SHSelfHostIndex

PieFed vs SMF

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?
PI PieFed Federated discussion and link aggregation platform VS SM SMF Simple Machines Forum community bulletin board
FeaturePieFedSMF
CategoryForums & CommunityForums & Community
LicenseAGPL-3.0BSD-3-Clause
LanguagePythonPHP
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 600★ 745
First released20232004
ReplacesRedditvBulletin, phpBB

Why pick each one

Choose PieFed if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Python
PieFed details

Choose SMF if…

  • Reliable and well established
  • No licensing fees
SMF details

Frequently asked questions

Is PieFed or SMF better?

SMF is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider PieFed if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are PieFed and SMF free and open-source?

Yes. PieFed is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SMF under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run PieFed and SMF with Docker?

PieFed: yes. SMF: yes.

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