See how Scoold's Stack Overflow-style Q&A platform works, its free open-source edition, Pro license pricing, and Scoold Cloud hosting options.
Category
Community Platforms
Pricing
Free open-source core with one-time license fees for Pro tiers and subscription-based cloud hosting, from Free (Community edition); Scoold Pro from EUR 499 one-time per instance
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2012
APIOpen SourceFreemiumSelf-Hosted
Overview
Scoold is a self-hosted, open-source Q&A and knowledge-sharing platform built by Erudika, modeled on the Stack Overflow experience but designed for internal team use. The underlying project dates back to 2008 and 2012, and was fully open-sourced under Apache 2.0 in 2017.
It can be deployed on Heroku, DigitalOcean, AWS, Azure, or any VPS as a Docker container, JAR, or native executable, giving engineering and IT teams full control over hosting.
Key Features
The free Community edition includes full-text search, social login/OAuth2/LDAP, custom badges, theming, backup and restore, email notifications, unlimited users, and a REST API.
Paid Pro tiers add SAML 2.0 SSO, SCIM provisioning, @mentions, file uploads, integrations with Teams, Mattermost, and Slack, advanced security notifications, and unlimited spaces and admins.
Pricing
Scoold uses one-time license pricing rather than per-seat subscriptions for self-hosted tiers: Scoold Pro costs EUR 499 one-time per instance, and Pro + Source costs EUR 1,999 one-time per instance and includes full source code access.
Scoold Cloud offers managed, subscription-based hosting of Scoold Pro for teams that prefer not to self-host, though specific cloud subscription prices are not listed publicly and require contacting the vendor.
Key Features
Stack Overflow-style Q&A — Questions, answers, voting, and badges modeled after the familiar Stack Overflow interaction pattern.
Full-text search — Built-in search across questions, answers, and content for fast knowledge retrieval.
Flexible authentication — Social login, OAuth 2.0, and LDAP support for integrating with existing identity systems.
SAML SSO and SCIM (Pro) — Enterprise single sign-on via SAML 2.0 and automated user provisioning via SCIM on Pro tiers.
Chat and collaboration integrations — Integrations with Microsoft Teams, Mattermost, and Slack available on Pro tiers.
Self-hosted deployment flexibility — Deployable via Docker, JAR, or native executable on Heroku, AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, or any VPS.
REST API — A full REST API for integrating Scoold data with other internal tools.
Source code access (Pro + Source) — The top license tier grants full Git access to Scoold's source code for custom development.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Free, fully-featured open-source Community edition with no per-user fees
One-time license pricing avoids recurring per-seat SaaS costs at scale
Flexible self-hosting on any cloud provider or VPS
Enterprise features like SAML SSO and SCIM available on Pro
Pro + Source gives full source code ownership for custom development
Cons
Requires self-hosting and server maintenance unless using Scoold Cloud
Scoold Cloud subscription pricing is not publicly listed
Support for Pro licenses is limited to 12 months of free updates post-purchase
Smaller ecosystem and community compared to mainstream SaaS Q&A/helpdesk tools
Pricing
Community Free n/a
Scoold Pro EUR 499 one-time per instance one-time
Pro + Source EUR 1,999 one-time per instance one-time
Scoold Cloud Subscription, price not publicly listed subscription
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Scoold free to use
Yes, the Scoold Community edition is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license; paid Pro tiers add enterprise features.
How much does Scoold Pro cost
Scoold Pro costs EUR 499 as a one-time fee per instance, and Pro + Source costs EUR 1,999 one-time, both with 12 months of free updates and support.
Does Scoold offer cloud hosting
Yes, Scoold Cloud offers managed subscription-based hosting of Scoold Pro, though specific pricing requires contacting the vendor.
Who develops Scoold
Scoold is developed by Erudika; the project was open-sourced under Apache 2.0 in 2017.
Can I self-host Scoold
Yes, Scoold can be self-hosted via Docker, JAR, or native executable on Heroku, AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, or any VPS.
What is Pro + Source
Pro + Source is Scoold's top license tier, costing EUR 1,999 one-time, which includes full source code access via Git along with all Pro features.
Does Scoold support single sign-on
Yes, SAML 2.0 SSO and SCIM provisioning are available on Scoold Pro and Pro + Source license tiers.