What forum software are we running one word


Questionable Questing


  1. Hindmost

    Hindmost
    Your first time is always over so quickly, isn’t it?

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    I had a problem at the very begining. To register on this site you have to submit some data and answer this question
    «What forum software are we running? (one word)»
    How could anyone guess that in this question the answer is a nickname of a site designer? How could anyone guess what does this question even means? It should be «Whose forum software are we running?» or «Who is the creator of the forum software thar we are running?»
    And the nickname contains two words just without space between them.


  2. alethiophile

    alethiophile
    Shadowed Philosopher
    Administrator

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    «Xenforo» is the name of the software, as you can see at the bottom of our pages.


  3. UrsaTempest

    UrsaTempest
    Yuri Fanatic, Archivist

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    Are you sure you are a human? :V

  4. Must be. AIs don’t generally waste time complaining about things once they’re no longer relevant to the AI. :V


Since the community I help out decided to NOT use the plugin I created for them, I will release it public. Screw you guys, wasting my time.

Now, what is the plugin? It connects to a popular forum (vBulletin) and grabs a specific group_id, and marks them as «vip» in the server. From there, I have written a small API for the «VipMod» that allows you to check Post Count, from there, hopefully you are smart enough to add support for things like if you have 40 posts, let’s allow you to wear hats or something…

Now, my question is, what forum software do most people use? I will be adding a few types of forums such as SMF, PHPBB, vB, IB, but I’m to lazy to do all of these right now…

Also, what type of data would you like from the db?

Edit #1:
For those of you who noticed, I did say I was going to release this a while ago, but then people said «o no! please don’t we will use it!» I’m tired of waiting I like to see my work in action it makes me feel like I didn’t waste my time.

Edit #2:
At this rate it looks like vB and PHPBB (latest only) will be supported in the first release.


Last edited by Styles; 11-12-2009 at 21:32.

  • #1

I recognize the look, but can’t recall the name of this forum software.

I would be interested in a review of the forum software this forum uses if the mods have the time. What do you like about it? What do you not like?

A specific question would be:

If you wanted to, could you set up this forum so that all posts could be reviewed by mods BEFORE those posts are published?

I’m not suggesting you do this here, so there’s no need to argue against it. I just wondered if that feature was available in this software.

Thanks much!

  • #2

I recognize the look, but can’t recall the name of this forum software.

MacRumors is running a customized (and older) version of vBulletin

If you wanted to, could you set up this forum so that all posts could be reviewed by mods BEFORE those posts are published?

Its possible but its not feasible in the slightest degree. The volume of posts that occur daily is so high that its impossible for the small staff of moderators to look at each and every post. The majority of posts are fine and there’s really no reason that moderators have to look at each and every one.

The current mechanism of reporting posts works well enough.

  • #3

vBul
Should be at the bottom of the desktop view.

Though the mobile version is very custom, and they knocked it out of the park. Fantastic

  • #4

MacRumors is running a customized (and older) version of vBulletin

Ah, right! Just couldn’t bring the name to mind. Thank you.

Ok, how does that work exactly? Would the mods see a que of pending posts, and then have to click Approve for each post they wanted to publish? Or?

Would the software allow all incoming pending posts to be emailed to a mod for approval? Or would the mod be required to login in to the forum admin interface?

but its not feasible in the slightest degree. The volume of posts that occur daily is so high that its impossible for the small staff of moderators to look at each and every post. The majority of posts are fine and there’s really no reason that moderators have to look at each and every one.

Yes, I specifically mentioned I am not attempting to suggest such a policy for this forum.

  • #5

Ok, how does that work exactly? Would the mods see a que of pending posts, and then have to click Approve for each post they wanted to publish? Or?

Yes basically how that functionality would work. The moderators would have to look and approve each post, otherwise they’d remain hidden to the members.

This would of course lead to confusion and double/triple posts as members particularly new members who be confused why their posts are not showing up and re-add them, increasing the volume of posts that would have to be approved or disapproved.

  • #6

More questions…

Does MacRumors rent this service from vBulletin? Or did you purchase the software and host it on your own server?

The reason I’m asking is that I’m wondering how available vBulletin experts might be to vBulletin forum owners. If a non-technical person had a vBulletin forum, and then suffered an attack or other technical issue, what support services might be available to them?

Thanks again.

  • #7

More questions…

Does MacRumors rent this service from vBulletin? Or did you purchase the software and host it on your own server?

The reason I’m asking is that I’m wondering how available vBulletin experts might be to vBulletin forum owners. If a non-technical person had a vBulletin forum, and then suffered an attack or other technical issue, what support services might be available to them?

Thanks again.

Those types of questions may be better suited via the contact us link. I don’t want to speak out of turn, as some of those questions may be considered a bit sensitive. I’m not authorized to detail what MacRumors may or may not have in terms of services, hosting and architecture

  • #8

Yes basically how that functionality would work. The moderators would have to look and approve each post, otherwise they’d remain hidden to the members.

Thank you, that’s clear enough.

Can the incoming pending posts be organized by room? As example, if you had a mod whose job it was to manage the iPod room, could they see a display which showed only the pending posts for that room?

This would of course lead to confusion and double/triple posts as members particularly new members who be confused why their posts are not showing up and re-add them, increasing the volume of posts that would have to be approved or disapproved.

You would not believe how many times I’ve had this debate, and I am hoping I have become wise enough not to have it yet again. I’m only going there if you absolutely insist :) in which case I will do so only as thanks to you for answering my technical questions. :)

It is not the intention of this thread to suggest, imply or hint at any policy change for MacRumors. I’m just trying to learn about the software, that’s all. Truly.

