What is Talkyard used for?

Talkyard is open-source community discussion software that combines forum topics, question-and-answer threads, chat channels and embeddable blog comments. It is a good fit for community forums and support boards, and replacing a blog comment service.

Is Talkyard open source?

Yes. Talkyard is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at debiki/talkyard and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Talkyard is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at €4 per seat per month.

Can I self-host Talkyard?

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

What is Talkyard an alternative to?

Talkyard is an open-source alternative to Quora, Disqus, Circle and Bettermode. Other open-source alternatives to Quora include Apache Answer.

Is Talkyard actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Talkyard was on 13 July 2026. The project has 1.8k stars on GitHub.

Talkyard: open-source alternative to Quora, Disqus, Circle

About Talkyard

Talkyard is a community discussion platform that brings together features from several kinds of tools. Its description names StackOverflow, Slack, Discourse, Reddit and Disqus as the sources, so one installation can host a forum, question-and-answer boards, chat channels and comments for a blog.

The platform emphasizes thoughtful discussion, with insightful comments rising to the top and the ability to upvote ideas and sort by votes. Question topics let participants select an accepted answer, chat channels offer fairly basic real-time messaging, and an embedding option lets website owners collect anonymous blog comments. The project provides a comparison page against other software, a demo forum, a discussion forum for the project and documentation that it describes as incomplete.

Talkyard is written mainly in TypeScript and Scala with a React front end, and is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Self-hosting is supported through the separate talkyard-prod-one repository, and this repository is where development takes place.

Key features

Forum topics with votes and sorting
Question and answer topics with accepted answers
Chat channels
Embeddable blog comments
Anonymous commenting
Self-hosting setup repository

Good fit for

→Community forums and support boards
→Replacing a blog comment service

Built with: TypeScript
Tags: forum; community; questions-and-answers; blog-comments; chat; self-hosted; scala; react

Talkyard: questions and answers

What is Talkyard used for?: Talkyard is open-source community discussion software that combines forum topics, question-and-answer threads, chat channels and embeddable blog comments. It is a good fit for community forums and support boards, and replacing a blog comment service.
Is Talkyard open source?: Yes. Talkyard is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at debiki/talkyard and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Talkyard free?: Yes. Talkyard is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at €4 per seat per month.
Can I self-host Talkyard?: Yes. Talkyard can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Talkyard an alternative to?: Talkyard is an open-source alternative to Quora, Disqus, Circle and Bettermode. Other open-source alternatives to Quora include Apache Answer.
Is Talkyard actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Talkyard was on 13 July 2026. The project has 1.8k stars on GitHub.