SMF vs vichan
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?
| Feature | SMF | vichan |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Tinyboard |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 745 | ★ 770 |
| First released | 2004 | 2012 |
| Replaces | vBulletin, phpBB | 4chan-style boards |
Why pick each one
Choose vichan if…
- Released under the Tinyboard license
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is SMF or vichan better?
Neither is universally better. vichan 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 vichan free and open-source?
Yes. SMF is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and vichan under Tinyboard. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SMF and vichan with Docker?
SMF: yes. vichan: check the project docs for container support.