———-

Those types of questions may be better suited via the contact us link. I don’t want to speak out of turn, as some of those questions may be considered a bit sensitive. I’m not authorized to detail what MacRumors may or may not have in terms of services, hosting and architecture

Ok, fair enough. My bad for asking such a question.

I’m not actually interested in details of the MacRumors situation, but the Vbulletin situation.

Speaking generally, are you are of Vbulletin experts a forum owner could hire to respond to technical issues beyond their own ability?

In your understanding, could pretty much anybody start a Vbulletin forum, and then rely on others (for a fee presumably) to fix anything that may become broken?

  • #9

I used to own a fairly large forum, 50,000+ registered members and 3+ million posts. It’s fairly easy to start a forum, as it grows you’ll want to add moderators to help. Most technical issues can be resolved by asking for help on forums.

If you’re interested in possibly starting a forum you might want to check out http://theadminzone.com, it’s basically a forum for people who run forums.

I will tell you the chances of your forum getting off the ground are next to nothing. There are already established forums for just about everything. And to make it even more difficult people, in general, are spending a lot less times on forums (some of that can be attributed to other forms of social media — Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc).

  • #10

I’m not actually interested in details of the MacRumors situation, but the Vbulletin situation.

Speaking generally, are you are of Vbulletin experts a forum owner could hire to respond to technical issues beyond their own ability?

In your understanding, could pretty much anybody start a Vbulletin forum, and then rely on others (for a fee presumably) to fix anything that may become broken?

Sounds like you should contact Vbulletin themselves. They’d be able to give better and more official answers to your specific questions.

You can also download a trial of VB here. May be worth playing around with it some.

But to answer your last question (since I have helped people setup VB in the past) — yes there are freelancers who are well versed in how it functions — and (for a fee, of course) can assist you with just about anything (customization, patches, etc). VB themselves also offer pretty good support for basic inquiries («I’m getting error 102 what could it be» type of questions)

As kilcher also mentioned, there’s numerous forums out there dedicated to forum admins.

  • #11

I used to own a fairly large forum, 50,000+ registered members and 3+ million posts.

Cool, well done. Were you able to monetize that traffic to an extent that made it worth your while?

It’s fairly easy to start a forum, as it grows you’ll want to add moderators to help. Most technical issues can be resolved by asking for help on forums.

Yes, I understand (I’m a forum software developer myself). I was curious if the job could just be delegated to an expert. You know, if a forum is down, it’s not the best time to go searching for experts.

If you’re interested in possibly starting a forum you might want to check out http://theadminzone.com, it’s basically a forum for people who run forums.

Yes, thanks. Good suggestion. I’ve spent a lot of time there in the past, and agree it’s a good resource.

I will tell you the chances of your forum getting off the ground are next to nothing. There are already established forums for just about everything. And to make it even more difficult people, in general, are spending a lot less times on forums (some of that can be attributed to other forms of social media — Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc).

More good advice, agree with all, thanks. I’m more curious than serious about my own forum, and if I did, I would be going for quality not quantity, so I wouldn’t be too worried about size.

———-

But to answer your last question (since I have helped people setup VB in the past) — yes there are freelancers who are well versed in how it functions — and (for a fee, of course) can assist you with just about anything (customization, patches, etc). .

Can you suggest an efficient way of finding such folks? Thanks!

  • #12

Rent or run your own hosting server. Load VBulletin software; it’s self install and stuff. Very easy to do.

You can only buy perpetual licenses now.

Go the to VBulletin site. They have many many mods you can install and a lot of them are free.

  • #13

Cool, well done. Were you able to monetize that traffic to an extent that made it worth your while?

I was. I started the forum in 2000. During the good years I was making $1500 — 2000 per month, primarily using Google Adsense. Taxes and server costs came out of that. I was single at the time and even though I put a lot of time and effort into the forum it was something I enjoyed so it was like free money.

Toward the end (early in 2013) it had dropped to less than half. I was probably barely breaking even and pretty burnt out at that point so I decided to sell it. Once that happened more than half of the members left and went to a new forum created one of our old members. So it’s died down quite a bit since I had it.

Yes, I understand (I’m a forum software developer myself). I was curious if the job could just be delegated to an expert. You know, if a forum is down, it’s not the best time to go searching for experts.

It could be but finding that person may be difficult. I was lucky enough to find one of my own members who could help. You may need to post on TAZ to see if anyone would be willing to help out. I’d be kind of leary though, you’re basically handing them the keys to everything.

Installing the software and getting it up and running isn’t too difficult. But yeah, when things would crash, which thankfully wasn’t too often, I had no idea how to deal with that stuff.

  • #14

Toward the end (early in 2013) it had dropped to less than half.

You have my sympathies. I’ve had that experience too, but worse.

Thanks for reporting the income was Adsense.

Do you have any theories about why the income tanked? Google algo change? Competitors? Other? Unknown?

  • #15

You have my sympathies. I’ve had that experience too, but worse.

Thanks for reporting the income was Adsense.

Do you have any theories about why the income tanked? Google algo change? Competitors? Other? Unknown?

The first time I noticed it was after we changed forum software, I suppose it screwed up our SEO even though I don’t think it was supposed to.

The other was probably due to other forms of social media, Facebook specifically.

Unfortunately people don’t tend to tell you when and why they leave so I can really only speculate. Forums like this get bumps because there’s always something in the news, ours wasn’t really like that and over the years we’d pretty much discussed everything to death. The older people left and newer people kept asking the same old questions. I think it just got kind of stale.

Competitors were never really much of an issue. We were by far the largest forum in our genre. There were a couple others that were smaller but they were devoted to more of a niche audience within the same genre.

  • #16

The first time I noticed it was after we changed forum software, I suppose it screwed up our SEO even though I don’t think it was supposed to.

Well, if it changed all your URLs, that probably wouldn’t help your SEO, at least in the short term.

