In order to make and run a forum, one option is using a forum software, and we have picked the 6 best easiest free forum software solutions. Forums are a form of online discussion, differing from live chats in many features. They are based on diachronic messaging, and unlike chats, all posts are being archived (unless moderators and administrators rearrange them differently). Forums are based on posting in threads or topics, differently organized (depending on forum division, if there is any, on categories and sub-forums), usually arranged in time order (newer threads being on top).
The basic of any forum software is more or less the same, because of the same elemental features most forums share. Those are: forum division (on a topic arranged in different ways), registration form (enabling opening account and picking username), search, ease of administration and moderation. Usually, when deciding to choose a forum software for hosting a forum, the first thing to do is create MySQL database on a server. Although minimal knowledge is needed to get involved in running a forum, if you want to supplement your programming knowledge, you might also take a look at the 10 Best Freelance Websites for Programmers. Simply making a forum is just a beginning of the story, because the forum needs continual updating, managing, monitoring, archiving, reviewing, upgrading, etc. That means administrators are constantly being present, maintaining their forum, or the can use forum hosting as another solution. That is being done by hiring a hosting provider that maintains forum for you, although you remain the main administrator.
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Ironically (or not), we have reached for help on the topic of best forum software, well, mostly on forums of course. We consulted Sitepoint, the Admin Zone, UK Business Forum. Huge Quora community was also consulted in order to get more subjective views on good beginner forum software choice. So our rating is primarily based on people’s experience with certain software. Apart from that, the Forum Software Reviews gives a good insight into pros and cons of the easy free forum software solutions, and Softaculos also gives forum software ratings.
There is a huge choice of free forum software nowadays, and it is not easy picking the best one. They differ in features they offer, complexity, stability or security and speed, and choosing the right one depends on user’s preferences. Perhaps finding the right one that offers all the features you need will be tough among the open source software, although all of them offer the creation of simple basic forums. But, luckily, there many new free forum software developing that enable creating modern forums (meaning they have options like tagging, reputation, badges, etc), as you will see on our list. So, let’s meet the best easiest free forum software solutions.
6. bbPress
There are diferent opinions about this forum software; some people are satisfied with its functionality, while others are not. But in any case, it is nice and smooth forum software solution. Firstly because it is compatible with WordPress (made by WordPress creators), and can be installed as a plugin to WordPress, thus being mostly efficient for the WordPress powered website. Creators of bbPress cited that simplicity is the most important feature concerning codes, as well as speed and forum’s security.
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5. FluxBB
FluxBB, the number 5 on our list of best easiest free forum software solutions is simple, lightweight and easy forum software that is constantly being updated. Although it might seem that it has minimal features comparing to some other forum software, those are more than enough for creating a nicely functional basic forum. Even if this is seen as a disadvantage, the good side of it is that it is very user-friendly, stable and secure.
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4. Vanilla
At number four on our list of best easiest free forum software solutions, we have Vanilla that is one of the most widely used (by more than 414,000 communities) and best free forum software solutions mostly because of its simplicity. The simplicity of this software reflects in the way forum is managed – simply new messages appear on the top and stay if gain popularity, while there are no sub-categories. Good thing about this software is that it enables installing many plugins such as various smileys or Facebook.
3. Discourse
Discourse, the next in line on our list of best easiest free forum software solutions is one of the best free leading forum software available, enabling the creation of modern forums with the amazing set of features it offers. Apart from all these features, it is very simple to use enabling fast and easy-access forum from any user platform.
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2. MyBB
We are continuing our list of best easiest free forum software solutions with MyBB that is a feature rich, easy to use open source forum software. It offers a great number of plugins and features which are easily found and managed. Some of the features include full control over administration panel, template editor, calendar, events and many more. It has been proclaimed the best free forum software for several years.
1. SMF
Probably the very best on the list of best easiest free forum software solutions would be the SMF (Simple Machines Forum). Many of the reviewers agree on SMF (along with MyBB) being the best easiest forum software. It is attractive software for a huge amount of templates, features, plugins and great security.
