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Open Source phpBB Alternatives

The best open source alternative to phpBB is Flarum. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to phpBB and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to phpBB are Discourse, Simple Machines Forum, MyBB and FluxBB.

This page was last updated Jun 19, 2022
phpBB
  80
  • Free • Open Source
  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Self-Hosted
  • PHP

Since its creation in 2000, phpBB™ has become the most widely used Open Source forum solution. Like its predecessors,...

Learn more about phpBB

  1. Flarum

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
    • Apache HTTP Server

    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.

    Flarum vs phpBB opinions
    Almost everyone thinks Flarum is a great alternative to phpBB.
    ab1

    Better is some ways after some configuration!

    Positive comment • 17 days ago
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    0

    Better looking, Faster, And simpler.

    Positive comment • almost 5 years ago
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    1
    raoufkakashi

    it's still in beta , but promising fast discourse like somehow forum

    Positive comment • about 2 years ago
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    0

  2. 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.

    Discourse vs phpBB opinions
    Some users think Discourse is a great alternative to phpBB, some don't.
    MikeSnap

    It's more of a online messenger then a forum cms.

    Negative comment • about 5 years ago
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    3
    Taurolyon

    More of a comment system than categorized forum.

    Negative comment • over 4 years ago
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    2

  4. Simple Machines Forum

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted

    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.

    Simple Machines Forum vs phpBB opinions
    pros, cons and recent comments
    chipthrasher

    It is very similar to the way phpBB works. However, it is less supported and harder to install.

    Positive comment • over 5 years ago
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    0

  5. MyBB

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted

    MyBB is the free and open source, intuitive, extensible, and incredibly powerful forum software you've been looking for.

    Almost everyone thinks MyBB is a great alternative to phpBB.

  6. FluxBB

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online

    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.

    Discontinued

    since 2018 no commit

    No screenshots yet

  8. Flatboard

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Self-Hosted

    A Simple, Lightweight, Modern and fast Flat-File Forum, using Json and Markdown or BBcode.

  9. NodeBB

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    • Freemium • Open Source
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Sandstorm.io
    • MongoDB
    • Redis
    • Cloudron
    • Node.JS

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

    • Vanilla

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      • Free Personal • Open Source
      • Online
      • Self-Hosted

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

    • ZeroTalk

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      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Online
      • Self-Hosted
      • Python
      • JSON
      • JavaScript
      • ZeroNet

      Forum(s) built with JavaScript ( with CoffeeScript ) and alternativeto.net/software/json for the database distributed by the network .

    • bbPress

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      • Free • Open Source
      • Online

        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.

      Showing 10 of 33 alternatives