# Discourse vs Semantic MediaWiki

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

| | Discourse | Semantic MediaWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 ✓ | 57/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #14 of 31 in Wikis |
| GitHub stars | 48 029 ✓ | 632 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +133 ✓ | +0 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 6 ✓ |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 | 7.3.1 · 28 Sept 2026 ✓ |
| Setup | Moderate ✓ | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes ✓ | No |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Other |
| Main language | Ruby | PHP |

## Which one should you pick?

Discourse scores 83/100 against 57/100 for Semantic MediaWiki, so it is the safer default.

Semantic MediaWiki ships more often: 6 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for Discourse.

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)
- [Semantic MediaWiki](https://selfhost.directory/project/semanticmediawiki) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/semanticmediawiki.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-semanticmediawiki