DiscoursevsPulse
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Discourse | Pulse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 | 71/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #2 of 19 in Infrastructure Monitoring |
| GitHub stars | 48 024 | 6 973 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +135 | +232 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 43 |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 | helm-chart-6.6.0 · 25 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Easy |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Main language | Ruby | Go |
Which one should you pick?
Discourse scores 83/100 against 71/100 for Pulse, so it is the safer default.
Pulse ships more often: 43 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for Discourse.
If you want the quickest setup, Pulse is easier to run; Discourse needs more configuration.
Discourse details →Pulse details →