What is the best free forum software?

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 23rd, 2025, 8:17 pm

Why is that the case? Have you used it as an admin and/or member? Do you use it now?

Post by **Gizmo** » October 23rd, 2025, 11:11 pm

I love phpBB. I'm glad it's easier to install extensions than having to go through hours of code like the old days.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 24th, 2025, 9:52 am

I like about all the popular free forum software and the less popular I haven't tried.

However, though, just cause I like it don't mean there aren't problems with some of them. It has caused me to pick some over others.

Ashley · Post by **Ashley** » Yesterday, 9:12 am

I used to love phpbb. Every forum I ever had, except maybe 1 or 2, was using it. I've fallen in love with SMF though because it's easy to use and understand from an administrator point of view to the point where I don't need as much help with the backend of things

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Yesterday, 10:11 am

Ashley wrote: ↑Yesterday, 9:12 am I used to love phpbb. Every forum I ever had, except maybe 1 or 2, was using it. I've fallen in love with SMF though because it's easy to use and understand from an administrator point of view to the point where I don't need as much help with the backend of things

I use only phpBB at the moment for two forums. I have paid themes for both, like this one does (different company, though).

And phpBB is good but updating the software and getting an avatar to resize is not one-click.

Ravenfreak · Post by **Ravenfreak** » Yesterday, 1:18 pm

I really like SMF! Discourse is nice too, but it can be tricky to install if you're not familiar with Linux. You have to install it on a VPS, it won't work on shared hosting. If you want to try something similar to Discourse, Flarum exists and can be installed on shared hosting.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Yesterday, 7:01 pm

Ravenfreak wrote: ↑Yesterday, 1:18 pm I really like SMF! Discourse is nice too, but it can be tricky to install if you're not familiar with Linux. You have to install it on a VPS, it won't work on shared hosting. If you want to try something similar to Discourse, Flarum exists and can be installed on shared hosting.

I've seen Flarum before, but not sure about Discourse. It looks as functional as the big popular ones: SMF, MyBB, phpBB.

But I think I hadn't heard of Flarum or Discourse sooner because they're not available on cPanel's Softalicous that I know of.