tendencies. I'm learning to code and this is my first public project. I’d really appreciate your feedback and encouragement! This project lets me solve some of my OCD problems online. There are a couple of parts of the forums that I visit – Space Battles, Sufficient Velocity, and Questionable Questing – that I want to remove. Specifically, I hate seeing indicators of how much is left in a forum thread, because I keep thinking about how much content is left. It stops me from immersing myself in the story. It stressed me out. Before I learned to…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 3
Lightweight alternative to Discourse written in Nim - nim-lang/nimforum
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4MW
2012 · texodus.github.com · its alternatives →
- 5
Discourse▲43New open source discussion platform from Jeff Atwood.
2014 · discourse.org · its alternatives →
- 6
I built this last year but never posted it anywhere, but now with Reddit hiatus it seems like the right time to give it a shot. The main goal of zsync is to foster high quality content and discussion. That's it. If it can't accomplish that, then to me it is a failure. I watched Reddit go from having high quality discussion in 2008-9 to devolving into the PC meme dumpster it is today [1]. HN still has the highest discussion quality of any "forum" I know of, but (1) it can sometimes randomly be very hostile/toxic to new tech, the most glaring example being crypto. (2) HN is basically a…
2023 · zsync.xyz · its alternatives →
- 7
- 8
Clevr▲147My friend and i built this because we were trying to just learn things in a more fun and interactive way. We think there's a community we could build around this? And there's definitely a lot of work to do. Super curious to see what you guys think, and where we can make the learning experience better.
2025 · theclevr.com · its alternatives →
- 9DA
I built Discuo, a unique discussion platform that combines: - Infinite thread branching: conversations evolve naturally in multiple directions - 24h post lifespan: all content auto-deletes after 24 hours - No account needed: just start posting or commenting instantly - Complete anonymity: no tracking, no personal data collection - Minimalist design: distraction-free, focused on pure discussion Originally created for developers to share progress and discuss code, it evolved into a platform covering various topics while maintaining its minimalist essence.
2025 · discuo.com · its alternatives →
- 10
This is a completely modified SMF forum. What do you think?
2021 · its alternatives →
- 11MW
Hey all, just wanted to invite you to take a spin on this project I've been working on recently. To give you a bit of context, I'm a Pinterest/Tumblr/Svpply user but found that it's all still sub-optimal. The experience of these, I guess 'social' things, is still always about "me, me, me": Pin things I like, post items I like, I want this and that etc. My point is, in my experience, this got boring relatively quickly. Plus, when I log in to Pinterest for example, it's this wall of sound of relatively (albeit nice looking) yet random things. Anyways, a few weeks back, my roommate happened to…
2012 · letsflair.com, · its alternatives →
- 12
It’s written in Python and I call it GoalChain. It lets you build a conversation flow graph that the user traverses. When there’s enough input it spits out a dictionary with the defined fields. Otherwise it will jump state to state as led by the user. It was fun to write, and it’s surprisingly effective if you keep in mind you’re prompt-engineering every string and field name. README.md has a mini-tutorial. Would be cool to get some ideas for how to build it further and what improvements I could make.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 13CO
Check out my (sort-of) weekend project . . . And by weekend project, I mean something that I thought sounded like a small idea that I could throw together over one or two weekends, but ended up taking over six months. This is a bit of a long submission, but after lurking on HN for the last few years, I thought this might be a chance to contribute something back. I’m just going to briefly discuss why my “weekend project” took so long, and how I got where I am. The url is http://dudmail.com - it's a disposable email site. Similar in intention/scope to the many existing ones out there, but…
2011 · dudmail.com · its alternatives →
- 14
GOAT▲9We are building GOAT, a new open-source platform for social debate. Our goal was to create a modern and more engaging space for discussions, moving beyond traditional forums. We wanted to build a place where conversations are not only intelligent but also fun. To make it more engaging, we added features like interactive 3D achievement badges that you earn as you participate. We also integrated AI that lets you create a unique profile picture just by typing a description of what you want. Behind the scenes, AI also helps keep the discussions constructive. The platform is live, and as it's…
2025 · goat.uz · its alternatives →
- 15MA
I wanted to create a much simpler alternative to community forums, something which makes it easy to read and find information. - Muny has three basic blocks: Discussions, Comments and Threads, that’s pretty much it! - You can also import your existing posts from Github Discussions and Discourse. - Here’s an example of Plausible.io’s Github discussions imported in to Muny: https://plausible.muny.im - Feel free to add comments and start discussions on https://community.muny.im with ideas & feedback If you’d like to set up your own community, use the link on…
