Compare a real-time chat platform against a structured, searchable forum built for long-form discussion.
Pick Discord when momentum and real-time conversation are the goal — it's where most developer communities already are. Pick Discourse when answers need to be searchable a year later — open-source projects, support forums, and any community where Google indexing the archive matters more than chat liveness.
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| Attribute | Discourse | Discord |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Collaboration | Collaboration |
| Pricing Model | open-source | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free | Free |
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open Source | Yes | No |
| Platforms | — | — |
