SMF vs Spectrum
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
Spectrum
Open-source platform for building online communities
| Feature | SMF | Spectrum |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 745 | ★ 10,837 |
| First released | 2004 | 2017 |
| Replaces | vBulletin, phpBB | Discord, Discourse |
Why pick each one
Choose Spectrum if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 10.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is SMF or Spectrum better?
Neither is universally better. Spectrum has the larger community, while SMF is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are SMF and Spectrum free and open-source?
Yes. SMF is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Spectrum under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SMF and Spectrum with Docker?
SMF: yes. Spectrum: yes.