Flarum vs Question2Answer
Flarum
flarum.orgQuestion2Answer
question2answer.orgSide by side
| Figure | Flarum | Question2Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Discussion Forum Software | 7.9 (#4) | 7.5 (#8) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 7.8 (#29) | 7.3 (#46) |
| Customization | Flarum's extension-based design lets administrators disable unneeded features and add extensions. | The site describes CSS themes, translation, custom sidebars, widgets, pages and links, plus plugins for deeper customization. |
| Integrations | Flarum's documentation describes a REST API for consuming forum data. | Question2Answer offers out-of-the-box WordPress and Joomla integration, and custom single sign-on support for other sites. |
| License | Flarum is released under the MIT License. | The software is free and open source under the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version. |
| Requirements | The installation guide lists Apache or Nginx, PHP 8.3 or later, a supported database, and SSH access for maintenance commands as server requirements. | The product page lists PHP 5.4 or later with the MySQLi extension and MySQL 5.0 or later as requirements. |
| Security | The installation guide says Flarum's default public directory keeps sensitive source code files inaccessible from the web root. | The documentation says Q2A checks or escapes user input to prevent SQL injection, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery and form spoofing attacks. |
| Support | Flarum directs users with questions to its community forum, where users can get help with their instances. | The service page says the Question2Answer Q&A site provides free community support and lists a Discord channel for chatting about Q2A. |
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.
Question2Answer
Question2Answer has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.