This guide explains how to cancel your Discourse hosted service, download your data, and understand your options for maintaining limited access to your site.
Required user level: Administrator
Canceling your service
-
Log in to your Discourse site as an administrator
-
Navigate to the Manage Account page at
/admin/manage-account -
Look for the “Cancel subscription” link (free and paid)
-
In the cancellation modal, type “cancel yourhostname.com” (using your actual site hostname) to confirm
-
Follow the remaining steps to complete the cancellation
Data backup
When you initiate the cancellation process:
- A database-only backup of your site will be automatically generated, and you may choose whether to include all uploads and attachments
- You will receive a Personal Message on your site when the backup is ready to download
- Store this backup securely - you may need it if you want to restore your site in the future
It’s strongly recommended to download and verify your backup before the site is shut down.
Alternative options
If you’re on a paid plan, instead of completely decommissioning your site, you have two downgrade options. These are offered as alternatives during the cancellation process:
-
Staff-only plan
- Staff members can login and create new content
- Regular members can view the site, but cannot login
- Useful for maintaining administrative access while preventing new content from non-staff
-
Read-only plan
- No users can login
- No new content can be created
- All content is kept online
- Useful for preserving your community’s content as an archive
After cancellation
- Your site will be decommissioned according to the timeline specified during the cancellation process
- Ensure you have downloaded your backup before the decommissioning date
- Your billing will stop at the end of your current billing cycle
Last edited by @darkpixlz 2026-04-01T23:10:53Z
Last checked by @MarkDoerr 2026-04-01T15:18:23Z
Check document
Perform check on document: