Simple Machines Forum Alternatives

Simple Machines Forum is described as '— SMF in short — is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes' and is a Forum Software in the social & communications category. There are more than 25 alternatives to Simple Machines Forum for a variety of platforms, including Self-Hosted, Web-based, Linux, Windows and Mac apps. The best Simple Machines Forum alternative is Discourse. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Discourse or Flarum. Other great apps like Simple Machines Forum are XenForo, Vanilla Forum, MyBB and NodeBB.

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Alternatives list

  1. FluxBB icon
     24 likes
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    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...

    45 FluxBB alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
     
  2. 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

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
  3. ElkArte icon
     2 likes
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    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
     
  4. AsmBB icon
     4 likes
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    AsmBB is high performance web forum software, written entirely in assembly language. It is very lightweight, but provides decent set of features and ultimate performance.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  5. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Spirit is a modern Python based forum built on top of Django framework.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  6. Thredded icon
     3 likes
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    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
     
  7. YaBB icon
     3 likes
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    YaBB is a free Perl forum (bulletin board) system that has rivaled professional message boards for years. YaBB provides chat for visitors where they can post any time and reply to anyone!.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Perl
     
  8. PlushForums icon
     3 likes
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    Plush is the most polished, user-friendly forum experience ever, featuring real-time discussions, beautiful design, an integrated blog, member directory, private messaging, paid subscriptions and a world-class mobile experience.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  9. ForumWP icon
     2 likes
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    ForumWP is the best forum plugin for WordPress. Use ForumWP to add a forum to your website and create an online community.

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  10. PunBB icon
     6 likes
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    PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU General Public License.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
     
  11. ForumFree icon
     1 like
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    ForumFree allows you to create a forum or a blog in a few simple steps. You have a completely free site that also allows you to earn money with advertising. You can use one of the themes already created by our users, or you can customize your own.

    55 ForumFree alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  12. Phorum icon
     4 likes
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    Phorum is open source forum software with a penchant for speed. Phorum's very flexible hook and module system can satisfy every web master's needs.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
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