What is Forem used for?

Forem is open-source software for building online communities, and it is the platform that powers the developer community dev.to. It is a good fit for starting a community site for a product or topic and running a developer or customer forum.

Is Forem open source?

Yes. Forem is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at forem/forem and is written mainly in Ruby.

Yes. Forem is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Forem?

Yes. Forem can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Forem an alternative to?

Forem is an open-source alternative to Medium, Reddit, Hashnode and Circle. Other open-source alternatives to Reddit include Discourse and NodeBB.

Is Forem actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Forem was on 2 October 2026. The project has 23k stars on GitHub.

Forem: open-source alternative to Medium, Reddit, Hashnode

About Forem

Forem is open-source software for building communities for peers, customers, fanbases, families, friends or any group that wants a shared space. It is the codebase behind dev.to, a community of software developers who write articles, discuss and build professional profiles. The project is written in Ruby on Rails and released under the AGPL-3.0 license.

The repository includes installation documentation, developer documentation and instructions for deploying with Kamal. Contributors are welcome to open pull requests on any issue, provided they include appropriate tests, with the maintainers currently focused on backend regression tests while frontend changes may need more user review. The project states that AI-assisted pull requests are welcome if they meet quality standards, and it points AI agents to an AGENTS.md file. A vulnerability disclosure process and acknowledgements are also documented.

Key features

Community platform with posts and discussions
Codebase powering dev.to
Ruby on Rails application
Deployment instructions using Kamal
Installation and developer documentation
Documented vulnerability disclosure process

Good fit for

→Starting a community site for a product or topic
→Running a developer or customer forum

Built with: Ruby; Rails
Tags: community; forum; ruby; rails; devto; social; self-hosted; publishing

Forem: questions and answers

What is Forem used for?: Forem is open-source software for building online communities, and it is the platform that powers the developer community dev.to. It is a good fit for starting a community site for a product or topic and running a developer or customer forum.
Is Forem open source?: Yes. Forem is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at forem/forem and is written mainly in Ruby.
Is Forem free?: Yes. Forem is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Forem?: Yes. Forem can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Forem an alternative to?: Forem is an open-source alternative to Medium, Reddit, Hashnode and Circle. Other open-source alternatives to Reddit include Discourse and NodeBB.
Is Forem actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Forem was on 2 October 2026. The project has 23k stars on GitHub.