The other was probably due to other forms of social media, Facebook specifically.

Yea, gotcha. The infinite fragmentation of audiences.

So are you done with hosting forums? Any other net publishing projects of interest to you?

  • #17

Most sites are getting away from vB as the newer software sucks.

  • #18

Most sites are getting away from vB as the newer software sucks.

Thanks for this info. What are sites migrating to?

Re: What Forum Software is Running These Forums?

Wed Dec 19, 2012 5:41 am

Drupal I believe. Also take a look at WordPress.org, you could consider looking at a web host that allows you to install these as part of a hosting package rather than going for a free site from wordpress.org for example and then having to pay for each additional module.

But be prepared for a lot of work if you host a forum with regard to deleting spam, there are numerous users here deleting spam daily.

For paid hosting Squarespace is another option but there are thousands of hosting companies out there to look at, I’d forget any idea of hosting it yourself on a domestic net connection though if that was your intention.

vBulletin is probably most widely used forum software.

Compare the Top Forum Software in 2023

Forum software enables organizations to create online community forums. Forums, also known as message boards, have been an integral part of the web for decades, and have been around since before social media as we know it today. Forums are typically created around a topic or interest, and are a place where people can post questions, opinions, help threads, and more. Some forum software is designed to live publicly on the web, and allows registrations from anyone who wants to participate in the discussion. Other forum software is designed for membership organizations, or a specific industry such as healthcare. Another use case of forum software is an employee intranet, so that the forum serves as an online discussion board for employees of a specific organization, or for customers of a specific brand to receive customer support. Each forum software has its own advantages and unique features, so you’ll want to evaluate each option carefully so you can select the right forum software for your needs. Here’s a list of the best forum software:

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    Disciple

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    Gluu

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    KronoDesk

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    Answerbase

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  • 25

    ONEsite

    Custom White Label Social Networking Software. Activity Feed, Events, Groups, Commenting, Liking, Sharing, Forums, Blogs, Photos, Videos, Single Sign On and much more. Trusted by the New York Yankees, and Chelsea Soccer Club. Unmatched support, up-time (99.99%) and professional services. Add categories, sub-forums and threads. Includes social sharing features, rating and ability to discuss content. Network actions earn users points. Network created catalog allows users to spend points or achieve ranks. Modern chat experience blended with integrated forums, comments plus archiving. Integrated as a widget or page. Create custom widgetized polls with multiple voting and results options. Member can send messages to other users on site, manage actions, friendship requests and broadcasts. Provide an outlet to allow users and the network to ask and answer questions.

    Starting Price:
    $500 per month

  • 26

    Twine

    Helping fast growing companies bring their workplaces together. Twine is comms tool for the modern workplace.
    Bringing your people, content and ideas together in one place with apps such as a Knowledge, News & Broadcast, Wellbeing, People Directory, Team boards, Connected Search and more.
    These play nicely with your existing systems too: sign-on using Okta and Active Directory, pull in files from Dropbox, Google and Box, and much more. It’s all built on a modular basis, so you can pick and choose the features you need and start building your ideal digital workplace.
    Check out the promo video here: https://www.twineapp.com/feature-video

    Starting Price:
    $6.00/month/user

  • 27

    NodeBB

    NodeBB is modern forum software. It is highly customizable, and combines all the advantages of today’s mobile and social web with the deep community engagement of classic Internet bulletin boards. Built on the high-performance Node.js platform, NodeBB can scale to power the largest and most active brand communities.

    Starting Price:
    $250.00/month

  • 28

    Salesforce Experience Cloud

    Deliver customer-first digital experiences — from anywhere — on the world’s #1 CRM. Build connected websites, portals, and applications. Fast. Engage any audience fast with interactive sites, apps, and portals — all tailored to your industry and powered by the world’s #1 CRM. With all your data in one place, you can deliver personalized content fast. Make it easy for customers to access their data and take action. Launch and adapt experiences quickly using clicks or code. Scale with a broad ecosystem of easy-to-use tools, powerful AI, and world-class apps. Go to market fast with personalized digital experiences that are streamlined across channels. Salesforce’s digital experience platform (DXP) is built on the Customer 360. Experience Cloud helps you deliver connected digital experiences — fast. Reinvent the customer experience, engage more customers, and accelerate growth across any industry with data-driven sites, portals, and mobile applications.

    Starting Price:
    $250 per month

  • 29

    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. Open Social allows easy communication, group formation, content collaboration, event creation, social interaction and seamless sharing of ideas, experiences, expertise and more.
    A community is much more than just a group of people in the same place or space. A community is made up of members who connect and come together around a shared identity, interest, passion, project or purpose.
    Open Social specializes in creating highly engaging online community platforms.
    We tailor every platform to the unique needs of each organization, making sure we help you serve your member needs and reach your shared goals.
    Those needs and goals are different for each organization. It all depends on what type of community you are!

    Starting Price:
    $0 per month

  • 30

    Mobilize

    Communities are a process, not a product.
    With Mobilize, you have not only the right technology – but the right experts and methodology – driving the key outcomes that are most important to your org.
    The Mobilize method creates a value chain – action steps and strategies that each produce an incremental driver of value – in support of your desired end goals.

  • 31

    Zapnito

    Zapnito is the only all-in-one online community platform built to power Community-Led Growth.
    Since 2013, Zapnito has helped global brands to take their community experience to the next level by replacing multiple legacy engagement tools with one fully customized Zapnito platform. Centralizing where customers learn, share and connect has been proven to create more impactful engagement, loyalty and advocacy.
    With open/private rooms, discussions, premium content publishing, content, events, courses, video panels, analytics, notifications and much more — you can build a one-of-a-kind customer community experience.
    In addition to providing a leading online community platform, Zapnito also offers expert strategic support and the Zapnito Community brings together 500+ community leaders to learn, share and connect.

