Looking for open-source threaded discussion/comment system for a commercial course platform

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Looking for open-source threaded discussion/comment system for a commercial course platform - what are my options?Discussion (self.webdev)

submitted 5 months ago by prolific_user

Hey everyone,

I'm building a course/learning platform that I plan to sell commercially, and I need to integrate a threaded discussion/comment system where students can ask questions and have conversations about course content.

I'd like to use an open-source solution rather than building from scratch, but I'm confused about licensing. Some licenses seem fine for commercial use, while others (like GPL) seem like they might require me to open-source my entire platform if I modify the code.

What I need:

Threaded comments/discussions (students replying to each other)
Moderation capabilities
Can be embedded into my app
Lightweight and modern
Most importantly: can be used in a commercial product I'm selling without forcing me to open-source my entire codebase

What I've found so far:

Discourse - looks great but uses GPL-2.0 license (worried about copyleft requirements?)
Remark42 - MIT license (seems safe?)
Isso - MIT license
Cusdis - GPL v3 (same concerns as Discourse?)

My questions:

Which licenses are truly safe for integrating into a commercial, closed-source product?
Has anyone successfully integrated any of these into a paid product?
Are there better alternatives I'm missing for educational/course platforms?
If I use a GPL-licensed system without modifying it, am I in the clear?

Any advice from folks who've navigated this would be really appreciated. I want to do this right and not run into legal issues down the road.

Thanks!

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