Best Forum Software For Your Growing Community
Forums? Aren’t those long dead? Well, no, actually. In fact, they’ve been silently making a comeback. They are still a great way of organizing your small (or not so small) community. So, what is the best forum software?
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Best forum software
phpBB
phpBB is legendary. It has been powering our message boards since 2000, and it’s still easy to manage and set up. It supports plugins (extensions), most of which are free. There are templates, a built-in editor, and customization options for users. But, as we said, phpBB is old, and that means it does look a bit dated. For some, it’s even a plus. For the others, it’s a deal breaker.
WordPress
If your site can run on WordPress, why can’t your forum, too? Pretty much everything can run on it, from blogs to eCommerce behemoths. It has many plugins, some of which allow you to set up a forum. Plugins like wpForo Forum, ForumEngine, Simple:Press, and bbPress. There are lots of others. The only issue is that because WP is not a forum platform, it takes some tech savviness to set up.
Vanilla Forums
Vanilla Forums is a popular modern solution. Unlike phpBB, it’s pretty new but already with tons of features. Even a free tier is quite good, although big companies will need to pay for the enterprise version. Its main feature is the overall design: forums tend to look stunning, and there are various add-ons to customize them to your liking.
FluxBB
If you want it simple, FluxBB is your answer. There are no endless plugins or features, but the core is solid. Most of the time, it’s more than enough. It just works, with little to no tinkering.
XenForo
XenForo has been popular for a while, and for a good reason: it’s a great forum engine that handles big communities with no problems. Plugins? Sure! Performance? Good, no matter how many registered members you have. We like phpBB, but it looks pretty obsolete compared to the monster that is XenForo.