# Discourse vs paymenter

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

| | Discourse | paymenter |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 ✓ | 68/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #3 of 13 in Billing |
| GitHub stars | 48 027 ✓ | 2 811 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +131 | +500 ✓ |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 14 ✓ |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 | v1.5.9 · 2 Oct 2026 ✓ |
| Setup | Moderate ✓ | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Main language | Ruby | PHP |

## Which one should you pick?

Discourse scores 83/100 against 68/100 for paymenter, so it is the safer default.

paymenter ships more often: 14 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for Discourse.

paymenter is growing faster right now (+500 stars in 30 days).

## Details

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

## Related comparisons

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

---
Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/discourse-vs-paymenter