Flarum vs HelloBox
Flarum
flarum.org
HelloBox
hellobox.coSide by side
| Figure | Flarum | HelloBox |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $5/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 6 |
| Spec score · Customer Community Software | 7.9 (#13) | 8.9 (#5) |
| Integrations | Flarum's documentation describes a REST API for consuming forum data. | Listed integrations include automatic posting to Twitter, Slack and Discord, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and chatbot tools such as Intercom, HubSpot and Drift. |
| Intended users | Flarum describes itself as suitable for communities ranging from small hobby groups to large enterprise forums. | HelloBox lists creators, course communities, startups, newsletter communities, podcasters, businesses, bloggers, and existing groups as use cases. |
| Product | Flarum is free, open-source forum software for running a discussion community on a website. | HelloBox is a fully hosted forum and community platform positioned as an alternative to Discourse, Circle, and Facebook Groups. |
| Security | The installation guide says Flarum's default public directory keeps sensitive source code files inaccessible from the web root. | The privacy policy says HelloBox uses security technologies and measures designed to protect information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, while noting internet security cannot be guaranteed. |
| Support | Flarum directs users with questions to its community forum, where users can get help with their instances. | The pricing page says the free plan includes email support, and the help center directs users to email support for unanswered questions. |
Plans
HelloBox
- FreeFree
- Starter$5 a month
- Growth$10 a month
- Pro$20 a month
- Business$50 a month
- Scale$100 a month
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.
HelloBox
HelloBox is a hosted forum and community platform for publishing and discussion, positioned as an alternative to Discourse, Circle, and Facebook Groups. It handles hosting, scaling, backups, and SSL; communities can be public or private, with admin approval for new members. Members can sign in with Twitter, Google, GitHub, LinkedIn, or email, and email sign-ups are verified. The editor offers rich-text, inline, and Markdown modes, plus image, code, map, and tweet blocks, drafts, and optional post approval. Its writing assistant can continue or rewrite drafts, summarize threads, or create a draft from a prompt. HelloBox can post automatically to Twitter, Slack, and Discord, connect with analytics, search, and chatbot tools, and send newsletters featuring popular posts. Customers can import subscriber lists, link existing newsletters, run ads and keep 100% of the revenue, use a custom domain, and export data anytime. The free plan allows 50 members and 10K views per month with limited features. Paid plans start at $5 a month; Starter includes 100 members and 50K monthly views.