Discoursevspolar
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Discourse | polar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 | 71/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #1 of 13 in Billing |
| GitHub stars | 48 027 | 10 436 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +131 | +157 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 1 |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 | @polar-sh/cli@3.0.0 · 16 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Advanced |
| Official Docker image | Yes | No |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Ruby | Python |
Which one should you pick?
Discourse scores 83/100 against 71/100 for polar, so it is the safer default.
If you want the quickest setup, Discourse is easier to run; polar needs more configuration.
Discourse details →polar details →