# Discourse vs nginx-love

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | Discourse | nginx-love |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 ✓ | 50/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #3 of 3 in Web Application Firewall |
| GitHub stars | 48 029 ✓ | 312 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +133 ✓ | +0 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 1 |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 ✓ | v4.01 · 31 Oct 2025 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes ✓ | No |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Ruby | Typescript |

## Which one should you pick?

Discourse scores 83/100 against 50/100 for nginx-love, so it is the safer default.

Discourse is growing faster right now (+133 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [Discourse](https://selfhost.directory/project/discourse) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/discourse.md)
- [nginx-love](https://selfhost.directory/project/nginx-love) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/nginx-love.md)

## Related comparisons

- [Discourse vs Rocket.Chat](https://selfhost.directory/compare/discourse-vs-rocketchat)
- [Discourse vs Zulip](https://selfhost.directory/compare/discourse-vs-zulip)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/discourse-vs-nginx-love