2023 · muny.im · its alternatives →
- 16
Well HN, I've finally produced something I think is worthy of sharing, but I didn't do it "in a weekend". Yeah, it's an iOS puzzle game. And yeah, it's a game I built because I wanted to play it rather than based on market research, so all this sort of makes it the antithesis of a popular HN post. But whatever. Still hoping for some of that patented (har har) expert HN feedback. Critique any part of it except the music. Also, PM me for upgrade codes, or I can post some here if there's any interest. Download (it's free):…
2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 17MS
linkrdr (www.linkrdr.com), a personal link aggregator, was directly inspired by http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3555923 I read while browsing on HN. It's still a bit rough, but the concept is an interesting one and people have already shown interest. Let me know what you think. Also, if anyone knows a good UX designer, email me :)
2012 · its alternatives →
- 18
Lightweight alternative to Discourse written in Nim - nim-lang/nimforum
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19S
We’re about to start promoting our coming soon landing pages and wanted to get some feedback from the HN community first. http://soupnextdoor.com - Marketplace for dinner parties We’re running a competition about where our launch will be. This will give us something to promote other than the fact that we’re coming soon and hopefully get some conversation started. We’re looking for feedback across the board. UI, color scheme, browser compatibility issues, problems with our idea, marketing ideas, issues with how we’ve worded things, etc We’ve left Django in debug mode for the time being so if…
2011 · soupnextdoor.com · its alternatives →
- 20YA
I must say I was encouraged to post my project here when I saw the positive response to this post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3780731 Before you make any comments, please keep in mind that the project is written for fun. I'm not forcing anyone to use it. In fact, nobody should use the current unstable version in a serious project. Here is the link: http://github.com/bsg/libserv Please share your thoughts. All criticisms are welcome, even the harsh ones. p.s. The project is still a work-in-progress.
2012 · its alternatives →
- 21RM
I'm trying to come up with a semi-stealth "about" for my newest project. The point is to give a little (clever) insight on the project, but not to give the farm away. Please let me know what you think... "Want to pay $34/month or get roped into a six month contract? We know the perfect match for you. But it's NOT us. Want to answer more than 400 pointless questions? We know a place that can give you such harmony. But it's NOT us. Want to join a site that's all about free and all about flakes? We know a great spot for you to fish. But it's NOT us. AKChances is different. And different is…
2011 · akchances.com · its alternatives →
- 22NF
Hi, I spent the last couple of months developing OurClubFundraiser(http://www.ourclubfundraiser.com) and launched it about two weeks ago.I would love to get some feedback from the HN community on how I could improve the site and tweak the concept. Since launching I have found that: 1) I am not getting enough visits(Average around 5 a day) 2) Any of the visits I do get are not converting. I am working on 1) and will hopefully be able to dramatically increase the number of visits over the next few weeks. I could really do with some third party perspectives on point 2. 1)Is the concept not…
2012 · ourclubfundraiser.com · its alternatives →
- 23MS
Hi all, I have always wanted to create a community dedicating to creating the work place more positive. Right now, it's only jokes. I am working on a revision of this that will just place the community page right in front and do away with the landing page. I welcome and appreciate any cheesy thoughts, critiques or suggestions you might have. In the pipeline: jokes, quotes and ideas on how to make the work place more positive! -V.
2012 · officecheese.com · its alternatives →
- 24MH
Back in October, the "HN Make November Launch an App Month" discussion was started and it sounded like a great opportunity, so I joined the Facebook group and decided to build my take on an iOS version of the classic Quotefalls puzzle game, thinking I would learn a ton and it would be a great way to get my feet wet with making, marketing, and managing my own software. A week before the group presentation (end of Nov.), I took my project off the project list because I was nowhere near finished. One of the many great things I’ve learned in all this is how easy it is to justify all the feature…
2011 · quotiac.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- Discourse 2.0 alternatives
- My first programming project – userscripts to change forum UIs alternatives
- NimForum – A lightweight alternative to Discourse alternatives
- My "weekend" project, an ML dialect and compiler alternatives
- Discourse alternatives
- Zsync, a Reddit Alternative with the Goal to Reward Quality Comments alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →