15 best forum software of 2024

Forum software enables online discussions by allowing users to post messages, engage in threaded conversations, discuss issues, offer solutions, and reply to topics. Typically, forum software features moderation tools and customizable settings to manage and facilitate communication effectively. Additionally, these platforms can be an effective customer self-service tool and integrate with your ticketing system.

Online communities are hotbeds of discussion, where everyone from customers and employees to the general public gathers to share their ideas, tips, and expertise. This is why consumers frequently turn to brand-specific forums for information and support. Forum software empowers you to bring your customers together so they can share their experiences with your products or services and learn from each other.

By implementing forum software, you can achieve multiple goals simultaneously: Provide self-service support, gather valuable customer feedback, and build loyalty through engagement. This guide dives into the 15 best forum software solutions, explores key features to consider, outlines the benefits of forum software, and equips you to choose the right option for your business needs.

More in this guide:

• The 15 best forum software
• Benefits of community forum software
• Features of forum software
• How to choose the right forum software
• Frequently asked questions
• Try online forum software for free

Let’s dive in and look at what different forum software offers. We include an overview of each product, key features, pricing, and free trial information.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk is a complete customer service solution that comes with forum software to enable your business to build online communities. It's quick to set up for a fast time to value and simple to customize to the look and feel of your brand. Our software is also easy to use, so your team can implement it without hiring developers. This keeps your total cost of ownership low while giving you an agile system to meet customer needs.

Additionally, our forum software seamlessly integrates with our industry-leading ticketing system, so agents can quickly escalate forum posts to support tickets when complicated issues arise. Because our ticketing system is omnichannel, agents can also manage these forum tickets alongside all your other support channels, with the benefit of robust customer profiles to provide context. AI is built into our agent workspace, providing agents with AI-powered suggestions on the best approach to resolving the issue.

Zendesk also uses AI to automatically flag suspicious community content for review and approval before publication. This allows you to manage your community (with minimal effort) and minimize spam. Meanwhile, forum insights and reporting provide valuable information about popular topics, user participation levels, and the general well-being of your community. You can encourage helpful collaboration among community members by rewarding top contributors with customizable titles and achievement badges.

You can integrate your customer community with other self-service resources, like AI-powered knowledge bases and customer self-service portals, to create a robust help center. These resources give customers 24/7 support and empower them to resolve issues independently while helping your service teams manage high support demand effectively. Generative search provides AI-generated answers to search queries within your help center so customers can find quick answers to their questions.

AI can also help your support team maintain your knowledge base by flagging outdated content and identifying content gaps based on customer service data. It can also assist your team members with help center content creation by turning just a few bullet points into an entire article. Since Zendesk is flexible, businesses can use our forum software for different use cases, including employee and partner communities.

Features:

• Industry-leading ticketing system with integrated escalations
• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• Customizable templates
• User badges
• 1,500+ apps and integrations
• Duplicate thread identification
• AI-powered knowledge base
• AI-powered agent assistance
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Plans start at $115 per agent/month. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

2. phpBB

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PhpBB is free, open-source forum software developed in the PHP programming language. With phpBB, you can establish an online group, though it doesn’t have the advanced feature set you might find in many other solutions on this list. The software includes security features that aim to reduce spam and remove unruly users.

Once users create an account, they can post questions and respond to each other. System admins can grant users moderator status. The forum software includes basic spam protection features, including reCAPTCHA 2.0 capabilities. Plus, if you need to build on the basic functionality of phpBB, you can do so with a library of user-created extensions.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• Notifications menu
• File uploading
• User-based permissions

Pricing: Free

3. Higher Logic Vanilla

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Formerly known as Vanilla Forums, Higher Logic Vanilla is forum software for building an online community. It includes discussion forums and Q&A features to help customers ask questions and share knowledge.

Higher Logic Vanilla includes a search function that can pull results from external sources. It also has gamification capabilities, including badges, points, and leaderboards. Additionally, the forum software provides automated functions to help reduce spam.

Features:

• Integrated escalations
• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• Knowledge base
• Gamification

Pricing: Contact Higher Logic

Recommended reading: Learn how Higher Logic Vanilla integrates with Zendesk.

4. Wix Forum

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Wix is a no-code website builder, and its forum software, Wix Forum, has drag-and-drop templates for community sites. Wix Forum isn’t available as a standalone product but is free to install on all Wix plans.

With Wix Forum, users can create customizable forums using different layout options. The forums include automated moderation tools to help keep conversations free of spam. Businesses can also put categories behind paywalls to monetize the forum.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• Monetization options
• Custom branding

Pricing: Plans start at $17 per month.

