DiscoursevsKong Gateway
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Discourse | Kong Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 | 82/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #1 of 39 in API Gateway |
| GitHub stars | 48 027 | 44 319 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +131 | +129 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 3 |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 | 3.9.4 · 12 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | No |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Ruby | Lua |
Which one should you pick?
Discourse scores 83/100 against 82/100 for Kong Gateway, so it is the safer default.
Kong Gateway ships more often: 3 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for Discourse.
Discourse details →Kong Gateway details →