Discourse vs Stream

Discourse (The 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.) and Stream (Build scalable in-app chat, feeds, and live video with AI moderation capabilities in hours, not weeks.) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Discourse (rank #189) holds a narrow lead over Stream (rank #317) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (50 vs 44). The gap of 6 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), Stream is slightly ahead of Discourse. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Discourse is slightly ahead of Stream. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Stream is slightly ahead of Discourse. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Discourse is slightly ahead of Stream.

Discourse carries 55,678 GitHub stars across 620 public repos, with 90 repositories active in the last 90 days and 44 external contributors on record. Stream shows 35,664 stars across 487 public repos, 84 active in the last 90 days and 44 external contributors.

Discourse is the stronger read for anyone weighting reach. Stream looks better where community is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.