  • 32

    Muut

    The complete discussion system for your site. Muut powers lively discussions for millions of sites, making users happier and more likely to return. The fastest and simplest forums out there. For blogs, galleries, news… Make anything commentable. Private discussions anywhere on the site.

    Starting Price:
    $16 per month

  • 33

    PlushForums

    With the most polished, user-friendly forum software ever. The easy way to build a great community. A perfectly integrated blog, private messaging, member directory, custom profiles, events, paid subscriptions and a polished set of forum features. All with absolutely no technical knowledge required and no plugins to install. Live notifications mean they won’t miss a chance to get involved. And an intuitive feedback system promotes positive participation. Real-time discussions keep your users engaged and the conversation flowing. Every page is carefully designed to connect users with the information they need. The result is a beautiful site that feels natural to navigate, and effortless to brand. A world-class mobile experience, without yet another app to install. PlushForums looks great and loads quickly on smartphones, with no compromise on features. Easily add images, videos, tweets, polls, smart quotes, hashtags, emojis and rich text.

    Starting Price:
    $49 per month

  • 34

    UNA.io

    Take the lead — build your own community. UNA is a full-stack software platform for building custom community websites, social networks and collaboration hubs. Create a free account to try UNA in action; launch your community on UNA Cloud; access downloads for self-hosted sites and connect with fellow webmasters. From idea to thriving community — we help to design, implement, launch and maintain your unique multi-user website. Book a demo call to discuss how we can help with your project. All the tools and features you’ll ever need to realize even the most extraordinary social website idea. Use your logo, images, styles, texts and domain name. You fully control and own the site data — no strings attached. Grow big with multiple cache engines, custom storage engine, media transcoders and external storage support. Change navigation, pages, permissions, texts, forms, design and layout via UNA Studio. No coding required.

    Starting Price:
    $50 per month

  • 35

    Dokit

    The Dokit manual software empowers you to create, share and track visual step-by-step instructions, user guides and best practices that fit any screen and device.
    Dokit includes features such as Cataloging/Categorization, collaboration, Page templates, Visual editor, Drag & Drop, Media Gallery, Image annotation, Multilingual, Document importation, Approval workflow, Notifications, Forum and Comments.
    Alternative competitor software options to Dokit include Dozuki, Swipeguide, Speachme and StepShot

    Starting Price:
    60€/month

  • 36

    Honeycommb

    Connect your people. Launch a beautiful social network you own and control in no time and no code. Yes, «For real.» Used by Lady Gaga, University of Michigan, Red Wing Shoes, and hundreds more. From storage and security to the more than 20 unique services we use to run your feature-rich community, we handle every last «byte.» Native iOS, Android, and web applications, beautifully designed & built, continuously improved & maintained 24/7/365.

    Starting Price:
    $300 per month

  • 37

    CODOFORUM

    Say good bye to the old, cluttered and cumbersome forum interfaces. Our Forum software has a fresh UI which is simple, clean and impressive with a fast and secure engine underneath. Mobile ready No more separate apps or websites for mobile devices. Codoforum provides a free layout structure that is fully responsive, which can not only spread throughout large screens but also squeeze into tiny devices. Our WYSIWYG shows live preview as you type. It recognizes Markdown as well as BBCode if you are coming from another forum script. Images and other rich content can be easily embedded, files can be attached and code blocks are prettified. Our discussion software integrates with your existing website’s login system and it provides name and avatar synchronization too. Now you don’t need a separate login for your website and your forum software. It also supports the most popular social logins, reducing the time-to-post and increasing the likelihood of engaging a visitor.

  • 38

    ProBoards

    Simple, fast, easy to use, and fun these are words commonly used to describe ProBoards’ free forum hosting service. Whether you’re new to message boards or an experienced moderator, we invite you to review our features and start your new ProBoards forum today. Creating a new forum takes less than 30 seconds and immediately after that you can begin inviting your friends and colleagues to browse your new forum and start discussing topics! If you have questions or need help, our Support Forum community is the best in the business. Join the over 16 million monthly visitors on the Internet’s largest, most enjoyed free forum hosting service. We offer additional premium forum options including the ability to use your own custom domain name, remove advertising from your forum, and the ability to change your forum URL.

    Starting Price:
    $49.99 per month

  • 39

    Nabble

    All Nabble apps are naturally embeddable, which means that they can be easily displayed on any web page. All Nabble apps are built with NAML, a scripting language that gives you full control over the app pages. We can help with technical questions related to your Nabble apps, embedding, customizations, NAML language, bugs, and other issues. From now on Nabble users can switch from HTTP to HTTPS protocol. Nabble wants to improve public discussions on the web and provide useful embeddable applications to end-users. This includes forums, user groups, message boards, photo galleries, newspapers, blogs, etc. There are many vibrant discussions in these places, and so are problems such as cluttered UI, broken search, moderation, and cataloging. Nabble wants to be a place where your discussion can grow and be free of these problems. Nabble is absolutely free and will remain free to the users. This includes the end users and webmasters.

  • 40

    HospitalPORTAL

    HospitalPORTAL is a healthcare intranets and policy management solution that is suitable for all types and sizes of clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare related organizations. With HospitalPORTAL, users are able to improve internal staff communications and collaboration. HospitalPORTAL features include document management, automated reviews, approval workflows, and notifications. HospitalPORTAL features a content management system (CMS) that enables users to make simple content editing and publishing. HospitalPORTAL users are also able to connect via chat, forums, message boards, and blogs with commenting features.

