Question2Answer is an open-source platform for running a question-and-answer community on a self-hosted website. Members can ask questions, post answers and find discussions with integrated search. Categories or tags, voting, comments, follow-on questions and closed questions help organize participation. Reputation points, RSS, email notifications and personal news feeds give members ways to follow activity. Account management includes roles for experts, editors, moderators and admins, as well as avatars, custom fields, private messages and public wall posts. Site owners can adjust the site with CSS themes, translations, sidebars, widgets, pages and links, and add plugins for further customization. Question2Answer integrates with WordPress and Joomla, and supports custom single sign-on for other sites. The WordPress integration can use the site's existing user database while storing Q&A data in separate tables in the same MySQL database. Captchas, moderation and flagging help manage spam. It runs as a web app and requires PHP 5.4 or later with MySQLi and MySQL 5.0 or later. The software is free under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later, and credits Gideon Greenspan and contributors as its creators.
Who it is for
Question2Answer suits organizations and communities that want to host their own Q&A site and manage member roles, discussions and moderation. It can also fit sites that use WordPress or Joomla, or need custom single sign-on with another site.
What is good
- Free, open-source software under GPL version 2 or later
- Integrated search, categories or tags, voting and comments
- Roles for experts, editors, moderators and admins
- WordPress and Joomla integration, plus custom single sign-on
- Captchas, moderation and flagging for spam control
What to know first
- Requires a self-hosted setup with PHP and MySQL
- Requires PHP 5.4 or later with MySQLi
- Listed as a web app rather than a mobile app
Verdict
Choose Question2Answer for a self-hosted community that needs member questions, answers, roles and moderation tools in free, open-source software. Its integrations may suit sites using WordPress or Joomla. Teams without the listed PHP and MySQL setup requirements should look elsewhere.
Get started with Question2Answer
- Visit https://question2answer.org/
- Prepare a self-hosted web environment with PHP 5.4 or later, the MySQLi extension and MySQL 5.0 or later.
- Set up the Q&A site as a web app.
- Use the available WordPress or Joomla integration, or configure custom single sign-on for another site if needed.
Questions about Question2Answer
Is Question2Answer free?
Yes. The listed plan costs 0.00 USD per free, and the software is open source under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later.
What does Question2Answer run on?
It is listed as a self-hosted web app. Requirements include PHP 5.4 or later with MySQLi and MySQL 5.0 or later.
Does Question2Answer work with WordPress?
Yes. Its WordPress integration can use the WordPress site and user database, while storing Q&A data in separate tables in the same MySQL database.
What other integrations does it offer?
It offers out-of-the-box WordPress and Joomla integration, along with custom single sign-on support for other sites.
Who created Question2Answer?
The product credits Gideon Greenspan and contributors with creating it.
Does it have mobile apps?
It is listed as a web app.
Question2Answer plans and pricing
All plansCompared on online community platforms
- Free plan
- Yes
- Moderation tools
- advanced
- Direct messaging
- Yes
- Custom domain
- Yes
- Mobile apps
- web app
