Discourse vs Plausible Analytics

Discourse (The 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.) and Plausible Analytics (Simple, open source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Discourse (rank #189) holds a narrow lead over Plausible Analytics (rank #338) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (50 vs 43). The gap of 7 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

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

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. Plausible Analytics shows 31,145 stars across 21 public repos, 7 active in the last 90 days and 23 external contributors.

Discourse is the stronger read for anyone weighting momentum. Plausible Analytics looks better where reach 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.