  • 41

    AnswerHub

    Connecting the world’s software teams one business at a time is the mission of AnswerHub. If you are like most businesses, digital innovation is key to your success. Leaders like you must be concerned with capturing your team’s collective knowledge/expertise, increasing your team’s productivity, eliminating redundant work, and accelerating new technology adoption. Keeping your software development and technical teams productive and happy is challenging on many levels. Wouldn’t it be great if you had an enterprise class, fully configurable platform that would give your employees and your customers the information they need when they need it to be productive, engaged, and motivated?
    The AnswerHub platform is purpose-built to capture, curate, and distribute your software and technical team’s expertise, insights, and knowledge on a global basis for organizational consumption, eliminating unnecessary noise, and enabling your local and distributed teams to focus on business outcomes.

  • 42

    Memeni

    Memeni offers a full suite of engagement and growth tools to help brands and businesses grow their community. With Memeni, a powerful community and customer engagement platform, companies can launch their own mobile app and community. This allows brands to understand their target audience better, collect important customer data and analytics, and develop new opportunities for brand growth.

  • 43

    crowd-creation

    Create your own social network with Open Social — perfectly tailored to your needs: for employees of your company, for members of associations and organizations or for customer networks. Open Social offers you a platform that promotes community dialogue, enables easy knowledge sharing and facilitates collaboration. Open Social is a flexible coworking platform based on open source technology, which has been tested in more than 1,000 active installations. The participants can contact each other via private messages. Social interaction takes place through comments and reactions via the platform. Participants can manage personal information and easily personalize their community experience. Community members can create, manage and share information in a variety of ways. In groups and events, participants can work towards and achieve common goals. The community members are regularly informed about specific activities.

    Starting Price:
    $9400.00/year

  • 44

    Crowded

    With Crowded, you can gather all your content & discussions in one friendly, modern and easy to use platform. Combine over 20 different modules to create an experience your members will love. Create a place for like-minded individuals to connect, share and curate knowledge. Create an environment that connects people, and increases visibility for your brand and your community members. Build a valuable source of industry information curated by your community, organized in neat information flows. Engage your members by share inspiring ideas, thought-provoking articles and must-see events in your community. Let experts in your community write and publish blog articles to inspire your members with engaging and thought-provoking content. List all the relevant events in your community and encourage members to build strong connections offline.

    Starting Price:
    €799 per month

  • 45

    Zendesk Gather

    Zendesk Gather provides a community forum for customers to connect and collaborate. Sometimes customers just want a place to talk. And it doesn’t always have to be with you. Think about it—your customers use your products every day, and their expertise can come in handy. All you have to do is open the door so they can swap knowledge—and you can still provide support when they need it. Zendesk Gather is community forum software that makes it all happen by creating a space for customers to collaborate with your business and each other. With Gather, the trusted support your customers seek doesn’t always have to come from your team. Build a place where they can lean on each other for help. Let your customers share ideas, give feedback, and exchange their own tips and tricks. And if complex issues come up, loop in your agents, so conversations flow and remain productive.

    Starting Price:
    $9 per agent per month

  • 46

    Viafoura

    Viafoura is a digital experience company that helps brands activate their audiences through a suite of engagement and personalization solutions, maximizing conversions of unknown to known users.
    We work with brands to build direct relationships with their audiences, creating the foundation for a scalable first-party data strategy while reducing dependency on social media. In fact, our socially immersive tools — including topic and author follows, real-time conversations, an on-site community feed, personalized notifications and alerts — engage, convert and retain visitors right on customer websites.
    Viafoura’s industry-leading, AI-powered content moderation solutions are customized to support each customer’s unique community guidelines. As a result, customers can scale and streamline their audience engagement and community-building initiatives while maintaining a civil and brand-safe environment.

  • 47

    Lernit

    Revolutionize your teaching process. Train your clients | with Lernit LXP. Stay ahead of the curve by optimizing your training processes, maximizing the potential of your work team. Boost learning and increase retention in your organization, using our Lernit LXP platform, the modern LMS. Add your logo, institutional colors, competitions and integrate it with Google Drive, Zoom, Skype and many more. Focused on user experience; the platform is friendly, interactive, intuitive and is available through any device. Share ideas and stay in touch with your collaborators, through forums, social walls, chats, and other social tools.

    Starting Price:
    $54 per user per month

  • 48

    Simple Machines Forum (SMF)

    SMF is all that in one package, giving you an easy to use forum with many powerful features for you as well as your users. SMF is an open-source project made by volunteers from across the world. SMF features a powerful Package Manager, allowing you to quickly apply any of the hundreds of modifications in our database, as well as a variety of custom themes that change the way your site looks. Should you run into any problem, SMF’s experienced Support Team will come to your aid, along with our very helpful community members, ready to assist you and address whatever issue(s) you are encountering. 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. Its powerful custom made template engine puts you in full control of the layout of your message board and with our unique SSI — or Server Side Includes — function you can let your forum and your website interact with each other.

  • 49

    FluxBB

    FluxBB is fast, light, user-friendly forum software for your website. FluxBB is 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 ideal choice of forum for your website. FluxBB is a fork of PunBB, which was created by Rickard Andersson. In 2007, PunBB was sold to a commercial company. Development continued under the direction of Rickard until April 2008. At that time, Rickard announced he would be ceasing his active involvement with the project. In light of the changed circumstances the remaining members of the development team decided they needed to exert more control over the direction of the project which meant the only option was to fork the project; that is when FluxBB was born.

  • 50

    Insightrix Communities

    Create inspiring online communities with Insightrix Communities, a leading online community software for brands and organizations looking to co-create with their customers or stakeholders. Insightrix Communities offers market researchers, communicators, and engagement professionals a complete solution to their research and community consultation needs. The platform features robust online community management tools, quantitative research and qualitative research tools, and a best-in-class user experience that is second to none.

