InfratoApp / Resources / Open-source alternatives / Circle

Open-source alternatives to Circle

4 open-source projects are offered as replacements for Circle. Discourse is the most starred. Running one yourself trades the subscription for your own hosting and upkeep, so the table below leads with what decides that trade: whether the project is alive, what its licence lets a business do, and whether there is a container command to start from.

4 / 4

Pushed in the last 90 days

0 / 4

With a container command

1 / 4

Permissive licence

Circle’s own site ↗

Side by side

Open-source alternatives to Circle
Project	Stars	Activity	Licence	Self-host	Language
Discourse	47,988	Active	Copyleft	○	Ruby
Forem	22,800	Active	Network copyleft	○	Ruby
Flarum	6,759	Active	Permissive	○	PHP
phpBB	2,101	Active	Copyleft	○	PHP

Each one, briefly

Discourse47,988 stars · copyleft · active
A platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple.
Also replaces Tribe
Forem22,800 stars · network copyleft · active
For empowering community 🌱
Also replaces Tribe
Flarum6,759 stars · permissive · active
Simple forum software for building great communities.
Also replaces Tribe
phpBB2,101 stars · copyleft · active
phpBB Development: phpBB is a popular open-source bulletin board written in PHP. This repository also contains the history of version 2.
Also replaces Tribe

Where this comes from

Which projects are offered against Circle comes from opensourcealternative.to, re-read weekly. Every figure in the table is read from the project’s own repository. We have not run these projects, and we hold no price for Circle. Browse every open-source alternative.