Open Source MyBB AlternativesForum Software and other similar apps like MyBB

The best open source alternative to MyBB is Discourse. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Discourse or Flarum. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to MyBB and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to MyBB are NodeBB, Vanilla Forum, Simple Machines Forum and bbPress.

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Alternatives list

  1. Discourse icon
     158 likes

    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

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Ruby
    • JavaScript
    • Cloudron
    • Docker
     
  2. Flarum icon
     82 likes

    Flarum 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.

    53 Flarum alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Apache HTTP Server
    • PHP
     
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    1
    Flarum vs MyBB Comments
    Guest
    Negative
    -1

    Still early development, limited features by comparison and forum structure/layout are quite different from traditional. Good features by default, but not the same methodologies for those comfortable with traditional discussion boards.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • Flarum is Free and Open SourceMyBB is also Free and Open Source
  3. phpBB icon
     90 likes

    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
     
  4. NodeBB icon
     20 likes

    A community forum allows you to engage and retain customers, keeping them interested and up-to-date with your latest product or service.

    45 NodeBB alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Sandstorm
    • MongoDB
    • Redis
    • Cloudron
    • Node.JS
     
  5. Vanilla Forum icon
     22 likes

    Vanilla provides a standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able and pluggablecommunity forum software that powers discussion forums on 800,000 sites.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
  6. bbPress icon
     21 likes

    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
     
  7. FUDforum icon
     3 likes

    FUDforum (Fast Uncompromising Discussion Forum) is a free and open source web discussion forum. FUDforum combines an extensive feature set while maintaining the ability to generate forum web pages extremely fast.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  8. ElkArte icon
     2 likes

    ElkArte is a modern, powerful community building forum software. It is completely free to use and is licensed with an open source BSD-3 clause license.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  9. Forem icon
     3 likes

    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

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
  10. FluxBB icon
     24 likes

    FluxBB is a fast, light, user-friendly forum application for your website. FluxBB was designed as a lighter, faster alternative to some of the traditional feature heavy forum applications. It is easy to use and has a proven track record of stability and security making it an...

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
     
  11. Thredded icon
     3 likes

    Feature-rich and lightning fast forums. Works standalone or as a Rails engine. Markdown by default, with plugins for code highlighting, KaTeX math, and BBCode. No JavaScript required. Easy deployment on Heroku or with Ansible.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
12 of 29 MyBB alternatives