  • 51

    Higher Logic Vanilla

    Vanilla Forums allows you to create an online community that your customers or audience will love. Thousands of companies use our open source and hosted products to increase loyalty, brand advocacy and reduce customer service costs. Vanilla’s customers are made of a broad group of organizations from around the world.

  • 52

    Howtank

    Howtank is a social network that brings together brands and their users around common interests with a view to sharing and mutual aid, thus creating a new relationship experience in the brand’s territory. We offer a space that allows all at once, the meeting between the brands and their communities, the sharing of the members between them but also with the users of passage on the site of the brand via gateways such as a live chat room and a chat window, and if they want to join the community afterward. These rich and real-time exchanges provoke a movement of natural mutual aid which is freely expressed between the different protagonists and allow the brand to build solid relationships with their users, to better understand their expectations, to share a different brand experience, … in short, to create commitment and put those who are its first prescribers at the heart of their development.

  • 53

    vBulletin

    With vBulletin Cloud we host your community for you. You get a fully functioning and customizable vBulletin site with all the key admin controls, while we handle the back-end infrastructure for you. Explore vBulletin 5 Connect’s revolutionary Site Builder tools for creating a community website in minutes with no programming skill required! Use the drag-and-drop tool to easily lay out pages. Create various content modules that feature specific site content on a page. Test drive the software’s in-line editing and other simplified site admin tools. vBulletin 5 Connect provides unparalleled capabilities for building community websites. The software facilitates increased content creation, more engaging content discovery and simplified site management. The new Site Builder makes it easier than ever to build and manage a site. Customizable page templates, drag-and-drop configuration and in-line site editing simplify page layout. A variety of design themes can be easily selected.

    Starting Price:
    $14.99 per month

  • 54

    CampusGroups

    Help your students, staff, alumni and community partners connect, collaborate and be successful. Create custom badges to recognize student for involvement, including memberships, leadership positions, event attendance, etc. Support retention initiatives with dynamic student success profiles. Let members see everyone’s badges, points and ranks on the leaderboard. Guide students toward goals, competencies, and established learning outcomes by leading them through co-curricular involvement tracks. CampusGroups Tracks display clear & transparent program expectations and progress, connecting students to enriching outside-the-classroom experiences to earn credit for the requirements you set for them.​ Give advisors and student success staff centralized insight into students’ involvement and engagement outside the classroom.

  • 55

    Personify Community

    Attract, Grow and Engage Your Members. Discover how Personify Community can take your relationship with donors and members to the next level. Create connections, deepen relationships, spark conversations and share information to drive your organization’s mission. Grow your reach with digital member experiences and interactions where supporters, members, volunteers and other constituents come together – as a Community. Create lasting connections with forums, groups and blogs. Capture photos, videos and more to drive SEO and visual engagement. Optimize constituent and member acquisition with SEO best practices built into your online community. Measure the impact on your mission with easy-to-understand dashboards connected to your CRM. Encourage participation and action with badging, leaderboards and contests to keep users returning and sharing. Crowdsource from enthusiasts and accelerate your feedback loop with user-generated content to enrich member experiences.

  • 56

    DocMatter

    DocMatter brings the knowledge of the medical community to your fingertips. Explore the new paradigm of learning and sharing information through the first global knowledge and discussion forum for medical professionals. Expand your information base by leveraging the collective experience of your peers, along with other thought leaders from top institutions and practices around the world. And increase your visibility in the community by contributing to ongoing discussions and beginning new ones. Secure Exchange of Information You Care About. DocMatter fosters the dynamic, secure exchange of information among health care professionals—from clinical discussions to industry innovations to evolving guidelines to any topic you propose—and enables you to compile a unique discussion stream to focus on high value conversations. You control your profile, connections and level of interaction in the system—and you will not be subjected to advertising.

  • 57

    Influitive Virtual EventHub

    The Influitive Virtual EventHub is a fast, easy way to create a live digital event for unlimited attendees. Our highly scalable SaaS platform features industry-leading engagement mechanics based on recognition, rewards, gamification, and content targeting. The Influitive Virtual EventHub is a turnkey managed service for digital events of any size. But there’s no need to learn our software or hire or train staff. In collaboration with your events marketing team, Influitive will design, build and manage your virtual event hub for you. We can get you up and running in no time—and create an unforgettable experience for your attendees. Our robust engagement platform includes targeting, personalization, gamification and rewards features to attract and engage attendees—before, during and after your live event. Our staff will build, customize, and fully manage your virtual event hub. We’ll deploy personalized journeys, surveys, contests, scavenger hunts and more.

  • 58

    PunBB

    PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU General Public License. Its primary goals are to be faster, smaller, and less graphically intensive as compared to other discussion boards. PunBB has fewer features than many other discussion boards, but is generally faster and outputs smaller, semantically correct XHTML-compliant pages. PunBB is written in PHP and thus requires the PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. PunBB also requires a database for storing forum data. For that purpose, PunBB supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. Some features that I have so far chosen not to implement are private messaging, file attachments, polls, linking to off-site avatars, advanced text formatting controls, subforums, etc. The jury is still out on some of these features, but don’t expect them to pop up anytime soon. It should however be noted that most, if not all of these features have been realized in the form of third-party mods.

  • 59

    Forumbee

    Forumbee is a web-based community and discussion forum-creation platform that supports knowledgebase storage, mobile moderation, and social sharing. Featuring a range of moderation tools, Forumbee enables users to create private, public, hidden, and restricted-access forums for Q&As, feedback and idea generation, discussion, knowledgebase articles, and more. The forums can be customized with a built-in theme or user’s own logo, branding and message, and are typically ad-free, independent of social networks.

