Scoold vs Question2Answer
Two open-source Q&A platforms compared. TL;DR: Scoold is more feature-rich, enterprise-oriented, and has official cloud hosting, while Q2A is slightly easier and cheaper to deploy because it targets commodity PHP hosting.
Scoold and Question2Answer (Q2A) are both open-source Q&A platforms. Scoold is better suited for teams with strict privacy and security requirements as an internal Q&A/KB solution. It can be deployed on premises or to any cloud. Scoold requires a Java 21+ runtime. It features a Q&A-style format, full-text search, spaces (private groups), webhooks, backup/export, and a REST API.
Question2Answer (Q2A) is an older open-source project built using PHP and MySQL. It is widely used and translated in 40 languages and is also available as a Wordpress extension. It can be self-hosted, but does not offer official cloud hosting. Scoold offers much easier install path with a premium upgrade option (Scoold Pro), and official cloud hosting (Scoold Cloud).
Question2Answer (Q2A) is relatively easy to install on comodity shared hosting (with cPanel) but has slightly outdated UI. Q2A is licensed under GPL v3, which can negatively affect the ability for organizations to redistribute modified versions or derivatives.
| Feature | Scoold | Scoold Pro | Question2Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | from €499, one-time | Free |
| License | Apache 2.0 | EULA | GPL v3 |
| Data ownership | |||
| On-premises | |||
| Cloud hosting | |||
| LDAP SSO | Built-in | Built-in | Plugin |
| SAML SSO | |||
| SCIM provisioning | |||
| Accepted answers | |||
| Sticky/pinned posts | Built-in | Plugin | |
| Badges | Built-in | Built-in | Plugin |
| Spaces (private groups) | |||
| REST API | |||
| MCP Server | |||
| Email notifications | Built-in | Built-in | Plugin |
| Akismet anti-spam | Built-in | Built-in | Plugin |
| MathJax | Built-in | Plugin | |
| Docker | |||
| Kubernetes (Helm chart) | |||
| Language / stack | Java | Java | PHP |
| Initial commit | Jul 6, 2011 | Sep 13, 2018 | Dec 14, 2011 |
| Open GitHub issues | ~8 | ~9 | ~60 |
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