A social network, not a forum
Spaces for teams, chapters or cohorts, each with a stream, wiki, files, calendar, tasks and polls; member profiles and a directory; direct messaging; a mobile app. Discussions are one part of it.
Discourse is excellent open-source forum software, and its hosting is fair. HumHub, also open source, is a social network for organizations: spaces with their own stream, wiki, files and calendar, member profiles and directory, a mobile app. CUZY hosts it with single sign-on and every module on every plan.
Discourse is open-source forum software (topics, replies, categories, trust levels) with a hosting offer by its makers in free, Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers, sized by page views and storage, with a limited plugin set per tier and a choice between global and EU hosting regions.
Facts about Discourse come from the vendor's own pages, checked in September 2026: Discourse pricing, Discourse security, Discourse Meta: DiscourseConnect, Discourse AI. Prices are those published by the vendor (US dollars); they may have changed since. Tell us about an error on the contact page and we correct it.
An open-source social network and intranet platform (spaces, streams, wiki, files, calendar, tasks, polls, messaging, member directory, mobile app), extended by the HumHub marketplace and by every CUZY module, hosted by CUZY on dedicated servers in the region you choose, with a flat price and unlimited members.
The questions a buyer, an IT reviewer or a data-protection officer asks both vendors.
| Criterion | Discourse | HumHub hosted by CUZY |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Hosted: Free (500k page views, 5 GB, 2 staff), Pro $100/month (20 GB, 5 staff), Business $500/month (100 GB, 15 staff), Enterprise on quote; unlimited members; self-hosting is free | Team €90/month or €900/year, Business €450/month or €4,500/year, unlimited members, 14-day free trial |
| Fees on payments | No transaction fee; tiers are gated by storage, staff seats and plugins | None. Payments made with the eCommerce module go through your own Stripe account; CUZY takes no commission |
| Single sign-on | DiscourseConnect (Discourse's own SSO protocol) from the Pro plan; standard OAuth2 and SAML through plugins from the Business plan on hosting; everything available when self-hosted | On every plan, trial included, through OpenID Connect and OAuth modules (Keycloak, Microsoft Entra, Google, LinkedIn, GitHub) and SAML-capable identity providers |
| API | API and webhooks from the Pro plan | HumHub REST API module on every plan |
| Open source | Open source (GPL) and free to self-host | Yes. HumHub under the AGPL, every CUZY module with public source code. 100% of the code can be taken away |
| Data ownership and exit | Full backups downloadable by administrators; the software runs anywhere | Complete export of the database and files from the dashboard, once a day, on every paid plan; recreate the same platform self-hosted or on HumHub's own hosting |
| Hosting region and isolation | Data centers in the United States, the European Union (Dublin) or Canada; encrypted backups to Amazon S3 twice a day with a daily restore test; SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Dedicated servers in the region you choose, Germany (EU), the USA or Singapore (APAC); one isolated stack per community; encrypted backups with a second provider in the same region |
| Extensibility | Plugins and themes, a limited number per hosting tier (15+ on Pro, 20+ on Business, 50+ on Enterprise) | The whole HumHub marketplace plus every CUZY module on every plan; custom modules and themes on Business after review |
| AI and your content | Discourse AI (summaries, search, moderation, translation) with a hosted open-weights model included in hosting, or your own provider; the vendor states it never trains on your data | No AI reads your members' content. CUZY uses AI only for its own operations (anonymized technical logs, support ticket text), as stated in the privacy policy |
Spaces for teams, chapters or cohorts, each with a stream, wiki, files, calendar, tasks and polls; member profiles and a directory; direct messaging; a mobile app. Discussions are one part of it.
On Discourse hosting, standard OAuth2 or SAML sign-in needs the $500/month Business tier (Pro offers Discourse's own protocol). On CUZY, OpenID Connect and OAuth sign-in are on the trial and on Team.
The whole HumHub marketplace and all CUZY modules on every plan, custom modules on Business.
Germany (EU), the USA or Singapore (APAC), each community in its own stack with its own encrypted backups.
Like Discourse, HumHub is open source and fully exportable: you are choosing between two platforms you own, not between owning and renting.
Discourse is the better fit for a public, high-traffic discussion forum or support community where long-form threaded conversation, trust levels and moderation tooling are the whole point, and where a forum shape is what members expect.
Start a free trial, import members and content with our help, connect your identity provider, and run both platforms side by side until you are ready. Subscribers can export everything from CUZY once a day, so the move is never a one-way door. Tell us about your current setup and we assess what can be carried over.
For an organization's internal network or a member community, yes: HumHub adds spaces, profiles, files, wiki, calendar and a mobile app to discussions. For a public discussion forum, Discourse remains a strong choice. Both are open source and exportable.
Spaces with streams, comments, polls and the Questions module cover most forum use cases; long threaded debates with thousands of participants are Discourse's specialty.
Yes. HumHub is licensed under the AGPL, CUZY modules are dual-licensed (commercial through the marketplace, AGPL from source), and a community hosted by CUZY can be exported and self-hosted at any time.
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Two weeks with every module and single sign-on, no card asked. Keep everything when you subscribe, export everything if you leave.