  • 60

    Activity Forum

    ActivityForum is a web-based service for clubs, societies, and social groups to maintain their list memberships and run events. You can keep an accurate register of your members, control your subscriptions and renewals, organise and publicise events and activities. ActivityForum is secure and easy to use, it provides the tools that allow your members to keep in touch with each other, as well as your group’s activities. ActivityForum provides the environment where volunteer members come together to organise and promote events, select teams and communicate more effectively using the integrated target mailing, event management and forum systems. ActivityForum is internet based and shares the burden associated with running a club, society or community.

  • 61

    XenForo

    There is no better platform upon which to grow your community. XenForo is the solution your customers would choose. Engage your customers with the premium community experience. Take advantage of our unrivaled reliability, flexible deployment and data security. Provide a forum where your customers can interact with you. Lighten the load on your support team. Your customers will be reassured that their information is not being sold off to big tech. User-generated content is priceless. Allow it to be easily found again, any time. Yesterday’s facts are no less valuable than today’s. Discussions on your forum contain a wealth of information. Assemble your content into an invaluable knowledge base for your subject matter. Leverage state-of-the-art software architecture. Create rich integrations and add-on systems to your own specification.

  • 62

    NING

    Create a social network that rocks with a customized community management and social media integration. Be vivid — create your own visual design, generate catchy content, and build trust. NING offers the possibility to create a community with a customized look and feel. Our team is here to back you up even with the most challenging initiatives. Create your personal social network and get ready to make money with its help. With NING, traffic monetization is no longer a fantasy. Monetize your blog, monetize your website, monetize your social media! It’s all in your hands now thanks to NING’s new E-commerce platform. Be loud — share your ideas, target the right people, and raise awareness. With NING’s help, you will be able to effectively promote any network, be it political, music, religious, arts, or any other type of online community. Here you can connect with partners and donors for charitable purposes, or conduct fundraising.

    Starting Price:
    $25.00/month/user

  • 63

    Hivebrite

    Unlock the potential of your community with Hivebrite, the most advanced all-in-one community management and engagement platform. Easy to set up and fully branded to match your colors, Hivebrite helps you build brand engagement and create opportunities for your private community. Manage your member database, centralize the communication with your members, create events and collect online payments, all from a single user-friendly interface.

Forum Software Guide

Forum software is an internet application that allows a user to start, participate in, and moderate online forums or message boards. It provides users with a platform to discuss topics and exchange ideas.

Forums generally consist of threads that are collections of comments or posts made by multiple users. Each post can include text, images, videos or other kinds of multimedia content. Forum software usually consists of a few core components: a user interface, moderation tools, commenting tools, and search capabilities.

The user interface for forum software typically includes the ability to register an account and log in to post comments and interact with other users. It also often includes the ability to customize one’s profile page such as by adding pictures and setting up personal information like contact details or favorite interests.

Moderation tools are another important part of forum software which gives moderators the power to control what kind of content is allowed on their site as well as take action against any users who violate rules or terms of use. Moderators often have the power to delete posts, ban members from further participation and even alert relevant authorities when necessary. They may also be able to set certain topics as “locked” so that only administrators can access them or post new comments within them.

Commenting tools allow users to respond directly to each other’s posts in a variety of ways such as through upvoting or downvoting responses, posting replies within threads, and tagging fellow users in comments so they can easily be accessed again later. These features help ensure discussions remain civil while allowing for active involvement from different sides in any given discussion topic.

Finally, forum software needs some form of search capability so that users can easily find topics that interest them without having to wade through long lists of posts manually; this usually involves advanced filtering options based on keywords entered into a search bar or tags attached by members when creating new threads. Additionally, some platforms offer additional features such as private messaging capabilities between members or the ability for administrators to create polls within specific threads so they can gauge public opinion on certain topics quickly and accurately before taking action accordingly.

Features Offered by Forum Software

  • Administrative Functions: Forum software provides administrative functions such as approving or denying user registrations, setting user privileges, and moderating posts. These features allow administrators to manage the forum and keep it running smoothly.
  • User Management: Forum software provides user management features that allow administrators to control who can access the forum, set up moderator roles and view information about users. This allows administrators to ensure that members are following the rules of the forum and keeping it a safe environment.
  • Threads & Posts: The core feature of any forum software is its ability to create threads, which are topics for discussion, and posts, which are individual messages within a thread. This allows users to start conversations with each other on a particular topic or share ideas in an organized way.
  • Customization Options: Most forum software also provides customization options like themes, custom fields for posts, avatars and more. This allows users to customize their experience on the forum and make it more personal.
  • Private Messages: Forum software also usually includes private messaging capabilities so that users can send each other messages without having them seen by everyone else on the forum.
  • Search Functionality: Forum software also typically contains search functionality that allows users to quickly find content within the forums by searching for keywords or phrases within post titles or content.
  • Subscription & Notifications: Finally, most forums come with subscription or notification features that allow users to subscribe or follow specific threads or get notifications when someone replies back on a post they’ve made or commented on previously.

Different Types of Forum Software

  • Bulletin Board Software: Bulletin board software provides a simple platform for users to create and join various public or private communities. It allows members to post topics and messages, comment on other people’s posts, view user profiles, upload files, search for content and much more.
  • Wiki Software: Wiki software is used to create collaborative websites with users securely editing webpages simultaneously. It typically has fewer features than forum software but is better suited for larger projects (like Wikipedia).
  • Forum & Chat Software: This type of forum software combines discussions in forums with real-time chatroom capabilities. This format can be especially useful for customer support teams seeking quick answers from their customers.
  • Social Networking Platforms: These platforms provide the ability for users to connect with one another in an interactive environment, similar to a traditional forum setup. They are often used by individuals and businesses alike as a means of connecting with existing or potential customers.
  • Blogging Platforms: Blogging platforms offer a place where people can share their ideas and experiences through entries called “blog posts” which are generally organized by categories and tags. While blogging platforms provide some discussion capabilities, they are primarily focused on publishing rather than conversation like traditional forums or chatrooms do.

