Simple 30 minute basic install: Beginner Docker install guide for Digital Ocean
Powerful, flexible, large or multiple server install: Advanced Docker install guide
The only officially supported installs of Discourse are the Docker based beginner and advanced installs. We regret that we cannot support any other methods of installation. (Alternately, you can try the unofficial Heroku install guide, the unofficial Ubuntu install guide, the BitNami Discourse Virtual Machine package or Cloud66.)
Hosting Rails applications is complicated. Even if you already have Postgres, Redis and Ruby installed on your server, you still need to worry about running and monitoring your Sidekiq and Rails processes. Additionally, our Docker install comes bundled with a web-based GUI that makes upgrading to new versions of Discourse as easy as clicking a button.
- Dual core CPU recommended
- 1 GB RAM minimum (with swap)
- 64 bit Linux compatible with Docker
- Postgres 9.1+
- Redis 2.6+
- Ruby 1.9.3+ (we recommend 2.0.0-p353 or higher)
We take security very seriously at Discourse, and all our code is 100% open source and peer reviewed. Please read our security guide for an overview of security measures in Discourse.