Home » Web-services » The Complete Guide for Free Forum Software
If you are webmaster and willing to start a new forum without spending a cent, you might be interested in this complete guide for free forum software.
aterr (PHP)
aterr is an open source threaded forum system; allowing registered visitors to express their opinions, discuss topics, and debate with other visitors. A threaded forum system differs from regular, flat forum systems in that once posted, a thread can fork, allowing visitors to reply directly to other posts. aterr also provides a customisable permissions system, the ability to nest forums, and moderation tools.
bbPress (PHP)
bbPress is forum software with a twist. bbPress is focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed. Most software in this space is focused on features like avatars or file attachment and if that's what you're interested in, bbPress probably isn't for you. We're focused on keeping things as small and light as possible for the explicit purpose of creating a community around support.
Beehive Forum (PHP)
A PHP/MySQL discussion forum, and generally the best thing ever. Apart from real bees. Beehive is an open-source project for creating a high-configurable frame-based discussion forum.
blazeboard (PHP)
Woltlab Burning Board, or WBB, is an internet forum script written in PHP and mySQL. It is developed by WoltLab GmbH, which is located in Germany.
FUDforum (PHP)
FUDforum is a highly customizable forum package, with a large feature set. The easy to use administration control panel allows the administrator to easily configure and control the many features available. The forum also includes an interactive help package, which helps to familiarize users with the full potential of FUDforum.
IceBB (PHP)
IceBB is an open-source Internet forum system written in PHP and using the MySQL database system.
MercuryBoard (PHP)
MercuryBoard is a powerful message board system dedicated to raw speed with a mixture of features, ease of use, and ease of customization coupled with expandability, and diverse language services. Now just over two years in the making, version 1.0.0 is an immensely stable, thoroughly tested, and well-written piece of internet software ready for any webserver, running on PHP versions as low as 4.0.0 and MySQL versions as low as 3.22.
miniBB (PHP)
miniBB (an abbreviation of "minimalist bulletin board") is a flat-type (not threaded) free web forum and discussion software, open source PHP bulletin board, written in PHP and using mySQL or another PHP-compatible database as data backend. But it's not from "yet one more bulletin board" series. First of all, it's a content-oriented board, not a features-fullfilled script. We are not planning to include every possible feature that bulletin board may have, and we find it as a positive moment. While a lot of identical forum software comes up around, we have our strong critical position of how our bulletin board must look like, and we are glad many users are supporting this position.
Monkey Boards (PHP)
Monkey Boards is a small, fast and lightweight discussion board. It is released under the GNU General Public License. Its primary goals are to be a faster, smaller and more easy to use alternative to the many other discussion boards available. It outputs semantically correct XHTML-compliant pages with external CSS stylesheets. It is quick and simple to install, use and administer.
MyBB (PHP)
MyBB is a powerful, efficient and free forum package developed in PHP and MySQL. MyBB has been designed with the end users in mind, you and your subscribers. Full control over your discussion system is presented right at the tip of your fingers, from multiple styles and themes to the ultimate customisation of your forums using the template system.
MyTopix (PHP)
MyTopix is a forum written in PHP and MySQL, and produced by Jaia Interactive. Unlike some other forum software available, MyTopix is free, but not open-source.
OvBB (PHP)
Distributed under an MIT-type open source license, OvBB is a light-weight and fast bulletin board system that mimics vBulletin 2.x.x in both look and behavior while incorporating new advanced features and functionality. OvBB is written in PHP and is powered by MySQL.
Phorum (PHP)
Phorum is a web based message board written in PHP. Phorum is designed with high-availability and visitor ease of use in mind. Features such as mailing list integration, easy customization and simple installation make Phorum a powerful add-in to any website.
phpBB (PHP)
phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customizable Open Source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ. Based on the powerful PHP server language and your choice of MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Access/ODBC database servers, phpBB is the ideal free community solution for all web sites.
PunBB (PHP)
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.
Quezza (PHP)
Quezza is a free PHP-powered forum based on phpBB.
Quicksilver Forums (PHP)
Quicksilver Forums is a fast, feature rich bulletin board system written in PHP and MySQL. It is fully object oriented and optimized for speed, ease of use, and easy modifications. QSF checks all inputs though a common interface which drastically reduces the chances of exploitable bugs. Powerful and flexible skinning engine makes giving your board a new look very simple. Advanced permissions system allows for fine grained group and user permissions. Released under the GNU General Public License. Based on the popular MercuryBoard software.
Shiichan (PHP)
Shiichan is an anonymous bulletin board system, thus it allows for pseudonymous "registration"-like features without storing any user information in a database. Most importantly, it makes it possible to create boards without having to tinker with the filesystem. It is written in PHP and the source code has been released under the GNU GPL.
