Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Discourse VS BoldDesk

Compare Discourse VS BoldDesk and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Discourse logo Discourse

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

BoldDesk logo BoldDesk

Premium Customer Service Software to manage your customer support. Manage support email, publish self-help articles, and automate repetitive tasks.
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  • Discourse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-13
  • BoldDesk
    Image date //
    2024-05-02
  • BoldDesk Live chat support
    Live chat support //
    2024-09-23
  • BoldDesk
    Image date //
    2024-05-02
  • BoldDesk
    Image date //
    2024-05-02
  • BoldDesk
    Image date //
    2024-05-02
  • BoldDesk
    Image date //
    2024-05-02
  • BoldDesk
    Image date //
    2024-05-02

BoldDesk is a premium cloud-based customer service software and designed to streamline and simplify customer query management. With BoldDesk, you can provide access to a huge collection of knowledge-based articles while organizing and handling customer inquiries with ease.

Discourse

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

BoldDesk

$ Details
paid Free Trial $12.0 / Monthly (For per agent)
Platforms
Web REST API Cloud Android iPhone
Release Date
2022 May

Discourse features and specs

  • Modern Interface
    Discourse provides a clean, intuitive, and responsive user interface that works well on both desktops and mobile devices.
  • Open Source
    Discourse is open source software, allowing for customization, self-hosting, and community contributions, which can reduce costs and increase flexibility.
  • Rich Features
    The platform includes a variety of built-in features such as threaded replies, real-time notifications, and community moderation tools.
  • Scalability
    Discourse is designed to handle small communities as well as large, active forums, making it suitable for a variety of use cases.
  • Security
    Regular updates and a dedicated security team help keep the software secure against vulnerabilities.
  • Integration and APIs
    Discourse offers extensive APIs and integrates well with various other services and plugins, facilitating seamless extensions and automation.

Possible disadvantages of Discourse

  • Resource Intensive
    Discourse can be resource-heavy, which may require significant server capacity and maintenance, especially for large communities.
  • Hosting Costs
    While you can self-host Discourse, the server and maintenance costs can be high. Managed hosting plans provided by Discourse can also be expensive.
  • Complex Setup
    Installing and configuring Discourse can be complex, particularly for those without technical expertise in server management and Ruby on Rails.
  • Learning Curve
    Users and administrators might face a steeper learning curve compared to more traditional forum software due to its modern interface and extensive features.
  • Limited Built-in Themes
    The default theme options are somewhat limited, and extensive customization requires knowledge of front-end development.
  • Dependency on PostgreSQL and Redis
    Discourse relies on PostgreSQL for its database and Redis for caching, which might complicate setup and maintenance compared to solutions that use simpler database architectures.

BoldDesk features and specs

  • Ticketing System
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Automation
  • Customer Portal
  • Customization
  • Task Management
  • Multilingual Support
  • Integration
  • Export contact
  • Report and Analysis
  • Scheduled Reports
  • Multiple Ticket Forms
  • Ringover Integration
  • Ticket templates
  • Custom Answers
  • Whatsapp Integration
  • Facebook integration
  • Microsoft Teams Integration

Analysis of BoldDesk

Overall verdict

  • BoldDesk is a reputable help desk software platform designed to assist businesses in managing customer support tickets efficiently. It is generally considered a good option for its user-friendly interface and robust feature set.

Why this product is good

  • BoldDesk offers a comprehensive suite of features that cater to various customer support needs, such as ticket management, automation, SLA management, and reporting.
  • The platform is known for its ease of use, making it accessible to businesses without requiring extensive technical expertise.
  • BoldDesk provides good integration capabilities with other tools and services, allowing businesses to streamline their customer support workflows.
  • The software is cloud-based, providing the flexibility and convenience of accessing it from anywhere with an internet connection.

Recommended for

  • Small to medium-sized businesses looking for an affordable and effective help desk solution.
  • Organizations seeking to improve customer support efficiency without the need for significant technical investments.
  • Teams that want to implement a scalable solution that can grow with their customer support demands.
  • Businesses that need a customizable help desk platform to match their specific workflow and branding requirements.

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

BoldDesk videos

Getting Started with Syncfusion BoldDesk

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Discourse and BoldDesk)
Forums And Forum Software
Customer Support
0 0%
100% 100
Forums
100 100%
0% 0
Help Desk
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Discourse and BoldDesk.

What makes your product unique?

BoldDesk's answer:

  1. Better Usability - Our Modern UI can be easy to use for all users.

  2. Better Multibranding and Customization support - Customize the support portal tailored to your business’s needs.

  3. Unlimited Agent Pricing - Choose our flat-rate, unlimited agent package and don't worry about adding more agents. Stop paying thousands of dollars per year for other tools and start saving with BoldDesk.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

BoldDesk's answer:

BoldDesk stands out among its competitors for several reasons:

  • Modern UI is easy to use
  • World-Class customization options
  • Scalability
  • SMB-friendly pricing

How would you describe your primary audience?

BoldDesk's answer:

BoldDesk is designed to meet the needs of businesses and organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries. Its features and scalability make it suitable for both small enterprises and larger corporations looking for a versatile and adaptable help desk solution to streamline their customer support processes.

Whether small or large, an organization that's seeking a customizable and comprehensive help desk solution will find it in BoldDesk.

What's the story behind your product?

BoldDesk's answer:

With over two decades in business, Syncfusion, the creator of BoldDesk, has successfully supported hundreds of thousands of customers. The in-house ticket management software we developed, Direct-Trac, proved so effective that our customers requested a similar solution. This led us to create BoldDesk, a world-class, customizable, and scalable help desk. After putting the platform through its paces internally, we were impressed with the results and decided to make it available to our customers and the larger market.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

BoldDesk's answer:

  • Angular
  • PostgreSQL

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

BoldDesk's answer:

  • Nera Telecommunications
  • LTIMindtree
  • greytHR
  • M2P Fintech
  • Group1 Automotive
  • YuppTY
  • Boiron

User comments

Share your experience with using Discourse and BoldDesk. 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 BoldDesk

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...

BoldDesk Reviews

10 Best Freshdesk Alternatives for Businesses in 2024
We will, of course, toot our own horn first. BoldDesk is a perfect help desk software alternative for Freshdesk. This is mainly because BoldDesk is a modern, sophisticated help desk software that streamlines customer service through excellent customer support tools and self-service features.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Discourse seems to be a lot more popular than BoldDesk. While we know about 23 links to Discourse, we've tracked only 1 mention of BoldDesk. 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 / about 1 year 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 / about 1 year 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 / over 1 year 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 / over 1 year 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 / almost 2 years ago
View more

BoldDesk mentions (1)

  • Customer Support Agents Vs Knowledge Base
    Https://bolddesk.com help your agents to succeed. Source: almost 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Discourse and BoldDesk, 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.

Zendesk - Zendesk is a beautiful, lightweight help-desk solution.

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.

Freshdesk - Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support software that lets you support customers through traditional channels like phone and email, social channels like Facebook and Twitter, and your own branded community

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

Intercom - Intercom is a customer relationship management and messaging tool for web businesses. Build relationships with users to create loyal customers.