Flarum vs Forums.net
Flarum
flarum.orgForums.net
forums.netSide by side
| Figure | Flarum | Forums.net |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $49.99/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 3 |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 7.9 (#6) | 7.8 (#10) |
| Spec score · Customer Community Software | 7.9 (#13) | 7.8 (#16) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 7.8 (#29) | 7.7 (#32) |
| Community tools | The homepage lists groups and permissions, moderation and flagging, themes and custom CSS, and in-browser notifications among its features. | Features include boards, threads, private messaging, polls, a shoutbox, custom pages, themes, and plugins. |
| Founded | 2014 | 2000 |
| Integrations | Flarum's documentation describes a REST API for consuming forum data. | The feature list names single sign-on, Tapatalk, YouTube and Vimeo video embedding, and VigLink support. |
| Intended users | Flarum describes itself as suitable for communities ranging from small hobby groups to large enterprise forums. | The maker describes the product as designed for organizations and businesses, including communities for superfans, friends, and employees. |
| Product | Flarum is free, open-source forum software for running a discussion community on a website. | Forums.net is a hosted online discussion platform for organizations and businesses to run communities. |
| Security | The installation guide says Flarum's default public directory keeps sensitive source code files inaccessible from the web root. | The product page says traffic is secured over SSL and describes round-the-clock internal monitoring and off-site backups. |
| Support | Flarum directs users with questions to its community forum, where users can get help with their instances. | Support is offered through tickets, phone calls, and screen-sharing, and subscription plans include personalized onboarding. |
Plans
In their own words
Flarum
Flarum is free, open-source forum software for running discussions on websites and online communities. It provides group permissions, category access controls, moderation and flagging. Administrators can adjust settings, themes, CSS and extensions, and disable unneeded features. Members can write with lightweight Markdown or WYSIWYG editors. Notifications include in-browser alerts and email digests, while extensions can provide real-time notifications. A REST API lets external scripts interact with the forum and follows JSON:API practices. The extension manager discovers and installs add-ons, most of which are open source and free. Self-hosting requires Apache or Nginx, PHP 8.3 or later, a supported database and SSH access for some maintenance. Flarum is MIT-licensed and directs support questions to its community forum. Its documentation describes version 2.0 as a release candidate, not a final stable release. The project serves communities from small hobby groups to large enterprise forums.