SMF vs Mouthful
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?
SMF
Simple Machines Forum community bulletin board
VS
Mouthful
Lightweight self-hosted commenting engine
| Feature | SMF | Mouthful |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 745 | ★ 774 |
| First released | 2004 | 2018 |
| Replaces | vBulletin, phpBB | Disqus |
Why pick each one
Choose Mouthful if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is SMF or Mouthful better?
Neither is universally better. Mouthful has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are SMF and Mouthful free and open-source?
Yes. SMF is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Mouthful under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SMF and Mouthful with Docker?
SMF: yes. Mouthful: yes.