Ask Ubuntu vs Discourse - Civilized Discussion

Ask Ubuntu and Discourse - Civilized Discussion both land on Depends.

Ask Ubuntu

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Use Ask Ubuntu if you run Ubuntu and can self-serve answers from a strict, expert community . it is completely free.

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy it if you are building a serious, scalable public community . support forum, open-source project, or brand hub.

Ask Ubuntu versus Discourse - Civilized Discussion
Compare	Ask Ubuntu	Discourse - Civilized Discussion
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	Ubuntu desktop and server troubleshooting	Open-source project communities
Who it's not for	Total Linux beginners . strict moderation and closures sting	Small teams needing quick internal chat . use Slack or Discord
Privacy	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.^¹	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.¹³
Support quality	Expert answers common, but no guarantees	Active community help; enterprise support for larger customers
Public sentiment	Users treat it as the default Ubuntu help source, but some newcomers publicly complain the moderation is hostile.^⁶	Users praise Discourse's community structure and moderation, though independent review volume in these sources is thin.
Biggest gotcha	Read posting rules first; newbies report questions closed or bounced^⁷	Serious communities typically land on paid Pro/Business hosting; free tier may only be a starting point¹¹