Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Discourse VS WhatsApp

Compare Discourse VS WhatsApp and see what are their differences

Discourse logo Discourse

Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.

WhatsApp logo WhatsApp

WhatsApp Messenger: More than 1 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere.
  • Discourse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-13
  • WhatsApp Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18

Discourse

$ Details
paid Free Trial $100.0 / Monthly
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

WhatsApp

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
free
Platforms
Mobile Desktop
Release Date
2009 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Brian Acton
Employees
1,000 - 1,999

Discourse videos

Why We Chose The Discourse Platform For Our Forums

More videos:

  • Review - Why Discourse is the Best Forum Software Out There (No, Really) | Location Rebel
  • Review - A Grammar Review for Discourse Analysis

WhatsApp videos

WhatsApp Web - Full Review & Tutorial

More videos:

  • Review - How to Use Whatsapp - 2020 Beginner's Guide
  • Review - Whatsapp Web | Everything You Need To Know!
  • Review - What is WhatsApp? A Review
  • Review - What is WhatsApp & How Does it Work? | WhatsApp Guide Part 1

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Discourse and WhatsApp)
Forums
100 100%
0% 0
Communication
0 0%
100% 100
Forums And Forum Software
Messaging
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Discourse and WhatsApp. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Discourse and WhatsApp

Discourse Reviews

20 Telegram Alternatives to Chat With in 2024
Discourse is a basic forum function that could be an alternative to Telegram if you want to stick to text discussions. It's pretty analog, missing both video and livestreaming tools. Instead, Discourse is a basic community that lets you organize discussions--it feels a bit like having your own reddit or Quora.
18 Best Discord Alternatives 2020 | Expert Reviews
Discourse comes in a couple of flavours. You can self-host it yourself in which case the software is free, and you simply need to sign up for server space, or you can pay Discourse for a hosted-for-you option, though self-hosting is a lot cheaper the premium option takes care of the technical side.
IndieHackers: Best forum software
I used Flarum when trying to get a community set up for my product (ended up abandoning it to revisit when we have a larger customer base). It worked fairly well and I enjoyed it but it's definitely beta and unless you're fairly tech savvy it's not quite worth the setup / maintenance. Lots of config changes, crashes, huge issues with plugins, and some features missing. I'd...

WhatsApp Reviews

  1. BEST APP FOR PRIVATE CHATTING

    I AM USING WHATSAPP SINCE 2015 AND STILL CURRENTLY USING IT HELPS ME TO GET IN TOUCH WITH MY FRIEND AND RELATIVES AND NOW IT ALSO HELPS ME TO DO PAYMENT VIA WHATSAPP.

    🏁 Competitors: Skype
    👍 Pros:    Free to use|Easy to use
    👎 Cons:    Nothing, so far

20 Telegram Alternatives to Chat With in 2024
WhatsApp’s other claim to fame is its security features, with end-to-end encryption. These security features, although not perfect, are still considered much better than Telegram’s. WhatsApp does a good job replicating Telegram’s chat features, but isn’t the best replacement for building groups of people who don’t know each other or for live streaming.
10 Best Telegram Alternatives in 2024
Whatsapp is a very famous app similar to Telegram and it is widely used for communication across the world, some of the widely used features also includes group messaging, private or group calls, all can be done through end-end encryption. Apart from these features people also put a status of about 24 hours.
Top 10 Apps like Telegram for Android and IOs [2023]
WhatsApp's recently announced 'community' feature successfully engaged existing users and onboarded numerous communities. WhatsApp has a distinct platform wherein business users can easily interact. It supports up to 2 billion people using it worldwide, allowing you to engage audiences, accelerate sales, and improve customer service outcomes. Furthermore, it enabled...
The best WhatsApp alternatives for 2023
However recent developments have started hammering home WhatsApp's relationship to parent company Facebook. The same Facebook that's almost constantly in the news for some major controversy or another. The controversy over the WhatsApp privacy policy, which many understood to mean WhatsApp would start sharing more information with Facebook — with rumors that the contents of...
The 7 best apps you can use as a WhatsApp alternative
WhatsApp has achieved its widespread global popularity thanks to its multi-platform support, secure encryption, and wide array of communication features. But the app isn't for everyone, and you might be looking for a WhatsApp alternative that mimics many of the best aspects of the app. Here are seven of the best alternatives to WhatsApp.

Social recommendations and mentions

WhatsApp might be a bit more popular than Discourse. We know about 24 links to it since March 2021 and only 23 links to Discourse. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Discourse mentions (23)

  • Qilin: A Starter Project Template For Every Open Source Project
    GitHub Discussions can also be a great place for support as long as these are regularly monitored. Another option along the same lines is Discourse and the Open Source Matrix which is used by quite a few Open Source and community-based projects. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Ask HN: How to run an old-school mailing list?
    A lot of communities use [Discourse ](https://discourse.org). [LPSF](https://forum lpsf.org) migrated to it when Yahoo Groups was discontinued. Some of the advantages are that it's open source, self-hostable, and can be configured to work as both a traditional mailing list and modern forum. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • My Fediverse use – I'm hosting everything myself – PeerTube, Mastodon and Lemmy
    More like https://discourse.org/. You can run it yourself, but I can also just have them ding a credit card every month and not think about it again (I do this for a community). - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Reddit faces content quality concerns after its Great Mod Purge
    Discourse perhaps? I've seen it in use in a few places; it has a modern look and feel to it at least. https://discourse.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • So Long, Twitter and Reddit
    I fully agree with you see my comment here[0] -- I think you may have misread my comment, it says "Discourse" (as in the forum software[1]), not Discord. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37245220. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
View more

WhatsApp mentions (24)

  • User-facing/client-side tools for internet troubleshooting
    Hi everyone. The other day a client of mine's employees started having issues with the "internet not working". After some detective work with traceroute and interviewing them about what sites they were having issues with, I determined that the actual issue was with the web.whatsapp.com service having downtime. I'm mentioning all this because I'm now thinking of making them a small video/article on our intranet... Source: 7 months ago
  • Is WhatsApp Web down in Oman?
    I believe web.whatsapp.com is being blocked by local telecom companies in order to protect their duopoly and keep Oman in tech--stone-age. If fewer people know how else the rest of the world uses the internet, then they don't have to make an effort to improve their offerings. Omantel is definitely blocking this web.whatsapp.com. Source: 7 months ago
  • Open Letter to WhatsApp: Need for a Linux Desktop App
    What's wrong with https://web.whatsapp.com/ ? Source: 7 months ago
  • Best app, like, ever?
    Whatsapp (Free) - chat. Although some people prefer iMessage and other ones. Source: 7 months ago
  • WhatsApp Mac Client - can I have it installed two times?
    Use browser for one account https://web.whatsapp.com/ and app for the other. Source: 8 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Discourse and WhatsApp, you can also consider the following products

Flarum - Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun. It's simple, fast, and free.

Telegram - Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security. It’s superfast, simple and free.

phpBB - Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a cheap, credit-card sized computer. The official website uses phpBB for their discussion forums. phpBB is not affiliated with nor responsible for any of the sites listed on the showcase.

Signal - Fast, simple & secure messaging. Privacy that fits in your pocket.

Vanilla Forums - Build an engaging community forum using Vanilla's modern cloud forum software.

Skype - Stay in touch with your family and friends for free on Skype. Download Skype today to chat and call on desktop and mobile.