5. vBulletin Cloud

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The forum software vBulletin Cloud provides users with tools to host an online forum. To set up vBulletin Cloud, users can use a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) editor, and more skilled users can use the standard editor.

Additional features of vBulletin Cloud include sending public and private messages on the vBulletin app, supporting HTML, attaching images, and creating posts. The software also allows forum moderation by banning users, flagging posts, deleting content, and more.

Features:

• Integrated escalations
• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• Custom avatars
• WYSIWYG editor

Pricing: Plans start at $14.99 per month, billed annually. A seven-day free trial is available.

6. Discourse

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Discourse is forum software available as an open-source, self-hosted, or hosted solution. Hosted solutions require a paid license, but you can install the open-source Discourse on your own server for free. The software has a built-in mobile layout, allowing users to access the forum from their phone, laptop, or tablet.

Discourse has a trust system that grants tiered access to users based on their ongoing community contributions. This feature helps brands regulate the behavior of new and existing users and can reduce spammers. Discourse’s linear threads also help community members follow conversations without losing context.

Features:

• Integrated escalations
• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• Mobile app

Pricing: Plans start at $50 per month. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Discourse integrates with Zendesk.

7. MyBB

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MyBB is another free and open-source software that allows you to create a forum and host an online community. MyBB is customizable, including a built-in template and theme editor for customizing your forum’s design.

It also includes a reputation system and features like video embedding, polls, and private messages. Additionally, MyBB has moderation tools that allow you to view reported content and ban users to help keep your forum free of spam.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• Built-in template and theme editor

Pricing: Free

8. XenForo

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XenForo is built with PHP so people can share and discuss content. Using this community forum software, you can create Q&A and feedback threads, organize your forum with category trees, set permissions and controls, and bookmark content for later.

XenForo provides capabilities for organizing forum content, but it also has an intuitive WYSIWYG text editor that supports file attachments, link previews, and basic image editing. Businesses can also access and customize XenForo templates, controlling page layouts with HTML or CSS/LESS styling rules.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• WYSIWYG editor
• Templates

Pricing: Plans start at $54 per month, billed annually.

9. Gainsight

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Gainsight, formerly inSided, is a customizable online community platform allowing users to create a community-driven knowledge base, Q&As, and discussions. Gainsight also allows businesses to award badges and community members to like content.

The in-app embeddable feature lets users search your knowledge base and community content for answers without leaving the page. Beyond answering questions, you can use Gainsight to inform users of product updates and solicit their feedback on product roadmaps.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• Knowledge base
• Real-time updates

Pricing: Contact Gainsight

Recommended reading: Learn how Gainsight integrates with Zendesk.

10. WordPress

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WordPress provides tools for building websites and managing content. Users of the Creator plan are eligible to add free forum software plugins to their sites, like wpForo Forum and bbPress. With bbPress, you can build and maintain multisite forums from a single WordPress dashboard.

The other plugin, wpForo Forum, has native SEO and anti-spam features. It has multiple forum layout options like simplified, extended, and Q&A. You can extend your subscription to wpForo by purchasing additional add-ons.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Multiple layouts
• Theme customization

Pricing: Plans start at $25 per month.

Recommended reading: Learn how WordPress integrates with Zendesk.

11. Flarum

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Flarum is a free and open-source discussion platform that allows users to build a customizable forum site. The forum software features dozens of translation packs, allowing for the localization of forums and the ability to engage customers internationally.

Because of its simple design, Flarum only includes essential forum features, including posts, users, discussions, groups, and notifications. However, users can build out the functionality of a forum by utilizing third-party extensions.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Language localization
• Customizable themes

Pricing: Free

12. Bettermode

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Bettermode is a customizable community platform that enables you to create a community-based discussion board, Q&As, and a help center. Businesses can create their online community using pre-built templates or start from scratch. Members can translate community content from the default language in real time.

The community platform also includes gamification features like badges and a leaderboard to help reward the community’s top contributors. Additionally, Bettermode includes moderation features that can automatically flag posts based on set keywords.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• Real-time translation
• Member profiles

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per month, billed yearly. A free plan is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Bettermode integrates with Zendesk.

13. Drupal

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Drupal is an open-source content management system (CMS) with forum capabilities. Drupal’s forum module gives you all the necessary organizational and management capabilities to run a basic forum, allowing you to build threaded message boards where users can discuss issues with each other.

However, you’ll need to extend the forum module with other modules or try the Advanced Forum module for more sophisticated customizations. For example, the Advanced Forum module enables custom themes and forum statistics.

Features:

• Unified search
• Public and private options
• AI-powered spam protection
• WYSIWYG editor

Pricing: Free

Recommended reading: Learn how Drupal integrates with Zendesk.

