Migrating to Discourse | Discourse - Civilized Discussion
Start with the right move
Reimagine the future of your online community with a modern, flexible platform—trusted by teams migrating communities from Khoros, Vanilla, Salesforce, and more
Own your data
Gain complete control over your community's data and privacy
Foster engagement
Utilize modern features that encourage participation and foster relationships
Future-proof your community
Rely on a stable platform backed by continuous improvements from a global community
Cost-effective solution
Maximize value with competitive pricing and long-term savings
Trusted by communities worldwide
Join thousands of thriving communities that use Discourse for their communities
@SergioRocks We ditched slack for @discourse in our remote async team. Haven’t looked back and the team loves it.
Jake Webber
In the last few years @discourse has become an absolute force to be reckoned with. It’s nothing like an old school forum, and a lot more like a custom community / reddit hybrid. VERY powerful and configurable for different needs. Hugely impressive.
John O'Nolan
Happy to announce we’ve moved our forums over to @discourse, the same software that the Roblox Developer Forums use! The team will be up tonight responding to your posts.
Vesteria
Discourse is built for scale
We’ve migrated some of the largest communities on the web—with complex legacy systems and millions of records
We’ve migrated individual sites with
- 8M+ users
- 2M+ topics
- 1TB+ data
We host individual sites with
- 100K+ monthly active users
- 45M+ monthly pageviews
We work with you for a smooth transition
All migrations require one year advance payment of hosting services for the first year
- Discovery
Understand your needs
We assess your current platform and migration requirements
- Development
Prepare and customize
We set up your new Discourse community and migrate your data based on your organization’s needs
- Launch
Go live
Finalize your community and transition with minimal downtime and continued post-migration support
Supported platforms
These are just a few of the platforms we’ve migrated communities from
Enterprise and SaaS
open source and self-hosted
forum software and legacy
Tailored paths to fit your needs
We offer two migration options designed to accommodate different requirements
Business Migration
When you’re ready to make the move
- Ideal for standard migrations from common platforms
- Efficient and cost-effective path to Discourse
- Includes 24 hours of migration project hours
- Self-managed theming and configuration
Enterprise Migration
When you need tailored solutions
- Ideal for complex migrations that need custom work
- Customized solutions for complex configurations
- Includes 24 hours of migration project hours
- Work with our team on custom design and development
Comprehensive data migration
We can migrate a wide range of data to ensure continuity for your community. Here’s a look at the standard data we migrate. If you have unique needs, our Enterprise migrations are fully customizable.
Core data
- Users & profiles
- Groups & memberships
- Categories & subcategories
- Topics & posts
- Private messages
- Tags
- Attachments & media
Additional data
- Likes & reactions
- User permissions
- Badges & awards
- Polls
- Chat history
Migration process details
Business
Designed for standard migrations
- 1. Discovery
- Outline your needs
- Provide data
- Data assessment
- Timeline and estimate
- Formalize the project
- 2. Development
- Set up environments
- Design and customizations
- Import data
- Review and feedback
- Quality assurance
- 3. Launch
- Final import
- Go live
- Migration complete
- Post-migration support
Enterprise
Customized for complex migrations
A comprehensive approach offering advanced customization and dedicated support
- 1. Discovery
- Outline needs
- Collaborative planning
- Provide data
- Data assessment
- Timeline & estimate
- Formalize the project
- 2. Development
- Set up environments
- Design and customizations
- Import data
- Review and feedback
- Quality assurance
- 3. Launch
- Final import
- Go live
- Migration complete
- Post-migration support
Your questions answered
Will there be downtime during the migration?
We aim for minimal downtime, usually during the final data import and DNS switch.
Do you offer support after the migration?
Yes, both migration options include support.
Where can I get information about your data privacy and security practices?
You can review our Privacy Policy and access our SOC 2 report for details on our security and data protection practices.
Will you sign an NDA before we share our data?
Absolutely. If you choose a standard migration on a Business plan we will send you a copy of our migration terms to sign first. If you choose an Enterprise plan we will ask you to sign our hosting terms first.
How do we send you the data?
We'll provide instructions for securely uploading your data to our dedicated site.
What resources are required of us?
There is no requirement for a technical resource on your side (outside of providing us with a copy of the database and updating your DNS). The QA process is extremely important, however. You will need someone (or ideally, a few people) available to check the migrated data against a checklist that we will provide you.
Will our users have to create a new account on Discourse?
No. We can migrate across their user details and create an account for them as part of the migration. Note that if you are using SSO with another platform, we can replicate that on Discourse, meaning your members won’t need to reset their password and it should continue to work seamlessly.
Embrace the future with Discourse
Join a global network of communities enhancing their platforms with Discourse's open-source, community-driven solutions
Continuous innovation
Benefit from regular updates and new features.
Transparency and trust
Open-source platform with a commitment to transparency
Community support
Engage with a supportive network of Discourse users and developers
Start building your community today
Start with the free plan or try any paid plan free for 14 days.