Discourse vs Hivebrite
No clear leader: Discourse (59.7) and Hivebrite (55.5) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.
Capabilities
Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for community platforms. “-” means undocumented, not absent.
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
Discourse
A free, open-source platform for building online communities that can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure or run on official Discourse hosting, with built-in real-time chat and customizable themes.
Hivebrite
A hosted community management platform for organizations to create engaged communities. Includes member directories, event hosting, real-time messaging, group management, membership and donation processing, mobile applications, integrations with CRM and business systems, and AI-powered member matching and recommendations.
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
Discourse
From $100/month. Free tier available.
- FreeFree
- Unlimited members and chat
- 2 staff seats
- Public and private categories
- Community support
- Pro$100/month, 5 staff seats
- Unlimited members and chat
- Unlimited public and private categories
- Unlimited tags
- Custom groups
- 5 staff seats
- +5 more
- Business$500/month, 15 staff seats
- All Pro features plus:
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Automation
- Events
- Gamification
- +5 more
- EnterpriseContact sales
- All Business features plus:
- Unlimited staff seats
- Expert design and development services
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- 50+ plugins
- +5 more
Hivebrite
From $895/month billed annually. No free tier.
- Core$895/month billed annually
- Unlimited users
- Email campaigns
- Automations & AI
- Hands-on onboarding
- Directory
- +4 more
- Flex$1,995/month billed annually
- Community champions
- Group management
- PrimeContact sales
- Custom FitContact sales
- Deep customization
- Woven workflows
- Extensibility
- Integrations
- Governance
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
Discourse
- Slack
- Telegram
- Discord
- Mattermost
- Matrix
- Zulip
- Rocket.Chat
- Gitter
- Stride
- Microsoft Teams
- Basecamp
- IRC Cloud
- Flock
- Webex
- GitHub
- Google Adsense
- Google Ad Manager
- Amazon Affiliates
- Patreon
- X
- Apple
- Mastodon
- +5 more
Hivebrite
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Zoho
- MemberClicks
- Zapier
- Google Analytics
- Google Tag Manager
- Zoom
- REST API
Discourse or Hivebrite: which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.