Software Alternatives & Startups

Discourse VS graphql.js

Compare Discourse VS graphql.js and see what are their differences

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Discourse logo Discourse

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

graphql.js logo graphql.js

A reference implementation of GraphQL for JavaScript - graphql/graphql-js
  • Discourse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-13
  • graphql.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27

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.

graphql.js features and specs

  • Strongly Typed
    GraphQL.js allows for strongly typed schemas, making it easier to perform validation and introspection on your data, ensuring that queries conform to a specific structure before execution.
  • Efficient Data Fetching
    GraphQL.js enables clients to request exactly the data they need which can reduce over-fetching and under-fetching compared to REST APIs.
  • Rich Developer Tooling
    The introspection capabilities in GraphQL.js allow for rich tooling, enabling better development workflows including robust IDE support and tools like GraphiQL.
  • Evolving APIs
    GraphQL.js facilitates evolving APIs without the need for versioning, providing backward compatibility by introducing non-breaking changes.
  • Community Support
    GraphQL.js has a large and active community, providing numerous resources, plugins, and tools that support smooth development processes.

Possible disadvantages of graphql.js

  • Complexity
    Implementing GraphQL.js can add complexity to projects as developers may need to learn new concepts such as schemas, resolvers, and query languages.
  • Overhead
    The flexibility of GraphQL.js can introduce performance overhead, as the server may need to parse and execute more complex and dynamic queries.
  • Cache Invalidation
    Caching strategies for GraphQL.js can be more complex compared to REST, as caching needs to account for the structure and specifics of the queries requested.
  • Over-fetching Risks
    While GraphQL.js mitigates data over-fetching, it can also expose sensitive data if developers are not meticulous in specifying and controlling the schema and access permissions.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging runtime errors in GraphQL.js can sometimes be more difficult, especially with deeply nested queries and complex resolvers.

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

graphql.js videos

No graphql.js videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Discourse and graphql.js)
Forums
100 100%
0% 0
Project Management
0 0%
100% 100
Forums And Forum Software
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

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...

graphql.js Reviews

We have no reviews of graphql.js yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Discourse should be more popular than graphql.js. It has been mentiond 23 times since March 2021. 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 / over 2 years 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 / over 2 years 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 / almost 3 years 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 / about 3 years 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 / about 3 years ago
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graphql.js mentions (8)

  • Diving into Open-Source Development
    To begin, I'm going to start with GraphQL. This repo is a JS-specific implementation for GraphQL, for which projects written in JS/TS can utilize to build an API for their web app. The reason why I chose this project is because I've always been intrigued by how GraphQl challenges the standard way of building an API, a.k.a REST APIs. I have very little knowledge about this project since I've never used it before at... - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • How to define schema once and have server code and client code typed? [Typescript]
    When I asked this in StackOverflow over a year ago I reached the solution of using graphql + graphql-zeus. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Apollo federated graph is not presenting its schema to graphiql with fields sorted lexicographically
    GraphiQL (and many other tools) relies on introspection query which AFAIK is not guaranteed to have any specific order (and many libs don't support it). Apollo Server is built on top of graphql-js and it relies on it for this functionality. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • How (Not) To Build Your Own GraphQL Server
    Defining your schema and the resolvers simultaneously led to some issues for developers, as it was hard to decouple the schema from the (business) logic in your resolvers. The SDL-first approach introduced this separation of concerns by defining the complete schema before connecting them to the resolvers and making this schema executable. A version of the SDL-first approach was introduced together with GraphQL... - Source: dev.to / almost 5 years ago
  • three ways to deploy a serverless graphQL API
    Graphql-yoga is built on other packages that provide functionality required for building a GraphQL server such as web server frameworks like express and apollo-server, GraphQL subscriptions with graphql-subscriptions and subscriptions-transport-ws, GraphQL engine & schema helpers including graphql.js and graphql-tools, and an interactive GraphQL IDE with graphql-playground. - Source: dev.to / almost 5 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Discourse and graphql.js, 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.

JsonAPI - Application and Data, Languages & Frameworks, and Query Languages

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.

Apollo - Apollo is a full project management and contact tracking application.

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

Graphene - Query Languages