Simple Machine Forum

[Kane]

Simple Machine Forum, or SMF in short, is free forum software. You can either download the software from their offical page and install on your servers or install it via cPanel. Even though it is a free forum, you can find support for the forum through its official forum. It is a popular forum and you can find a lot of free template and mods.

 

[saoussen5766]

Did you mean your server means installation on a virtual machine or installation on VPS (Virtual Private Server) because it differs from one case to another? Please more clarification on this point.

 

[WebKitty]

Personally not a fan of this one. Overall, I feel like you getter better quality all around with paid software when it comes to forums. I would much rather go with something like Xenforo which does have access to free plugins and themes if you wish not to pay for anything additional.

 

[Jason]

WordPress and SMF allows for the uploading of mods, themes, and upgrades directly from the forum. That's an advantage for inexperienced forum owners. I mean, it's the 2nd easiest thing to everything being included in the box.

Nonetheless, though, doing things the hard way - isn't that hard.

 

[Busybee]

PhpBB is far better than SMF, it's open-source and free too. It has more templates and many other useful options compared to SMF. And it's very easy to create and manage. Would choose PhpBB over SMF.

 

[opaline]

If this is free then it's worth trying! I would like to create a forum but have no intention of monetizing from so a free forum platform like this would be good enough.

 

[Jason]

This software is now mobile friendly. In that case, along with phpBB, it makes strong competition to free software. Well, actually, any free software just needs a mobile friendly theme and it's good to go. Basically, free software has always been a major competition to free software, honestly. Well, many would disagree. This topic makes for a good thread outside this one.

 

[Kane]

I have used multiple open source software and SMF happens to be my favorite because it is easy to use and has a clean interface. It is almost similar to wordpress in a sense that you do not have to go to your hosting account to make changes on your extensions and themes, you can directly do it from your dashboard.

 

[Jason]

I have used multiple open source software and SMF happens to be my favorite because it is easy to use and has a clean interface. It is almost similar to wordpress in a sense that you do not have to go to your hosting account to make changes on your extensions and themes, you can directly do it from your dashboard.

That's a huge bonus to people who are newbies. However, I think at some point it's good to know how to use an FTP and/or cPanel.

 

[Kane]

I think those who have self hosted websites already know how to use FTP client or cPanel. If these cannot use these services, they might have difficulties running their sites. One of the reasons why a lot of people use website builders is because they do not want to bother with technicalities.