14. Simple Machines Forum

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Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is another open-source software for online community building. SMF offers multilingual support, allowing businesses to reach a global audience. Furthermore, SMF has mobile themes to ensure forums remain accessible to smartphone and tablet users.

Member tracking and other features allow businesses to monitor user activity and growth by tracing IP addresses and creating sortable member lists. Forum statistics offer insights into popular topics, user engagement, and overall forum health.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Public and private options
• Multilingual support
• Mobile themes
• Forum statistics

Pricing: Free

15. BuddyBoss

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BuddyBoss is a software platform that helps users create online communities and courses. It integrates with the WordPress content management system, allowing users to use WordPress plugins and themes. Users can create forums, discussion boards, and private groups to foster interaction and engagement among members.

Additionally, BuddyBoss features a user management system with various permission levels, allowing for the creation of moderator groups to manage the online space effectively. Community dashboards give members a snapshot of recent activity.

Features:

• Community moderators and moderator groups
• Unified search
• Public and private options
• Gamification
• Community dashboard

Pricing: Plans start at $299 per year.

Community software can allow your customers to get quick answers to their questions, share information, and engage with other users. But that's not all. Here are some specific benefits forum software can have for your business:

• Increases customer engagement: Through gamification features like badges and voting, forum software makes engaging in your community fun and rewarding. People who successfully answer questions earn points for doing so and, in some cases, may acquire greater permission levels as their score increases.
• Provides clearer insights about customer needs: Customers talk to each other on forums about what works and what doesn’t, providing a distinct user perspective. By facilitating genuine conversations about your company, product, and service, forums create a new, unique source of customer feedback for your organization to mine for insights.
• Reduces support costs: An online community turns other users into a self-service resource. This reduces ticket volume by increasing ticket deflections, keeping support costs down, and freeing up your service agents’ time.
• Enables 24/7 support: If your current customer support channels rely on live agents working regular business hours, there may be times when your customers feel left in the dark. By implementing forum software, you’ll automatically provide customers with a self-service solution they can access 24/7.
• Creates more sales opportunities: Customers can organically learn about products from other customers they’d otherwise be unaware of. A service agent can also respond directly to a customer support thread to inform customers of a new or upgraded product that can help solve their problem.

When shopping around for the best forum software for your business, prioritize these five essential features.

• Integrated escalations: Help desk software integrations enable service agents to escalate a community post to a support ticket to continue the conversation when complex issues arise. In short, integrated ticket escalations within community forum software can enhance the customer experience by ensuring community members have a seamless way to receive support.
• Community moderators and moderator groups: Community moderator capabilities empower moderator groups to track questions, bring in support agents, and remove unruly users.
• Unified search: Users can easily search the contents of your entire forum to quickly find the information they are looking for, whether it is an answer to a question or an existing thread they want to comment on.
• Public and private options: Public forums allow for open discussions that anyone can participate in, attracting new members and promoting brand awareness. Meanwhile, private forums require members to log in to view and participate in exclusive discussions and track conversations that interest them.
• AI-powered spam protection: Whether flagging and removing malicious content or automatically detecting phishing attempts, AI-powered spam protection can keep a watchful eye over your community 24/7—ensuring your customers stay safe and saving your moderators time.

Selecting the right forum software may seem like an overwhelming process. Fortunately, keeping the following considerations in mind can help you choose the best forum software for growing a thriving online community for your business.

• Ensure the tool has adequate security features: Choose community software that follows cybersecurity best practices and industry standards to ensure the security and privacy of your business and customers. Better yet, picking software from a provider that meets global security and privacy compliance standards, like Zendesk, can help give you and your customers adequate protection and peace of mind.
• Assess the total cost of ownership: Forum software may be available with no licensing costs, but that doesn’t mean forum hosting is free. Deploying and hosting open-source software may require outside help, which will come at an additional cost. Plus, many forums don’t include integrated ticketing systems, which can increase expenses if you need to link threads to tickets. Consider what it might cost to license, configure, and maintain the forum software when weighing your options.
• Verify it has a fast time to value: The quicker you can get your forum up and running for your employees and customers, the better their experience will be. Zendesk gives you everything you need to set up your community forum right out of the box. That way, you can spend more time helping your customers and less time configuring tricky software.
• Look for a solution with a user-friendly interface: No matter what features a forum software offers, it won’t make an impact if your employees and customers don’t know how to use it. Because of this, you’ll want to prioritize a forum software with a user-friendly interface to host your branded support community.

Finding a solution that balances these criteria will help you get the most value out of your forum.