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ElkArte

Modern, free community forum software

Forums & Community ★ 189 stars Easy setup BSD-3-Clause

ElkArte is a modern, free, and open-source community forum platform derived from SMF. It emphasizes a clean interface, drag-and-drop posting features, and a flexible permission system.

Official siteSource code

Key features

  • Drag-and-drop attachments
  • Granular permissions
  • Mention and notification system
  • Theme support

Strengths

  • Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in PHP
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM

Is ElkArte secure?

1 known vulnerability affects ElkArte's latest release (v1.1.9) according to OSV.dev; the most severe is rated high.

Affecting v1.1.9

AdvisorySeveritySummary
CVE-2024-58295HighElkArte Forum 1.1.9 Authenticated Remote Code Execution via Theme Upload

Source: OSV.dev, checked 2026-10-14. How this is measured.

ElkArte replaces

Self-hosted SMF alternativesSelf-hosted phpBB alternativesSelf-hosted vBulletin alternatives

Health badge

Maintain ElkArte? Add its health score to your README. The badge links back to this page.

SelfHostIndex: 56 · fair

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   :alt: SelfHostIndex health score for ElkArte
   :target: https://selfhostindex.com/app/elkarte/

The score is recomputed on every nightly rebuild from public repository data — see how it is calculated.

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