Best forum software on Reddit
53 reviews from r/webdev, r/Wordpress, r/PHP and 6 more subreddits
53 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
XenForo
4.8
(6)
"I can highly recommend XenForo."
"I use XenForo for my community and I am very happy about it."
"Xenforo is pretty much the leader in forum software these days."
"It's what everyone is using and in my experience as an end user, it’s pretty fast. The huge community means lots of plugins/extensions and developers familiar with the software."
"XenForo allows user groups to view threads without seeing their content, enhancing privacy."
"Xenforo is overall the superior platform."
#2
WordPress
4.3
(6)
"I'd recommend bbPress and BuddyPress. They are maintained by the WordPress core community, so you can't get more integrated."
"I'd recommend bbPress and BuddyPress. They are maintained by the WordPress core community, so you can't get more integrated."
"Everything there can be done with WordPress, primarily BuddyPress and some Members-based plugin solution."
"Take a look at the plugins that extend commenting in WordPress: wpDiscusz, etc, to make it more like a thread-based forums solution."
"WordPress with bbPress or wpForo"
"Any basic CMS or forum could do what you want."
#3
phpBB
4.0
(5)
"PhpBB"
"There are plugins to connect it with WordPress."
"It's one of the most popular out there with interesting extensions."
"Phpbb has always been my favorite"
"Think PHPBB is quite good, lot of users, large community and lots of addons etc."
#4
bbPress
4.3
(4)
"BBPress with bbp style pack and BuddyPress is an excellent combination for enhancing community engagement."
"BbPress is a good solution for powering WordPress support forums."
"BbPress is the more popular. It's light, pretty easy, and full free if you search a basic forum."
"What about bbPress?"
#5
Flarum
4.7
(3)
"Good modern design, free and open source!"
"It's like Discourse, but more elegant and smaller."
"Flarum is another alternative. It’s a bit of a different take on a forum, but still a forum at heart."
#6
Vanilla
4.7
(3)
"Vanilla is a great option for creating roles and permissions in forums."
"Hands down the best free open source forum."
"I quite liked vanilla last time I was looking into this."
#7
Discourse
4.0
(3)
"Probably the most obvious one is discourse."
"Its free, open source and has a pretty good community and support."
"How about Discourse?"
#8
SMF
3.7
(3)
"SMF is still going strong after nearly 20 years and is evolving with the development of 3.0."
"SMF is also a good option."
"SMF is based on code from the 90s and is considered ancient."
#9
esoTalk
4.0
(2)
"EsoTalk is great."
"It looks very nice though I'm not sure how great the support is anymore."
#10
Discord
4.0
(2)
"I’d suggest seeing if any of your Scouts know how to run a Discord server. Many teens already use these servers for gaming."
"Discord"
#11
IPS
4.0
(2)
"IPS is currently better managed overall, offering a larger package out of the gate."
"IPS, Flarum, Discourse"
#12
Slack
3.5
(2)
"Why not something like Slack (or Mattermost if you want self-hosted)?"
"We use Slack. It has its pros and cons. Many adults use it, but most kids do not like it."
#13
Element
4.0
(1)
"Try riot.im, its built on matrix.org tech... You can have it hosted or host your own."
#14
TeamSnap
4.0
(1)
"A recreational bike team my kids belong to uses TeamSnap."
#15
Troopwebhost
4.0
(1)
"Troopwebhost can do this."
#16
nodeBB
4.0
(1)
"NodeBB"
#17
Thredded
4.0
(1)
"I've been maintaining and writing this rails engine for a few years now called thredded."
#18
Whoaverse
4.0
(1)
"Whoaverse is a promising open-source alternative to Reddit, easy to test with Visual Studio."
#19
Invision Community
4.0
(1)
"There are other options too like Invision Community, but XenForo is the best choice."
#20
BuddyPress
4.0
(1)
"If you want something with more social features, BuddyPress is better."
#21
Band
3.0
(1)
"I've seen other posts where units are using 'Band' - which is free."
#22
Forem
3.0
(1)
"I've used forem before and it was ok, but that was 3 years ago."
#23
Elkarte
3.0
(1)
"Elkarte is more modern than SMF but still an ancient platform."
#24
BuddyBoss
2.0
(1)
"There are more popular forks of BuddyPress as well that cost money, like BuddyBoss."
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