Answer
Run a Stack Overflow of your own: Apache Answer brings the question-and-answer format in-house, maintained under the Apache Software Foundation with an Apache-2.0 license. You use it to run a community forum, product help center, or internal knowledge base where content lives as questions and answers rather than wiki pages. It ships the mechanics that make that format work: voting, accepted answers, a reputation system with privilege levels, tagging, full-text search with filters, revision history on every edit, and admin/moderator/user roles. Content is written in Markdown with real-time preview and code syntax highlighting. A plugin system covers OAuth login (Google, GitHub), S3 storage, external search backends like Algolia, and Akismet anti-spam, and a REST API exposes platform data for integration. The backend is Go, the frontend React, and it runs against SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL. Self-hosting replaces per-seat tools like Stack Overflow for Teams with a flat-cost instance where you own all the content.
Apache Answer
Graduated as an Apache Software Foundation Top-Level Project with over 15,500 GitHub stars and 100,000+ Docker Hub downloads, Apache Answer delivers the structured Q&A platform that Stack Overflow and Discourse popularized — fully self-hosted under Apache 2.0 with zero vendor lock-in. The Go backend with React frontend serves questions, answers, and knowledge articles with real-time Markdown preview using CommonMark syntax, inline @mentions to ping domain experts, and transparent revision history tracking every edit. Version 2.0 introduced AI workflows including an integrated AI assistant that helps draft and improve answers, a Model Context Protocol server for connecting AI agents to your knowledge base, API key management, and editor plugin support for extending the writing experience. Advanced search filters by tags, usernames, scores, and date ranges, while real-time suggestions surface relevant existing questions as users type to reduce duplicates. The reputation system rewards quality contributions with configurable privilege thresholds, and admin/moderator/user roles control access across the platform. A plugin architecture enables community-built extensions for third-party OAuth login, caching backends, search engines, and storage providers. Theming supports custom layouts, dark mode, and responsive design across devices, with content available in 15+ languages translated by the community. Bulk user import, email domain restrictions, and content access controls secure the platform for enterprise deployment. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. Apache 2.0 licensed.
phpMyFAQ
Publish the answers your team keeps repeating as a multilingual, searchable FAQ with phpMyFAQ, a knowledge base whose admin area handles writing, review, and permissions. Organize entries in nested categories that you rearrange by drag and drop, attach files, add tags and related FAQs, and let visitors leave comments. A WYSIWYG editor with an image manager writes each answer, a wiki-style revision history restores earlier versions, and a news system posts announcements. Full-text search covers every language, and optional Elasticsearch or OpenSearch backends handle larger collections. The interface covers more than 40 languages with right-to-left layouts, automatic content negotiation, and translated categories and entries. Privileges work per user and per group, so an editor can change an entry without being allowed to delete it, and categories can be limited to chosen readers. Sign in through LDAP, Active Directory, or Microsoft Entra ID, protect accounts with two-factor authentication, or try experimental passkeys. The dashboard charts 30 days of visits, lists inactive FAQs, and checks installed files against published hashes. Export entries to PDF, publish a dynamic sitemap, back up your content, and filter spam with built-in protections. Dark, light, and high-contrast themes keep the public site comfortable to read. Scripts and AI assistants reach the knowledge base through a REST API with an OpenAPI specification or an experimental MCP server, and plugins extend it. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MPL-2.0 licensed.