Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Discourse VS Requestly

Compare Discourse VS Requestly 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.

Requestly logo Requestly

A Powerful API Mocking and Testing Tool
  • Discourse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-13
  • Requestly Requestly
    Requestly //
    2025-02-12
  • Requestly Rest Client
    Rest Client //
    2025-02-12
  • Requestly HTTP Interceptor
    HTTP Interceptor //
    2025-02-12
  • Requestly API Mocking
    API Mocking //
    2025-02-12
  • Requestly Requestly
    Requestly //
    2025-02-12

Requestly is a modern and powerful companion for API Development and Testing. It is an open-source tool purpose-built to speed up and simplify API development workflow for developers and QAs. It is a combination of API Client and HTTP Interceptor that helps create and share API Contracts, testing APIs, and easily mock and integrate them into web and mobile apps.

Discourse

$ Details
paid Free Trial $100 / Monthly
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Requestly

$ Details
freemium
Platforms
Google Chrome Firefox Edge Safari Brave Opera Vivaldi Android Windows Linux Mac OSX MacOS
Release Date
2021 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Sachin Jain, Sagar Soni, Sahil Gupta
Employees
20 - 49

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.

Requestly features and specs

  • Redirect URL
  • Block Network Requests
  • Modify Request & Response Header
  • Modify Response
  • Supercharge Selenium
  • Session Replay
  • Modify Query Params
  • Team Workspace
  • API Client
  • API Mocks
  • GraphQL Support
  • Zero Setup
  • Auto Capture Sessions
  • Network Logs
  • Console Logs

Analysis of Requestly

Overall verdict

  • Requestly is generally regarded as a good tool due to its comprehensive functionalities and ease of use. Its ability to seamlessly manage network requests makes it suitable for both beginners and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

  • Requestly is widely considered a valuable tool because it offers robust and flexible features for intercepting and modifying network requests. Developers and QA testers appreciate it for its ability to simulate and debug API calls efficiently. It is particularly useful for testing changes without altering the codebase and for working with web applications in development and production environments.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking to debug and test API endpoints.
  • Quality Assurance (QA) teams that require reliable testing tools for web applications.
  • Technical professionals who manage network traffic and need to modify or redirect requests effortlessly.
  • Anyone involved in web development who needs to simulate network conditions or test application behavior under different scenarios.

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

Requestly videos

Session Replays by Requestly

More videos:

  • Demo - Get Started with Requestly
  • Tutorial - Modify API Response using Requestly Chrome Extension
  • Tutorial - How to load local JS file in production sites for faster debugging (Map Local Tool)
  • Tutorial - Report Quality Bugs with Video, Network logs, Console logs & Environment details

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Discourse and Requestly)
Forums
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Forums And Forum Software
Testing
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Discourse and Requestly.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Requestly's answer:

  • Verizon
  • AT&T
  • Adobe
  • Salesforce
  • Telegraph
  • Intuit
  • Verizon

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Requestly's answer:

Front-end developers, QAs, PMs, Digital Marketers

What makes your product unique?

Requestly's answer:

Requestly is an open-source API development and testing tool that combines the capabilities of an API Client and HTTP Interceptor, making it a better alternative to Postman + Charles Proxy. It simplifies API mocking, request modification, and debugging with an intuitive no-code interface, enabling developers and QAs to test APIs efficiently.

User comments

Share your experience with using Discourse and Requestly. 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 Requestly

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...

Requestly Reviews

Comparing Charles Proxy, Fiddler, Wireshark, and Requestly
On the pricing front, Requestly strikes a balance between affordability and functionality. It is an open-source tool, offering freemium to individual developers and affordable pricing plans for team collaboration. We have also clearly differentiated how Requestly differs from Wireshark and other web debugging tools like Proxyman, Modheader, and HTTP ToolKit separately.
Source: dev.to

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Requestly should be more popular than Discourse. It has been mentiond 35 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 / over 2 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 / almost 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
View more

Requestly mentions (35)

  • Why You Need a Local-First API Client (With Hands-On Example)
    If you want to try a local-first workflow, you can start using Requestly here: https://requestly.com. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • How to use Cursor to Generate API Testcases in Requestly
    That’s where automation changes the game. By pairing Cursor, an AI-powered coding assistant, with Requestly's local-first API testing and mocking platform, you can offload the grunt work of writing tests to AI while keeping execution secure and reproducible on your own system. In this article, we’ll walk through how to set up Cursor with Requestly, generate test cases automatically, and run them end-to-end so that... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • These 20 Awesome API Clients Will Change How You Work with APIs
    Requestly is a versatile browser extension and web client used to intercept, mock, and debug APIs in real-time—perfect for frontend developers. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Best Tools for GraphQL Development in 2025
    Requestly is a powerful tool for modifying GraphQL responses, intercepting requests, and debugging API interactions. It allows developers to tweak request bodies, capture GraphQL traffic, and share sessions for easier debugging and collaboration. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How Not to Use AI in Software Development
    Learn more at https://requestly.com/. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Discourse and Requestly, 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.

Proxyman.io - Proxyman is a high-performance macOS app, which enables developers to view HTTP/HTTPS requests from apps and domains.

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.

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

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

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem