Forem
Forums & CommunityOpen source community platform behind DEV
Replaces Discourse, Reddit
Best Free Forums & Community for self-hosting
The 36 best Free forums & community you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
giscus
Forums & CommunityCommenting system powered by GitHub Discussions
Replaces Disqus
Spectrum
Forums & CommunityOpen-source platform for building online communities
Replaces Discord, Discourse
Utterances
Forums & CommunityComments widget powered by GitHub issues
Replaces Disqus
Lobsters
Forums & CommunityComputing-focused link aggregation and discussion site
Replaces Reddit, Hacker News
Fider
Forums & CommunityOpen platform for collecting and voting on feedback
Replaces Canny, UserVoice
Commento
Forums & CommunityPrivacy-friendly embeddable discussion widget
Replaces Disqus, Facebook Comments
FlaskBB
Forums & CommunityForum software written with Flask
Replaces phpBB
Laravel.io
Forums & CommunitySelf-hosted forum built on the Laravel framework
Replaces phpBB
Coral
Forums & CommunityOpen-source commenting platform for newsrooms
Replaces Disqus, Facebook Comments
Schnack
Forums & CommunityLightweight self-hosted commenting system
Replaces Disqus, Facebook Comments
Question2Answer
Forums & CommunityFree open-source Q&A platform in PHP
Replaces Stack Overflow, Quora
esoTalk
Forums & CommunitySimple, fast forum software for online discussion
Replaces phpBB, Discourse
Tildes
Forums & CommunityNon-profit community discussion platform
Replaces Reddit
Mouthful
Forums & CommunityLightweight self-hosted commenting engine
Replaces Disqus
vichan
Forums & CommunityLightweight image board software
Replaces 4chan-style boards
django-machina
Forums & CommunityForum engine for Django applications
Replaces phpBB
Lainchan
Forums & CommunityImage board engine forked from vichan
Replaces 4chan-style boards
YAF.NET
Forums & CommunityOpen-source forum software for ASP.NET
Replaces phpBB, vBulletin
Discuit
Forums & CommunityOpen-source community discussion platform
Replaces Reddit
FluxBB
Forums & CommunityFast, light and user-friendly forum application
Replaces phpBB
Shapado
Forums & CommunityOpen-source question and answer community software
Replaces Stack Overflow, Quora
AnsPress
Forums & CommunityQuestion and answer community plugin for WordPress
Replaces Stack Overflow, Quora
JForum
Forums & CommunityJava-based community discussion board
Replaces phpBB
PunBB
Forums & CommunityFast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board
Replaces phpBB
ElkArte
Forums & CommunityModern, free community forum software
Replaces SMF, phpBB
Lemmy-Easy-Deploy
Forums & CommunityStreamlined deployment scripts for Lemmy
Replaces Reddit
Discourse Chat Integration
Forums & CommunityBridge Discourse notifications to chat platforms
Replaces Forum email digests
Discourse-compatible Antville
Forums & CommunityLong-running community and weblog hosting platform
Replaces WordPress, phpBB
FUDforum
Forums & CommunityFast, scalable, customizable open-source forum
Replaces phpBB, vBulletin
Throat
Forums & CommunitySelf-hosted Reddit-style community platform
Replaces Reddit
Phorum
Forums & CommunityLightweight, mature PHP message board software
Replaces phpBB
bbPress
Forums & CommunityLightweight forum software that integrates with WordPress
Replaces phpBB, vBulletin
Flarum Tags Extension
Forums & CommunityOfficial tagging extension for Flarum forums
Replaces vBulletin categories
Discuz! X
Forums & CommunityWidely used Chinese-origin community forum system
Replaces phpBB, vBulletin
phpBB mChat
Forums & CommunityShoutbox extension for phpBB forums
Replaces vBulletin chatbox
No apps match these filters.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Free within the forums & community category. Compare them on the individual app pages for setup difficulty and resource requirements.