What are the best Vanilla alternatives?

Vanilla is described as 'provides a standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able and pluggablecommunity forum software that powers discussion forums on 800,000 sites' and is an app in the social & communications category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Vanilla for a variety of platforms, including Self-Hosted solutions, Online / Web-based, Linux, Mac and Windows. The best alternative is Discourse. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Flarum or Simple Machines Forum. Other great apps like Vanilla are MyBB, NodeBB, Get Satisfaction and Open Social.

Vanilla alternatives are mainly Social Networks but may also be Customer Feedback Managers or Blog Publishing Tools. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Vanilla.

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Vanilla

Free Personal • Open Source

Online
Self-Hosted

Vanilla provides a standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able and pluggablecommunity forum software that powers...

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Discourse
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free Personal • Open Source
Online
Self-Hosted
Ruby
JavaScript
Cloudron
Docker
65 alternatives to Discourse
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.
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Discourse Features
Email list
Interactive tutorials
Infinite scroll
Trust Level system
Patreon Integration
Slack integration
Mobile friendly
REST API
Live Push Notifications
Integrated Spam Protection
Discourse vs Vanilla opinions
pros, cons and recent comments
Guest
Provides a similar modern look to Vanilla that is missing in other legacy forums. But a warning, it runs on Ruby on Rails instead of PHP.
Positive comment•
1
Flarum
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Self-Hosted
PHP
Apache HTTP Server
49 alternatives to Flarum
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.
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Flarum Features
1. LightweightFlarum consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
2. Extensible by Plugins/ExtensionsFlarum can be extended with add-ons, plugins and extensions.
3. Support for ThemesYou can use themes and templates to change the look and feel of Flarum.
Visual design
Web Forms
Simple Machines Forum
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Self-Hosted
46 alternatives to Simple Machines Forum
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.
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Simple Machines Forum Features
User friendly
Portal
MyBB
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Online
Self-Hosted
47 alternatives to MyBB
MyBB is the free and open source, intuitive, extensible, and incredibly powerful forum software you've been looking for.
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MyBB Features
Integrated Spam Protection
NodeBB
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Freemium • Open Source
Online
Self-Hosted
Sandstorm.io
MongoDB
Redis
Cloudron
Node.JS
45 alternatives to NodeBB
A community forum allows you to engage and retain customers, keeping them interested and up-to-date with your latest product or service.

NodeBB has no features, suggest some!
Get Satisfaction
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Paid • Proprietary
Customer Feedback Manager
Online
169 alternatives to Get Satisfaction
Get Satisfaction is a community platform that helps companies create engaging customer experiences by fostering online conversations about their products and services at every stage of the lifecycle.

Get Satisfaction has no features, suggest some!
Open Social
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Social Network
Online
Self-Hosted
Software as a Service (SaaS)
50 alternatives to Open Social
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.
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Open Social Features
1. Privacy focusedOpen Social is considered a privacy friendly alternative.
Flatboard
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Self-Hosted
11 alternatives to Flatboard
A Simple, Lightweight, Modern and fast Flat-File Forum, using Json and Markdown or BBcode.
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Flatboard Features
1. LightweightFlatboard consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
Flat File CMS
Invision Community
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Paid • Proprietary
Online
Self-Hosted
44 alternatives to Invision Community
Invision Community (previously known as IPB, IPS, Invision Power Suite, IP.Board or IP Board) is an Internet forum software produced by Invision Power Services, Inc. It is written in PHP and primarily uses MySQL as a database management system, although support for other...
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Invision Community Features
1. Support for ThemesYou can use themes and templates to change the look and feel of Invision Community.
Flat File CMS
Portal
Cloud based
FluxBB
Do you think this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Online
44 alternatives to FluxBB
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...
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FluxBB Features
Website integration
Discontinued
since 2018 no commit
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