SHSelfHostIndex
VA

Vanilla Forums

Open-source community forum software

Social Networks Archived ★ 2.8k stars Medium setup GPL-2.0

This project is archived. Upstream development has stopped, so expect no new features or security fixes. Consider an actively maintained social networks alternative.

Vanilla is an open-source community forum and discussion software written in PHP. It powers Q&A communities, idea boards, and traditional forums with a plugin and theme ecosystem.

Official siteSource code

Key features

  • Discussions, Q&A, and ideas
  • Plugin and theme system
  • Social sign-in
  • REST API

Pros & cons

Strengths

  • Flexible community formats
  • Established platform

Trade-offs

  • Best features in cloud edition
  • Setup can be involved

Vanilla Forums replaces

Self-hosted phpBB alternativesSelf-hosted Discourse alternatives

Compare Vanilla Forums

6 head-to-head comparisons.

Similar social networks apps