Flarum vs ProBoards
Flarum
flarum.orgProBoards
proboards.orgSide by side
| Figure | Flarum | ProBoards |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $1.67/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 5 |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 7.9 (#6) | 7.9 (#8) |
| Community tools | The homepage lists groups and permissions, moderation and flagging, themes and custom CSS, and in-browser notifications among its features. | The product includes live search, a WYSIWYG post editor, private conversations, notifications, and moderation tools. |
| Customization | Flarum's extension-based design lets administrators disable unneeded features and add extensions. | Forum owners can choose from a theme library and add user-submitted plugins from a plugin library. |
| Founded | 2014 | 2000 |
| Purpose | Flarum is a free, open-source discussion platform for websites and online communities. | ProBoards provides hosted internet forums where visitors can discuss topics through posted messages. |
| Support | Flarum directs users with questions to its community forum, where users can get help with their instances. | ProBoards advertises 24/7 support through its member support forum and help guide. |
Plans
ProBoards
- ProBoards free forum hostingFree
- Ad-Free (recurring subscription)$6 a month
- Ad-Free (month-to-month)$8 a month
- Change Forum URL$9.99, paid once
- Custom Domain Name$19.99 a year
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.