giscus
Forums & CommunityCommenting system powered by GitHub Discussions
Replaces Disqus
Best Lightweight Forums & Community for self-hosting
The 22 best Lightweight forums & community you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
Utterances
Forums & CommunityComments widget powered by GitHub issues
Replaces Disqus
Lobsters
Forums & CommunityComputing-focused link aggregation and discussion site
Replaces Reddit, Hacker News
FlaskBB
Forums & CommunityForum software written with Flask
Replaces phpBB
Laravel.io
Forums & CommunitySelf-hosted forum built on the Laravel framework
Replaces phpBB
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
MyBB
Forums & CommunityFree and extensible community forum software
Replaces vBulletin, phpBB
Mouthful
Forums & CommunityLightweight self-hosted commenting engine
Replaces Disqus
vichan
Forums & CommunityLightweight image board software
Replaces 4chan-style boards
SMF
Forums & CommunitySimple Machines Forum community bulletin board
Replaces vBulletin, phpBB
Lainchan
Forums & CommunityImage board engine forked from vichan
Replaces 4chan-style boards
Lemmy-UI Alternative Photon
Forums & CommunityModern alternative web client for Lemmy instances
Replaces Reddit
FluxBB
Forums & CommunityFast, light and user-friendly forum application
Replaces phpBB
AnsPress
Forums & CommunityQuestion and answer community plugin for WordPress
Replaces Stack Overflow, Quora
PunBB
Forums & CommunityFast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board
Replaces phpBB
ElkArte
Forums & CommunityModern, free community forum software
Replaces SMF, phpBB
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
Phorum
Forums & CommunityLightweight, mature PHP message board software
Replaces phpBB
bbPress
Forums & CommunityLightweight forum software that integrates with WordPress
Replaces phpBB, vBulletin
No apps match these filters.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Lightweight within the forums & community category. Compare them on the individual app pages for setup difficulty and resource requirements.