Online Community Forum Platforms in AI answers

Data as of Oct 22, 2026Based on 591 AI responsesReviewed by Dimitry Apollonsky

AI summary

Discourse holds a wide lead across community forum searches, frequently recommended for searchable technical discussions and developer platforms. For integrated customer hubs or product communities, Circle is the usual answer.

What’s changing · since July

Since July, Circlerising became one of the three most named options for general user community launches. Hivebritefalling dropped out of regular mentions overall, while Mighty Networksfalling is named occasionally for customer product forums.

Most-mentioned brands

Rank and Mentioned in · since Jul 5

#	Brand	Recommended for	Mentioned in
1	Discourse 81% searchable developer forums and structured open-source community discussions	searchable developer forums and structured open-source community discussions	81%
2	Circle 64% hosted customer communities, creator memberships, and integrated product spaces	hosted customer communities, creator memberships, and integrated product spaces	64%
3	Bettermode 56% customizable, no-code community portals embedded directly into SaaS products	customizable, no-code community portals embedded directly into SaaS products	56%
3	Flarum 53% lightweight, extensible open-source forums with minimalist interfaces	lightweight, extensible open-source forums with minimalist interfaces	53%
5	NodeBB 34% real-time, Node.js-based forums with category-based threaded discussions	real-time, Node.js-based forums with category-based threaded discussions	34%
6	Vanilla ForumsHigher Logic product line 28% enterprise customer support hubs and structured technical Q&A portals	enterprise customer support hubs and structured technical Q&A portals	28%
7	phpBB 22% traditional, budget-conscious self-hosted bulletin boards with classic forum structures	traditional, budget-conscious self-hosted bulletin boards with classic forum structures	22%
7	GitHub DiscussionsGitHub product line 21% collaborative developer conversations tied directly to open-source code repositories	collaborative developer conversations tied directly to open-source code repositories	21%
9	Mighty Networks 17% interactive community platforms combining discussion spaces, courses, and memberships	interactive community platforms combining discussion spaces, courses, and memberships	17%
9	Discord 16% fast-paced, real-time chat communities and interactive developer support spaces	fast-paced, real-time chat communities and interactive developer support spaces	16%
11	Higher Logic 14%		14%
11	MyBB 12%		12%
11	Khoros 12%		12%
11	XenForo 12%		12%
11	Skool 11%		11%
16	Discourse Meta 10%		10%
16	Forem 9%		9%
16	Zendesk 9%		9%
19	Invision Community 8%		8%
20	Slack · salesforce.comSalesforce product line 5%		5%
20	bbPress 5%		5%
20	Zendesk CommunityZendesk product line 4%		4%
20	Stack Overflow · stackoverflow.com 4%		4%
20	Salesforce Experience CloudSalesforce product line 4%		4%
20	Gainsight Customer CommunitiesGainsight product line 4%		4%
20	Gainsight 4%		4%
20	GitHub 4%		4%
20	Hivebrite 4%		4%
20	Slack · slack.comOwned by Salesforce 4%		4%
30	Apache AnswerApache Software Foundation product line 3%		3%
30	WordPress 3%		3%
30	Gitlab · gitlab.io 3%		3%
30	HubSpot 3%		3%
30	Heartbeat 3%		3%
30	Simple Machines Forum 3%		3%
30	Matrix 3%		3%
30	BuddyBoss 2%		2%
38	Lemmy 2%		2%
38	GitLab · gitlab.com 2%		2%
38	DEV Community 2%		2%
38	Salesforce 2%		2%
38	GitHub Github 2%		2%
38	Salesforce CRMSalesforce product line 2%		2%
38	Khoros CommunitiesKhoros product line 2%		2%
38	Shopify 1%		1%
38	Vanilla 1%		1%
38	Discoursify 1%		1%
38	WoocommerceOwned by Automattic 1%		1%
38	Wix 1%		1%
38	Stripe 1%		1%
38	Element 1%		1%
38	Turf (useTurf)1%		1%
38	GitHub IssuesGitHub product line 1%		1%
54	Xenforum 1%		1%
54	Answerbase 1%		1%
54	Docusaurus 1%		1%
54	Zapier 1%		1%
54	Salesforce Sales CloudSalesforce product line 1%		1%
54	Softr 1%		1%
54	Kajabi 1%		1%
54	Intercom 1%		1%
54	MkDocs 1%		1%
54	InSided 1%		1%
54	Talkyard 1%		1%
54	CommonRoom 1%		1%
54	vBulletin 1%		1%
54	Higher Logic ThriveHigher Logic product line 1%		1%
54	Stack ExchangeOwned by Stack Overflow 1%		1%
54	Misago 1%		1%
54	Help Scout 1%		1%
54	Stack Overflow · stackoverflow.co 1%		1%
54	Question2Answer 1%		1%
54	Facebook Groups 1%		1%
54	Microsoft Dynamics 365Microsoft product line 1%		1%
54	Notion 1%		1%
54	Stack Overflow TeamsStack Overflow product line <1%		<1%
54	Buddy Next <1%		<1%
54	OpenSourceCommunity <1%		<1%
54	Stack Overflow CollectivesStack Overflow product line <1%		<1%
54	Google AnalyticsAlphabet product line <1%		<1%
54	Discourse ProDiscourse product line <1%		<1%
54	BuddyPress <1%		<1%
54	GitLab Community ForumsGitLab product line <1%		<1%
54	Forums.net <1%		<1%
54	Gainsight Digital HubGainsight product line <1%		<1%
54	RedditOwned by Reddit Inc.<1%		<1%
54	Auth0Owned by Okta <1%		<1%
54	Webflow <1%		<1%
54	wpForo <1%		<1%
54	Kit <1%		<1%
54	Asana <1%		<1%
54	Freshworks <1%		<1%
54	Orbit <1%		<1%
54	Microsoft AzureMicrosoft product line <1%		<1%
95	OpenAI <1%		<1%
95	Shopify App StoreShopify product line <1%		<1%
95	Discourse HostingDiscourse product line <1%		<1%
95	Gerrit Code Review <1%		<1%
95	Zulip <1%		<1%
95	FoF SEO <1%		<1%

