Flarum vs Vanilla Forums
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Flarum
Simple, fast, free forum software
VS
Vanilla Forums
Archived
Open-source community forum software
| Feature | Flarum | Vanilla Forums |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,751 | ★ 2,800 |
| First released | 2015 | 2009 |
| Replaces | phpBB, vBulletin | phpBB, Discourse |
What are Flarum and Vanilla Forums?
Flarum
Flarum is a free, open-source forum software designed to be simple, fast, and elegant. It uses a single-page interface with an extension system for adding features.
- Single-page reactive UI
- Extension marketplace
- Mobile-friendly design
- Tag-based organization
Vanilla Forums
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.
- Discussions, Q&A, and ideas
- Plugin and theme system
- Social sign-in
- REST API
Flarum vs Vanilla Forums: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Vanilla Forums's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Flarum is actively maintained. Both projects are written in PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Flarum versus GPL-2.0 for Vanilla Forums. Vanilla Forums is the more established project (first released 2009), while Flarum arrived in 2015. Flarum has the considerably larger community, at 6,751 GitHub stars versus 2,800.
Why pick each one
Choose Flarum if…
- Fast and clean interface
- Easy to extend
Watch out for
- Smaller core feature set
- Relies on extensions for parity
Choose Vanilla Forums if…
- Flexible community formats
- Established platform
Watch out for
- Best features in cloud edition
- Setup can be involved
Frequently asked questions
Is Flarum or Vanilla Forums better?
Neither is universally better. Flarum has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Flarum and Vanilla Forums free and open-source?
Yes. Flarum is licensed under MIT and Vanilla Forums under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Flarum and Vanilla Forums with Docker?
Flarum: yes. Vanilla Forums: yes.