Small business▼−7Since September 2026: 18% → 12%, −7 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
12%from 18% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 4 pointsRank 3 of 74, unchanged
2 categories · RankedDiscourse
131Judge labels
26First choices
10Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
2Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10-05.2, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
18% in Community for mid-market buyers
Rank 2 of 75 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 6% of its 49 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Discourse →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business3 of 76
16%52 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market2 of 75
18%49 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise5 of 69
11%29 labels
accepted challenger
In community · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Discourse for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community platforms | Customer | 18% | 2 of 75 | 6% | 49 | accepted challenger | ▲+4Since September 2026: 13% → 16%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Customer education and LMS | Customer | 0% | 45 of 86 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by LearnUpon at 26% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Discourse held within the floor in all two categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Community · by segment
Mid-market▲+4Since September 2026: 13% → 16%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
16%from 13% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 7 pointsRank 4 → 2 of 67
Enterprise▲+5Since September 2026: 6% → 10%, +5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
10%from 6% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 6 pointsRank 5 → 6 of 63
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community | 13% | 16% | ▲+4Since September 2026: 13% → 16%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 4 → 2 of 75 |
| Customer education | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 45 of 86, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Discourse across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Discourse across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Grok 4.20 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct22 labels1
Paraphrase21 labels2
Comparative24 labels4not counted in share
Budget-constrained31 labels20
Scale-constrained18 labels3
Negative15 labels5not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative131 labels in all, every segment counted; 26 of the 35 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Discourse (especially if self-hosted) and Bettermode (depending on the plan) are highly recommended for budget-conscious organizations” Mistral Small · Community · budget prompt · first choice
“the best choice is usually Discourse... If your budget is very tight, the best value answer is Discourse” Perplexity Sonar · Community · budget prompt · first choice
“If you need a truly free, owned community today, self-hosted Discourse is the most mature open-source option.” Muse Glimmer 30B · Community · budget prompt · first choice
“look for tools that hit the "middle ground"... (e.g., Discourse for open-source and SEO-heavy forums” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Community · negative prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Highly extensible, lower cost ... but requires more technical resources” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Community · scale prompt · soft negative
“Discourse (open source, requires technical maintenance)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Community · scale prompt · soft negative
“Self-hosted option is free but requires DevOps expertise” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Community · direct prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Discourse, over the 131 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Discourse was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Discourse, over the 131 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Discourse was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Discourse. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 116 of the 131 answers that named Discourse and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
bettermode.com69
guideflow.com61
thecmo.com53
learnworlds.com48
higherlogic.com44
spotsaas.com40
discourse.orgYour site35
learn.g2.com33
workramp.com32
circle.so31
411 of the 446 domain citations in answers naming Discourse came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
discourse.org is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Discourse takes 18% of first choices and Bettermode takes 29%.ShowHide
Search and answers
discourse.org is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Discourse takes 18% of first choices and Bettermode takes 29%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “customer community platform”
–
not in the top ten
Position for “best customer community platform”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 49,500 a month (“discourse”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 3,505 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 134,346 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 6,344 · 326 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 21,268
- Paid Google search
- No ads found in the estimate; that does not mean it runs none
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
18%
rank 2 of 75 in community
Segment leader
29%
Bettermode
- First choices
- 26 across its categories
- Named in
- 131 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 116 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
What it publishes
ShowHide
What it publishes
ShowHideAddresses on discourse.org
445
subdomains included
Content
270
counted in the table below
Documentation
0
Product · Integration
0 · 0
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog | 247 | 8 | 2026-09-23 | SEO, Community | |
| Comparison | 12 | 0 | 2022-08-01 | ||
| Conference or event | 4 | 0 | 2025-10-01 | SEO | |
| Case study | 2 | undated | |||
| Report or ebook | 2 | 0 | 2021-10-01 | ||
| News or press | 2 | undated | |||
| Template or tool | 1 | undated |
Most recent
- 2026-09-23Introducing discourse workflows blog
- 2026-09-23How turborenault moved 20 000 members from xenforo to discourse blog
- 2026-09-02How to use discourse for customer support blog
- 2026-08-18Amd building one developer community blog
- 2026-08-11Introducing the all new admin dashboard blog
- 2026-08-06Discourse discover building in the physical world blog
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page discourse.org exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.
Names read as Discourse
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Discourse; a claim can dispute any of them.
Discourse (Self-Hosted) 1Discourse (self‑hosted) 1Discourse + Knowledge Base plugins 1
Follow Discourse
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Discourse.ShowHide
The company
Discourse.
ShowHideOn record
Wikidata- Website
- discourse.org
- Founded
- 2013
Fetched September 14, 2026. These describe the company, not the product's standing, and a claimed page can dispute any of them. · Wikidata · LinkedIn
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- The customizable, scalable community platform powering more than 22,000 communities that create knowledge through conversation.
- For
- community
- Price stated
- Start with the free plan or try any paid plan free for 14 days. discourse.org
- Starting price
- $100 /month discourse.org/pricing
- Free plan or trial
- Start your free trial discourse.org
- Certifications
- GDPR & CCPA compliant hosting
- Hosting
- GlobalEurope
- Customers named
- TwitchcarwowLocal GuidesKatalonHellaWestern DigitalWyzeMonzo
- Not stated on the pages read
- Integrations
What Discourse's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: discourse.org, discourse.org/pricing, discourse.org/customers, discourse.org/partners. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Discourse's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Discourse, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Discourse by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Discourse is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Discourse, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where Discourse is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.ShowHide
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where Discourse is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideDiscourse is among the products AI models recommend first in Community platforms this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.
Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges
Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides
Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer
Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.