# Discourse

> Discourse is an open-source community platform for online discussion, founded in 2013 by Stack Overflow co-founder Jeff Atwood with Robin Ward and Sam Saffron. Built on Ruby on Rails and Ember.js, it powers more than 22,000 communities - from tech companies like OpenAI, Zoom and GitLab to hobbyist forums - and is offered both as free self-hosted software under the GPL and as managed hosting. The company, legally Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc. (CDCK), runs as a fully remote team spread across more than 20 countries and makes money by hosting and supporting the communities its own code makes free to run.

- **Founded:** 2013
- **Headquarters:** Fully remote (no headquarters); incorporated in the United States
- **Founders:** Jeff Atwood (Co-founder, Executive Chairman (former CEO); co-founder of Stack Overflow), Robin Ward (Co-founder, technical / lead front-end (Ember.js)), Sam Saffron (Co-founder, Co-CEO)
- **Team size:** ~79 employees across 23 countries and 16 timezones (fully remote)
- **Products:** Discourse (open-source platform), Discourse Managed Hosting, Discourse AI, Discourse Chat, DiscourseHub mobile apps
- **Notable:** Grew to power more than 22,000 communities worldwide, Adopted by leading tech companies including OpenAI, Zoom, GitLab, Atlassian and Nvidia, Built and maintained a fully open-source (GPL) platform continuously since 2013

## Products & services

- **Discourse (open-source platform)** — Free, GPL-licensed community/forum software built on Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Redis and Ember.js. Self-host it anywhere with full data ownership.
- **Discourse Managed Hosting** — Official paid hosting and support with flat, no-per-seat pricing across Free, Starter, Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers.
- **Discourse AI** — AI features including thread summarization, semantic search, semantic suggested topics, an AI composer helper, and toxicity/sentiment/NSFW detection, using OpenAI/Anthropic APIs or CDCK-hosted open models.
- **Discourse Chat** — Real-time chat and direct messaging alongside threaded discussion, blending synchronous and asynchronous conversation.
- **DiscourseHub mobile apps** — Native iOS and Android apps for browsing and managing multiple Discourse communities.

## Achievements

- Grew to power more than 22,000 communities worldwide
- Adopted by leading tech companies including OpenAI, Zoom, GitLab, Atlassian and Nvidia
- Built and maintained a fully open-source (GPL) platform continuously since 2013
- Raised a $20M Series A in 2021 led by Pace Capital
- Operates a 79-person fully remote team across 23 countries with no headquarters
- Shipped Discourse AI in 2023 with privacy-preserving, self-hostable model options

## Latest updates

- **2023-04** — Launched Discourse AI, adding summarization, semantic search, an AI composer helper and toxicity detection with self-hostable model options.
- **2023-02** — Leadership transition: Jeff Atwood became Executive Chairman; Sam Saffron and Sarah Hawk became Co-CEOs.
- **2021-08** — Announced a $20M Series A led by Pace Capital with participation from First Round Capital.

## Links

- Website: https://www.discourse.org
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/civilized-discourse-construction-kit-inc/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/discourse
- GitHub: https://github.com/discourse/discourse
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@discourse
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/discourse.org

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/discourse
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-06