9 Free Stackoverflow Clones and Q&A Scripts

We have created a list of free open source Q&A scripts and Stackoverflow clones. Initially we had 9 items on the list but since our readers and community liked the subject they shared many other great scripts for questions & answers sites. So we are growing this list as the time goes by. Hopefully here you’ll find script or clone you have been looking for. And if we missed some great script, let us know.

1. OSQA – The Open Source Q&A System

At its very core, OSQA is a social question and answer system. However, OSQA’s roadmap includes features and functions that extend its usefulness beyond just a Q&A site. Those features include:

• A question and answer engine that’s dead simple to use, has wiki-like features and a voting system
• A social networking engine that allows you to connect with and follow other people and topics and send private messages to each other
• A reputation system that lets you give and receive props for positive contributions to the community
• A powerful search function that helps you find relevant information quickly and easily
• The ability to create groups to help narrow content focus
• The ability to export site data
• The ability to easily federate content that’s created on your site (federating content = reusing content generated on one of your sites in another)

2. OpenOverflow is an open source Question and Answer application

OpenOverflow works on Mac OS X and GNU Linux, with Rails 2.3.2. OpenOverflow is an open source Question and Answer application that is inspired by stackoverflow.com.

3. phpancake

A questions and answers system, where the validity of the questions and their answers is determined and moderated by the community by a voting system. This open source system is on the lines of Stackoverflow and digg.

4. Question2Answer

• Five minutes (or less!) to install.
• Easy styling with CSS themes.
• Simple to translate into any language.
• Fast integrated search engine.
• Points-based reputation management.
• Categories and/or tags (with auto complete).
• Email notifications and RSS support.
• Voting, comments and follow-on questions.
• PHP/MySQL scalable to millions of posts.
• Built-in user account management.
• Supports Facebook single sign-on, or…
• Custom single sign-on for existing sites.

5. Qwench – PHP StackOverflow Clone

Qwench is a PHP/mySQL based StackOverflow clone.

Features
1. Allow users to post questions and answers
2. Points system similar to StackOverflow
3. Ability to post an article as a knowledge-base (for corporates)
4. Ability to lock site to registered users only
5. Clean CSS layout
6. Works in all major browsers

6. soclone – A Django-based Stack Overflow clone

SOClone will make use of Progressive Enhancement to ensure that all core functionality is available regardless of whether or not the user has JavaScript enabled – some of Stack Overflow’s core functionality such as voting, accepting answers, viewing comments, marking questions as favourites and flagging questions as offensive currently doesn’t work at all without JavaScript enabled.

Another usability issue which will be fixed is that the lack of submit buttons on some search pages means they can’t be used in browsers whose input method does not support typing events, such as Opera on the Nintendo Wii.

Over and above the basic Stack Overflow functionality, SOClone will (eventually) also include an intranet mode, which will tweak the application to be more suitable for use in intranets, with changes such as:

• LDAP authentication / other pluggable registration/login backends
• Lowering reputation barriers to access functionality or totally removing reputation from the equation in terms of what you’re allowed to do on the site
• Removing offensive flags
• Optionally disabling down voting
• Intranet-specific badges

7.  stacked – An Open Source implementation of StackOverflow

An Open Source implementation of a similar system to http://StackOverflow.com – basically an advanced questions/answers management system for support, forums, FAQs and similar systems.

sample installation – we’re using it as our primary support mechanism for Ra-Ajax (a GPL licensed Ajax Library for ASP.NET)

8. shapado

stackoverflow-like app written in ruby, mongomapper and mongodb

9.  Askbot

This is Askbot project – open source Q&A system, like StackOverflow, Yahoo Answers and some others

Demo site is http://askbot.org

All documentation is in the directory askbot/doc

askbot-devel repository is open to anyone who wants to help develop Askbot – just drop us a note

Askbot is based on code of CNPROG, originally created by Mike Chen and Sailing Cai and some code written for OSQA

10. Lampcms Open Source Q&A program

Lampcms is an full-featured Open Source Question and Answers web program with support for social web with the integration with Facebook and Twitter. Question/Answer websites are becoming very popular, many people find them to be a better choice for building online communities than a traditional web forum.

Just like many other Question and Answer sites, Lampcms is tag-based, meaning there is no need to create separate forum for separate topics, all questions are tagged by the author and can then be grouped by tag.

11. Qamini

Qamini stand for “Question & Answer Mini”.
Its very lightweight and includes following features:

• Registration, User pages
• Ask Question (With / Without Registration)
• Add Answers (With / Without Registration)
• Add Comments
• Vote up / down questions or answers
• Accept answers
• Get reputation points
• Tags

12. Coordino

Self hosted knowledge management software which looks and feels much like Stackoverflow. Hosted on GitHub its both opensource and has good community support.

13. Askeet

This open source project is the result of 24 days tutorial created for symfony PHP framework. It goes through all steps of developing and releasing Web 2.0 project. Of course you can get code for Askeet and implement it on your site without waiting 24 days.

— What Q&A scripts you are using on your sites?