Benefits of Using Forum Software

  1. Increases Interaction: Forum software makes it easy for people to come together, discuss topics relevant to them, and interact with each other in a meaningful way. This helps foster collaboration and creates a sense of community among users.
  2. Increased Traffic: By providing a platform for people to engage in conversations, forum software can help increase website traffic. Since forums often have high-quality content, visitors are likely to stay on the site longer and engage in more conversations.
  3. Affordable Solution: Forum software is typically much cheaper than other interactive solutions such as chat rooms or webinars. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses who want to engage with their customers without breaking the bank.
  4. Improved Search Rankings: Forums are highly indexed by search engines which means they can help improve your website’s SEO rankings. The more active your forum is, the higher its ranking will be in search engine results pages which will give you an edge over competing websites.
  5. Highly Customizable: Most forum software offers extensive customization options allowing users to tailor their experience according to their specific needs and preferences. Customization features include themes, plugins, user profiles and settings that can be used to create unique forums for any purpose or audience — from business meetings to gaming communities.
  6. Accessible from Any Device: Most modern forum software is designed with mobile-friendliness in mind meaning users can access it from any device regardless of whether they’re using a laptop, tablet or phone. This ensures that all members of the community have uninterrupted access at all times no matter where they are located or what devices they use.

Types of Users that Use Forum Software

  • Casual Users: These are users who may browse forums for fun and to find interesting topics or conversations. They often don’t post or comment, but rather lurk in the background just observing.
  • Lurkers: Similar to casual users, these are individuals who may observe conversations without participating in them.
  • Power Users: These are experienced forum users who may be moderators or administrators of a certain forum and offer guidance and helpful advice to other members.
  • Contributors: Members that actively contribute to discussions across many threads and post multiple times on a variety of topics.
  • Spammers: A subset of contributors, they generally post content which is not relevant to the topic being discussed on forums or spam other members with useless information or images.
  • Trolls: Forum participants who deliberately provoke conversations by posting provocative, antagonistic comments as a method of entertainment for themselves at the expense of others.
  • Experts/Influencers: Highly knowledgeable individuals who share their experiences and expertise with other forum members in order to help them out with various problems or issues they are having.

How Much Does Forum Software Cost?

Forum software can range in price depending on the features you need and the vendor that you use. For basic forums, you may be able to find free open-source options that could allow you to host a forum on your own server or web hosting account. However, these can require some technical know-how to set up and maintain.

If you are looking for an out-of-the-box solution with more features and customization, then there are several vendors who offer commercial solutions ranging from around $50/year for basic packages up to custom solutions costing thousands of dollars annually. Generally speaking, the more features that you need, such as user groups access levels, social media integration, analytics tools, or even custom-built plugins, the higher the price tag associated with your chosen forum software will be.

The best way to find out what kind of pricing is available is to contact a few different vendors and compare their offerings so that you can get an idea of which one offers the best value for your particular needs.

Types of Software that Forum Software Integrates With

Forum software can integrate with a variety of other types of software to enhance the user experience. Common integrations include analytics tools like Google Analytics, which offer valuable insights into user behavior; content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and Drupal, which enable users to create complex websites; social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which allow for easy sharing of forum posts; email marketing campaigns, which provide automated notifications about new threads; and e-commerce solutions like Shopify and Magento that enable users to set up shopfronts within their forums. All these pieces of software work together to make it easier for forum owners to grow their user base, engage existing members, and monetize the platform.

What are the Trends Relating to Forum Software?

  1. Increased Functionality: Forum software has become increasingly more powerful and feature-rich over the years, allowing users to create complex interactions and experiences. Many of the most popular platforms offer a wide range of customization options, giving users the ability to tailor the platform to their specific needs.
  2. Improved Usability: Forum software developers have put great effort into improving the usability of their products, making them easier to use and understand. User interfaces are often designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, making it easier for users to find what they need quickly.
  3. Mobile Support: Most modern forum software platforms now offer mobile support. This allows users to access forums from anywhere with an internet connection, including on their smartphones or tablets. As more people rely on their mobile devices for internet access, this is becoming increasingly important.
  4. Increased Security: In recent years, cyber security has become a major concern for many forum owners and developers. Platforms are now offering enhanced security features such as two-factor authentication, secure socket layer (SSL) encryption, and more to help protect user data.
  5. Social Media Integration: Many forum software platforms now offer the ability to integrate with popular social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This allows users to easily share content from the forum on social media sites, helping them reach a wider audience.

How to Find the Right Forum Software

Use the comparison engine on this page to help you compare forum software by their features, prices, user reviews, and more.

Selecting the right forum software for your needs can be a daunting task. To make sure you choose the best solution, follow these steps:

  1. Determine your goals: What do you want to achieve with your forum? Are you looking to communicate with customers, grow a community around your product/service or just provide a platform for discussion? Having clear goals will help narrow down your options.
  2. Consider features and functionality: Look at what features are offered by different forum software such as user management, customization, themes and plugin support, mobile optimization and more. Make sure that the features provided meet all of your requirements.
  3. Assess usability: Think about how easy it is to navigate and use the interface of each platform you’re considering. Try out demos when available and ask others who have used them for their opinion on ease of use.
  4. Check cost: Cost can be a major factor in deciding which forum software to opt for so always check if there are any hidden charges and how much support costs after purchase.
  5. Research security measures: Security is paramount when selecting any online tool so look into what measures are taken against potential data breaches or other vulnerabilities as well as how users can keep their accounts safe from hackers or malicious actors.

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