Flarum AlternativesForum Software and other similar apps like Flarum

Flarum is described as 'Is free, open-source forum software with a focus on simplicity. You can use Flarum to easily set up a discussion forum for your website. Flarum is developed openly on GitHub' and is a popular Forum Software in the social & communications category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Flarum for a variety of platforms, including Self-Hosted, Web-based, Linux, Windows and Mac apps. The best Flarum alternative is Discourse. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Discourse or phpBB. Other great apps like Flarum are Vanilla Forum, NodeBB, Simple Machines Forum and Invision Community.

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Alternatives list

  1. Discourse icon
     156 likes
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    Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. A modern forum, everything's been redesigned to be easy.

    69 Discourse alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Ruby
    • JavaScript
    • Cloudron
    • Docker
     
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    Comments about Discourse as an Alternative to Flarum
    erlend_sh
    Positive
    0

    The two apps are very similar, but Discourse is more mature and has a richer feature-set thanks to more active, sustainable development.

    Flarum Icon
    Discourse icon
    • Most users think Discourse is a great Flarum alternative.

    • Discourse is the most popular Web-based & Self-Hosted alternative to Flarum.

    • Discourse is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Flarum.

    • Discourse is Free Personal and Open SourceFlarum is Free and Open Source
  2. phpBB icon
     90 likes
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    Since its creation in 2000, phpBB™ has become the most widely used Open Source forum solution. Like its predecessors, phpBB™ 3.2 “Rhea” has an easy to use administration panel and a user friendly installation process, which allows you to have a forum set up in minutes.

    53 phpBB alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
     
    • phpBB is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to Flarum.

    • phpBB is Free and Open SourceFlarum is also Free and Open Source
  3. XenForo icon
     21 likes
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    A compelling community experience. Intuitive. Social. Engaging. Fast. XenForo brings a fresh outlook to forum software.

    44 XenForo alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • MySQL Community Edition
    • Self-Hosted
    • MariaDB
    • PHP
     
    • XenForo is the most popular commercial alternative to Flarum.

    • XenForo is Paid and ProprietaryFlarum is Free and Open Source
  4. Vanilla Forum icon
     22 likes
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    Vanilla provides a standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able and pluggablecommunity forum software that powers discussion forums on 800,000 sites.

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
  5. NodeBB icon
     19 likes
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    A community forum allows you to engage and retain customers, keeping them interested and up-to-date with your latest product or service.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Sandstorm
    • MongoDB
    • Redis
    • Cloudron
    • Node.JS
     
  6. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Simple Machines Forum — SMF in short — is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
     
  7. MyBB icon
     35 likes
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    MyBB is the free and open source, intuitive, extensible, and incredibly powerful forum software you've been looking for.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
  8. bbPress icon
     21 likes
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    bbPress is forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress. Its focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed. bbPress will try to keep things as small and light as possible while still allowing great add-on feature possibilities.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  9. vBulletin icon
     20 likes
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    vBulletin (abbreviated as vB) is a commercial Internet forum software written in PHP using a MySQL database server.

    45 vBulletin alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • PHP
     
    • vBulletin is the most popular Android & iPhone alternative to Flarum.

    • vBulletin is Paid and ProprietaryFlarum is Free and Open Source
  10. WoltLab Suite icon
     9 likes
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    WoltLab Suite (formerly Burning Board) is an enterprise grade CMS built for communities and forums.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • MySQL Community Edition
    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
     
  11. Forem icon
     3 likes
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    Forem is open source software for building modern and independent communities for your developers, peers, customers, users. Forem is already powering communities that serve over 10 million monthly unique visitors.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
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