Forem

What Forem does

Forem is an open source software platform that enables the creation and hosting of inclusive online communities, most visibly expressed through its flagship instance DEV Community (dev.to), which reports 3,971,947 members. Built on Ruby on Rails and released under the GNU Affero General Public License, Forem can be self-hosted by any organization or used through managed instances, providing content publishing, discussion forums, user profiles, tagging, video, challenges, and (as of 2025) structured Education Tracks. The product stack is anchored by an Algolia-powered search layer and is complemented by a free Postgres tier through partnership with Neon.

The business model combines an open source distribution strategy with monetization concentrated inside DEV Community. Revenue is primarily generated through advertising and sponsorships — Google AI, Neon, and Algolia are listed as Diamond Sponsors — supplemented by a DEV++ premium subscription tier offering enhanced features, and historically by the DEV Shop merchandise marketplace, which is currently offline for retooling. Customer segments split between individual software developers consuming community content (primary) and organizations seeking to deploy their own Forem-backed community platform (secondary). GTM is community-led and product-led, leveraging open-source adoption, partner sponsorships (e.g., Major League Hacking), and direct presence across Twitter/X, Mastodon, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.

To date, Forem has disclosed approximately $12.45M in outside capital across a 2018 seed ($950K, Charge Ventures / Everywhere Ventures) and a 2019 Series A ($11.5M, Mayfield Fund lead with Bossa Invest, OSS Capital, Trousdale Ventures, and XFactor Ventures). Leadership comprises co-founders Ben Halpern, Peter Frank (co-CEO), and Jess Lee. The company is headquartered in New York, operates with 11–50 employees, and serves a global developer audience.

Name

Forem

Website

https://forem.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Forem is an open source (AGPL) community platform built on Ruby on Rails that powers DEV Community, a 3.9M-member developer network, monetized primarily via Diamond-tier sponsorships, a DEV++ subscription, and formerly a merchandise marketplace.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Platform Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Creator-Led Course Hosting & Monetization Platforms (EDAFAIAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Document Management Systems (DMS) (HDAEAGAA), UGC Game Creation Platforms (Roblox-like, Fortnite Creative, Core) (MPAFAIAA)

Keywords

• Open source community platform
• Developer community software
• Online community hosting
• Developer engagement tools
• Inclusive community software

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. DEV Shop (Marketplace): Online merchandise store selling DEV-branded products. Currently offline for re-tooling but previously operated as a commerce channel for community-branded merchandise.
2. Advertising: Sponsored content and advertising placements within the DEV Community platform. Sponsors include technology companies like Google AI, Neon, and Algolia displayed as Diamond Sponsors.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Forem is an open source software platform (released under the GNU Affero General Public License) that enables organizations to build and host their own inclusive online communities. It powers DEV Community (dev.to), a flagship community of nearly 4 million software developers featuring blog posts, discussions, videos, education tracks, challenges, and user profiles. The platform can be self-hosted by any organization or used through the hosted DEV Community instance.

Product overview

Forem is an open source software platform for building inclusive communities, with DEV Community (dev.to) serving as its flagship hosted instance featuring 3,971,947 members. The platform offers community building through blog posts, discussions (via DEV++ subscription), video content, developer challenges and hackathons, structured education tracks, and a free Postgres database tier. Forem's open source nature allows anyone to deploy their own community instance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Forem: Open source software platform that powers online developer communities including DEV Community

Products and services

• Forem
• DEV Community
• DEV Education Tracks
• DEV Shop

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Google AIflagshipGTM or Marketing PartnerGoogle AI serves as the official AI Model and Platform Partner of DEV Community, appearing as a Diamond Sponsor with visibility across the platform.
• NeonflagshipTechnology or IntegrationNeon is the official Database Partner of DEV Community, providing database infrastructure support as a Diamond Sponsor.
• AlgoliaflagshipTechnology or IntegrationAlgolia is the official Search Partner powering DEV Community's search functionality and appearing as a Diamond Sponsor.
• Major League Hacking (MLH)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerMLH partnership for hackathon sponsorship and developer event engagement, co-branded on the platform.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Circle: Circle is a paid community platform for creators and brands that offers branded communities, discussions, events, and monetization — directly comparable to Forem's hosted community and self-hosting model for organizations building developer/creator communities.
• Discourse: Discourse is an open source discussion and forum platform with a self-hosting/community-edition model very similar to Forem's, commonly deployed for developer and product communities, making it the closest comparable on technology and distribution.
• Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks lets creators and brands build paid branded communities with content, courses, and events — overlapping directly with Forem's community + DEV Education Tracks positioning.
• Hashnode: Hashnode is a developer-focused content and community platform that monetizes via subscriptions and brand partnerships, directly comparable to DEV Community's developer publishing and sponsorship model.
• Ghost: Ghost is an open source publishing and membership platform with a self-hosted/managed offering and creator monetization — comparable to Forem's open source content-and-community model and subscription features like DEV++.
• Bevy: Bevy is a community platform purpose-built for companies running user/developer community programs, with events, chapters, and content — directly comparable to Forem's enterprise self-hosted community use case.

Broad incumbents

• Discord: Discord is a massive-scale communication and community platform widely used by developer communities, offering a much larger but less customizable alternative to Forem's branded community experience.
• Reddit: Reddit operates one of the largest UGC community networks in the world; while not developer-specific, it competes for the same advertising and engagement budgets that flow into developer communities like DEV.
• Slack: Slack is an enterprise collaboration incumbent frequently used as a community/communication layer by developer programs, making it an adjacent incumbent that competes for organizational community spend.

Others

• Substack: Substack is a creator publishing and subscription platform; while not a direct community competitor, it represents the broader ecosystem of creator-monetization tools that overlap with DEV++ subscriptions and Education Tracks.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/thepracticaldev
• GitHubgithub.com/forem
• YouTubetwitch.com/thepracticaldev
• Facebookfacebook.com/thepracticaldev
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/dev-community
• Instagraminstagram.com/thepracticaldev

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors7 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Forem