SMF (PHP)
Elegant. Effective. Powerful. Free. SMF is all of the above. SMF is a next-generation community software package and is jam-packed with features, while at the same time having a minimal impact on resources. And, yes, it is free.
Sylphagora (PHP)
Sylphagora is a free internet forum system implemented in PHP and MySQL. It is a fairly modest, threaded board system that, although it lacks a lot of features found in other board systems, is lightweight and fast.
tForum (PHP)
tForum is a versatile and easy to edit forum, with lots of ready to add modifications. It is free software created by the collaborating forces of the webmasters that uses it.
UNB (PHP)
The Unclassified NewsBoard (short UNB) is an open-source, PHP-based internet bulletin board system, mostly like those you may already know. But the difference is in a lot of details that make your life with this board, both as administrator and user, much easier. You’ll be surprised how easy things can be and how fast you can work with such a system! The Unclassified NewsBoard has a lot of innovative features the world has never seen before in this way.
UseBB (PHP)
UseBB is a light and Open Source PHP and MySQL based forum package, distributed freely under the GPL license. Developed with simplicity and usability in mind, UseBB is ideal for small to medium sized websites which need a clear and efficient forum package.
Vanilla (PHP)
With Vanilla we wanted to break the mold created and followed by just about every other forum on the web. We sat down and thought about what we liked, and more importantly, what we didn't like about web forums. We wanted emphasis on the discussions rather than the statistics. We wanted to stop using MSN or AIM to send secret messages to other forum members; We wanted to be able to save the common searches. Basically, we wanted the thing to work for us instead of against us. Most importantly we wanted it to be free and we wanted it to run on just about every web server out there. So, Vanilla is a PHP / MySQL solution that is 100% open-source. You can take it and alter it and use it free of charge.
W-Agora (PHP)
W-Agora is a WEB based application developed using PHP and MySQL. This solid back end technology, also known as LAMP (Linux Apache Mysql PHP) allow the community to provide fast and reliable applications. W-Agora is probably one of the most customizable package from its category. It is designed so it can be easily customizable through a Web browser and the use of templates. eg. it can be used as a BBS, guestbook, download area, a photo gallery or a news publishing system.
XMB (PHP)
XMB provides forum administrators with one of the highest performing, most secure forums available. XMB is highly tuned for high volume web sites, with nearly all end-user pages requiring no more than 15 SQL queries. All mainstream high frequency queries use indexes, have limits, and are tuned to work efficiently with MySQL 4.0.x and later XMB optimizes output to pump the minimum amount of data to display a page, and attachments are cache friendly.
bttlxeForum (ASP)
Is a popular feature rich database-driven Internet forum solution. Written entirely in Active Server Pages and is designed to run under Microsoft Windows platforms supporting ASP 3.0 or later and supporting a variety of common database formats, it is supplied free of charge with a software-based installer to allow you to easily install and configure it on your testing and live web servers.
E-Blah (Perl)
E-Blah is a perl-based forum system that can power your website community with a fast, free, secure, stable, and very reliable backend. E-Blah boasts thousands of features, some of which includes sub-forums, member groups, and portal, among many others.
Ikonboard (Perl)
Ikonboard is a comprehensive web bulletin board system. It transcends the limits imposed by other bulletin board software, allowing you to create a truly unique community on your website. From it's extensive template and skins features to it's complete multi-lingual support, your members will keep coming back for more.
Kareha (Perl)
This kind of board software is built around anonymous posting and no requirements for registration, to make the boards more suited for casual uses, and more fun overall. They are written in Perl, and are designed to be more efficient and cleanly written than the original scripts that are available, while preserving the same kind of functionality. Kareha does not need a database backend.
mwForum (Perl)
mwForum is an open-source, Web-based discussion forum system. mwForum is based on Perl CGI scripts, uses a MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite database and is compatible with mod_perl 1.0 and 2.0 for optimal performance. mwForum's design goals are comfortable operation and administration, stability, security and speed, a professional and consistent look, and lean and clean code to make customization easy.
YaBB (Perl)
YaBB (Yet another Bulletin Board) is a leading free, open source message board and instant messaging system written in Perl. YaBB doesn't use a third-party database management system, but instead its own flat file storage system. Modifications (usually using Boardmod) can be used to add new features to the forum.
RForum (Ruby)
RForum is a web forum written in Ruby using the Rails framework. The aim of this project is to create a lightweight web forum that is easy to use and suitable for high-traffic websites. RForum can run on MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite.
PasForum (Pascal/Delphi)
A unique Pascal (FPC, Kylix, Delphi) Web-Based forum.
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