Vanilla Forums Alternatives

Vanilla Forums is described as 'The top-rated cloud-based community forum software with our easy to use and quick to get started platform. Featuring a sleek user experience, deep integration to your existing tools, flexible customization to fit your branding' and is an website in the social & communications category. There are more than 10 alternatives to Vanilla Forums, not only websites but also apps for a variety of platforms, including SaaS, Self-Hosted, Docker and Cloudron apps. The best Vanilla Forums alternative is Discourse. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Discourse or Apache Answer. Other great sites and apps similar to Vanilla Forums are Instaforum, Open Social, Thredded and Telligent, Verint Community.

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Vanilla Forums alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. Discourse icon
     155 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.

    70 Discourse alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Ruby
    • JavaScript
    • Cloudron
    • Docker
     
    • Discourse is the most popular Web-based & Self-Hosted alternative to Vanilla Forums.

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

    • Discourse is Free Personal and Open SourceVanilla Forums is Paid and Open Source
  2. Apache Answer icon
     2 likes
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    Q&A platform software for teams at any scale. Whether it's a community forum, help center, or knowledge management platform, you can always count on Apache Answer.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Docker
    • Cloudron
     
  3. Storyden icon
     4 likes
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    With a fresh new take on traditional bulletin board forum software, Storyden is a modern, secure and extensible platform for building communities.

    21 Storyden alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Docker
     
  4. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    With Instaforum, you can build a forum website that's as simple and usable as a modern messaging app. It can be public or private, and users don't have to install anything. It's easy to set up, runs on your domain with your branding, and you control your data.

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
    • Instaforum is the most popular SaaS alternative to Vanilla Forums.

    • Instaforum is the most popular commercial alternative to Vanilla Forums.

    • Instaforum is Paid and ProprietaryVanilla Forums is Paid and Open Source
    • Instaforum is Privacy focused and LightweightVanilla Forums is not according to our users
  5. Open Social icon
     5 likes
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    Open Social is a purpose-built community engagement platform. Developed on top of a powerful open-source Drupal technology framework, Open Social allows organizations to create a central online hub for their members.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
  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

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  7. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    A flexible, online community and forums platform that can help transform customer and employee engagement, support, and web self-service.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
  8. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Tribe is a white-label platform, empowering the new generation of online communities. It boosts users engagement and growth through widgets and integrations to existing stacks.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  9. Convolio icon
     1 like
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    Convolio is a hosted forum solution that makes it easy to add conversations to your site. Convolio is quick, inexpensive, and super simple to run (no IT department required). Loaded with goodies like moderation tools, premium memberships, custom domain, SSO, theming, and...

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
  10. Beam.gg icon
     1 like
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    Most community platforms out there suggest that the main problem for brands is setting up community tools. But really, the struggle is keeping members engaged and coming back to a space they love being a part of.

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
  11. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    The Public Community lets you build your own social network, and leverage the power of a community to grow your brand. It helps brands build real, lasting relationships with their audience and turn their engagement into revenue.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
  12. Playgroup icon
     1 like
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    A modern and affordable forum solution for communities. Well connected through integrations with Slack, Zapier and more.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
12 of 17 Vanilla Forums alternatives