# Discourse vs SimpleX Chat

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

| | Discourse | SimpleX Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83/100 ✓ | 74/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #4 of 110 in Chat |
| GitHub stars | 48 024 ✓ | 19 612 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +135 | +142 ✓ |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 12 ✓ |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets · 15 Jul 2026 | v7.0.4 · 3 Oct 2026 ✓ |
| Setup | Moderate ✓ | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Ruby | Haskell |

## Which one should you pick?

Discourse scores 83/100 against 74/100 for SimpleX Chat, so it is the safer default.

SimpleX Chat ships more often: 12 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for Discourse.

## Details

- [Discourse](https://selfhost.directory/project/discourse) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/discourse.md)
- [SimpleX Chat](https://selfhost.directory/project/simplex-chat) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/simplex-chat.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-simplex-chat