What is Easy to Use Free Forum Software

[Nomad]

There are numerous open source forum software that you can use for free to build your community. I have tried numerous free forum software like MyBB, PhpBB, SMF, etc. Based on my experience SMF is the easiest to use frum software, where as PhpBB is a little complicated to use. What do you think?

 

[Smokey]

MyBB can be easy, but the theming can also become complicated. phpBB seems to be getting better and more user-friendly these days.

 

[Anachiwo]

It's MyBB in my opinion and experience too.

ProBoards isn't good because you can't move your datebase when you're interested in upgrading your forum software.

 

[saoussen5765]

It's MyBB in my opinion and experience too.

ProBoards isn't good because you can't move your database when you're interested in upgrading your forum software.

It is not limited to Proboards. Any free forum provider formation xooit or else do the same.

 

[nana kwasi]

You can create your community for free using a variety of open source forum software. I've experimented with a lot of free forum software, including MyBB, PhpBB, and SMF. My own experience has shown that SMF is the most user-friendly free software, but PhpBB can be a little challenging. How do you feel?

 

[Shortie]

I personally feel MyBB is a great alternative for free software. It's powerful, highly customizable with themes and plugins and most plugins are free and open source like the software itself. I've used both MyBB and phpBB in the past and i personally prefer MyBB to phpBB myself if I had to use self-hosted free software. MyBB is definitely my first choice. It shares similarities with vBulletin 3.x which I absolutely loved back in the day.

 

[Alex]

I'd say the most challenging part of any free forum software is ensuring the MySQL database tables are configured correctly along with the table permission set and linking this to the phpBB installation. And the next hurdle you face is knowing which phpBB version is the best to choose for your server stats that is compatible with phpBB. If you have some development knowledge, as I do, this part is reasonably straightforward but somewhat time-consuming.

myBB and phpBB have their differences, but all forum software roughly have the same backend admin panel configurations. If this is you're first time or you want to learn, buy a shared hosting plan with a domain or (host on localhost), practice the installation stages, and learn the correct way to set up permission sets on the admin panel for categories, usergroups, and add ons.

My advice, just like anything in life is that don't run before you can walk.

 

[Jason]

Simple Machines has one click install for mods, themes, and forum upgrades and the software, itself, can be installed with one click on most hosting packages, probably