SMF vs Vanilla Forums
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
SMF
Simple Machines Forum community bulletin board
VS
Vanilla Forums
Open-source community forum software
| Feature | SMF | Vanilla Forums |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Social Networks |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 745 | ★ 2,800 |
| First released | 2004 | 2009 |
| Replaces | vBulletin, phpBB | phpBB, Discourse |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is SMF or Vanilla Forums better?
Neither is universally better. Vanilla Forums 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 Vanilla Forums free and open-source?
Yes. SMF is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Vanilla Forums under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SMF and Vanilla Forums with Docker?
SMF: yes. Vanilla Forums: yes.