phpBB Alternatives

Reviews and mentions

• Ask HN: Membership Management System
  1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 12 Dec 2021

  This might be too old school but you could deploy a forum have your members register then set ranks based on their memberships. For me an easy go-to would be phpBB [1] They could set email, profile info, interests, etc...

  [1] - https://www.phpbb.com/

• Would anyone be interested in joining a forum alongside this subreddit and discord server?
  2 projects | reddit.com/r/CodingHelp | 11 Nov 2021

  I'm thinking about diversifying how users can access CodingHelp by opening a forum. Either ran with MyBB, phpBB or XenForo (XF). This is something I would add in 2022 as I haven't even started looking into the 3 software platforms I would choose from. I know the differences from past experiences, but I haven't used them in years.

• Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community
  20 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 8 Nov 2021

  So what's everyone's favourite forum software? Which of the many packages out there would actually be suitable to replicate the usability of Slack/Discord, without making all of the messages disappear like in a black hole?

  1) Discourse: https://www.discourse.org/

  Looks pretty modern and also offers managed instances if you'd like, but i can't help but to feel that it's pretty JS heavy and there is perhaps too much whitespace, which makes navigating longer threads somewhat cumbersome. To me, it seems like a case of UI > UX, which is an upsetting trend that i've noticed ("make something pretty rather than something functional").

  2) Flarum: https://flarum.org/

  This one is perhaps a bit better in my eyes as far as the UX is concerned and seems to have actually been developed as a mobile first forum. It does have that modern look while at the same time being reasonably functional, and the idea of putting the forum structure tree in the sidebar actually works pretty well!

  3) phpBB: https://www.phpbb.com/

  Personally, this is my favourite from the "traditional" forum software, since it's really usable, it keeps a good information density, doesn't lose usability and isn't as JS heavy as any of the other alternatives. Also, there are plenty of plugins and even the default functionality provides you with most of the things that you'd like in a piece of forum software and the hardware requirements are pretty low.

  As someone who runs a phpBB forum or two myself, the biggest pain is perhaps updating, since you run into the very same issue of never knowing whether an update will break something or not and you might have to manually alter some config files if things go sideways. Also, admittedly, the admin UX could be better, but i guess that's just the software showing its age.

  That said, old is not necessarily always worse.

  4) Simple Machines Forum: https://www.simplemachines.org/

  To me, it looks like a slightly simpler alternative to phpBB, with similarly good readability, slightly lower information density, but overall a very similar look and feel to phpBB. Can't talk much about its features, but some people have recommended it in the past.

  Also, in regards to the free plan memory limitations, has anyone here experimented with self-hosted IM solutions? Personally i'm running a Rocket.Chat (https://rocket.chat/) instance which seems pretty nice and functional, for example, for a smaller software developer team, though others also have had good experiences with Mattermost (https://mattermost.com/) or other software.

• Ask HN: What is the next Reddit, for you? (2020)
  6 projects | reddit.com/r/AltTech | 21 Oct 2021

  https://www.phpbb.com - the #1 free, open source bulletin board software

• What is the best, most private and most secure way to make a forum?
  1 project | reddit.com/r/cybersecurity | 17 Sep 2021

  Is phpBB good? : https://www.phpbb.com/ What about ProBoards? : https://www.proboards.com/ Which one of them is best for privacy and security in your opinion? Are these ones here better? : https://www.wix.com/blog/2020/05/best-forum-software/

• Will the Linux Mint forum also get a new look?
  1 project | reddit.com/r/linuxmint | 17 Sep 2021

  Everything else got update, and this is the official forums... Not sure why it wouldn't be, that said it is just running phpBB with a minty green theme so who knows.

• Lemmy a federated open-source alternative to Reddit
  15 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 7 Sep 2021
• We need a new platform other than Reddit that truly promotes free speech. The decline into censorship and banning those for no good reason at all is not something I want to be a part of.
  2 projects | reddit.com/r/Libertarian | 1 Sep 2021

  You know, like an actual forum. Like something like this: https://www.phpbb.com/ https://www.simplemachines.org/

• Is there any self-hosted private community software?
  5 projects | reddit.com/r/selfhosted | 24 Aug 2021

  The classic https://www.phpbb.com/ forum software has this functionality, including hidden forums that only certain user groups had visibility to.

• Help document this on nelkscam.com & wizzascam.com
  1 project | reddit.com/r/NelkFilmz | 14 Jul 2021
• Genesis and Web-forum Building...?
  1 project | reddit.com/r/Wordpress | 2 Jul 2021

  They may use the Genesis theme for the site, but the forum is integrated with phpBB forum software. You can find it here: https://www.phpbb.com

• Is the Malazan Empire Forum down for anyone else?
  1 project | reddit.com/r/Malazan | 15 Jun 2021

  Is this perhaps an option, if the death of the current forum is permanent?: https://www.phpbb.com/

• Need suggestions for a MASSIVE forum
  1 project | reddit.com/r/webdev | 24 May 2021
• thinking about starting a forum website, any advice?
  1 project | reddit.com/r/DevelEire | 11 May 2021

  I used phpBB in the past, though I've not actually used it in well over ten years. It's open source, so you could use that as a base for learning.

• Plan B Proposal
  1 project | reddit.com/r/Wallstreetsilver | 4 May 2021

  In addition to the current newsletter, I propose to setup a traditional Bulletin Board: https://www.phpbb.com/