ElkArte vs Lobsters
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted forums & community options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
ElkArte
Modern, free community forum software
VS
Lobsters
Computing-focused link aggregation and discussion site
| Feature | ElkArte | Lobsters |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 187 | ★ 4,814 |
| First released | 2013 | 2012 |
| Replaces | SMF, phpBB, vBulletin | Reddit, Hacker News |
Why pick each one
Choose ElkArte if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Lobsters if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Active community (4.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is ElkArte or Lobsters better?
Neither is universally better. Lobsters has the larger community, while ElkArte is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are ElkArte and Lobsters free and open-source?
Yes. ElkArte is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Lobsters under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run ElkArte and Lobsters with Docker?
ElkArte: check the project docs for container support. Lobsters: check the project docs for container support.