SMF vs Tildes
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
Tildes
Non-profit community discussion platform
| Feature | SMF | Tildes |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 745 | ★ 1,000 |
| First released | 2004 | 2018 |
| Replaces | vBulletin, phpBB |
Why pick each one
Choose Tildes if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Active community (1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is SMF or Tildes better?
Neither is universally better. Tildes 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 Tildes free and open-source?
Yes. SMF is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Tildes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SMF and Tildes with Docker?
SMF: yes. Tildes: check the project docs for container support.