Who leads each AI engine

ChatGPT SearchChatGPT Search: Discourse
Google AI ModeGoogle AI Mode: Discourse

Mentioned in on each engineChatGPT SearchGoogle AI Mode

Widest split: NodeBB, 43% on ChatGPT Search and 25% on Google AI Mode.

Mentioned in on each AI engine, by brand
Brand	ChatGPT Search	Google AI Mode
Discourse	90%	81%
Circle	66%	58%
Bettermode	53%	56%
Flarum	49%	56%
NodeBB	43%	25%
Vanilla Forums	21%	34%
GitHub Discussions	22%	22%
phpBB	15%	24%
Mighty Networks	11%	23%
Discord	11%	19%

Latest insights

Weeks of Sep 28 – Oct 18, 2026 · Since Jul 5

Discourse Slipping: Discourse appeared in 78.7% of Online Community Forum Platforms answers, down from 84% the week before
Discourse Gap between platforms: ChatGPT Search mentions Discourse 8.4 points more often than Google AI Mode in Online Community Forum Platforms
Circle Gap between platforms: ChatGPT Search now mentions Circle 20.6 points more often than Google AI Mode in Online Community Forum Platforms, a narrowed gap
NodeBB Gap between platforms: The platform gap for NodeBB in Online Community Forum Platforms widened to 18.5 points, ChatGPT Search ahead
Vanilla Forums Gap between platforms: The platform gap for Vanilla Forums in Online Community Forum Platforms narrowed to 12.3 points, Google AI Mode ahead

and 7 more insightssee the ranking

Market map

Mentioned in · since Jul 5

Leading brands by topic

Creator community platformFew answersLed byCircle
Self-hosted forum customizationFew answersLed byXenForo
Open-source community forum platformTied:NodeBBFlarum
Community forum platformsLed byBettermode
Enterprise community platformsLed byKhoros
Free community projectsLed byWix

Questions by topic4

Creator community platform
- Can you recommend some online community forum platforms designed for creator communities?
- Which online forum platforms work best for building a community around creators?
- Help me find online forum platforms that support creator communities.
Self-hosted forum customization
- I am looking for a self-hosted forum platform that allows for extensive customization of the user interface and functionality. Can you recommend some options?
- I need a forum platform I can host myself that supports heavy customization of both the look and the underlying functionality. Any suggestions?
- What are the best self-hosted forum software options that offer deep control over UI design and feature sets?
Open-source community forum platform
- What are the best open-source community forum platforms available?
- Can you recommend open-source software for a support and documentation community that features native category-based threading?
- We are moving our support portal and technical docs to a new home. Can you recommend open-source community software that handles threaded discussions by category natively?
- My team is migrating our technical documentation and support portal to a new system. What are the best open-source community platforms that include native support for category-based threaded discussions?
Developer forum platforms
- Which "community management" platforms are designed specifically for hosting developer forums?
- Can you recommend community management software that is optimized for hosting forums for developers?
- We need to launch a forum for our developers. What hosting solutions should we consider?
- We need a scalable forum solution that allows our contributors to discuss patches and feature requests in a public, open-source environment. Which vendors or platforms are standard in the developer community?

Our startup wants to build a community around our open-source library. Which forum platforms provide the best balance of mobile-responsive design and SEO optimization?
We want to build a simple customer community forum. What's a good, easy-to-deploy platform for that?
What's a good platform for building a customer community or user forum around our product?
I want to build a community forum for our customers. What's the best community platform that integrates with our existing software?
We are launching a user community. Who provides community forum software?

Sources AI cites99

46% of citations point at the ranked brands’ own sites. youtube.com, github.com, guideflow.com are the most-cited sites outside the ranked brands’ own domains.