With the wide availability of free forums and low-cost forums, we suggest looking at what is available on the Internet before trying to create forum software from scratch. Below is a short listing of some popular and widely used forums on the Internet.

  • Simple Machines - Fantastic free forum system that Computer Hope forums are currently using. If your server supports PHP and MySQL, this is a great solution.
  • YaBB - Short for Yet another Bulletin Board, YaBB is great, free, open-source forum software that is easy to use and install. Computer Hope initially used YaBB to power its primary forum.
  • phpBB - Another excellent PHP bulletin board that is also widely used.
  • vBulletin - Another great and powerful forum program that requires a small license fee to use.
  • Forumotion - If setting up a forum sounds too involved, consider Forumotion who will host and maintain a forum for you.
  • Search for others - Click here to search for other free bulletin board solutions.

The above forums and bulletin boards must be installed and set up on a web server you control. There are also web hosting, ISPs, and third-party companies that set up and run your forum for you. If you’re hosting your website through another company, look at their available options and free scripts; often, most offer a free forum you can enable on their server.

If you are interested in installing and setting up a forum, we suggest you refer to the company’s website for additional setup information and help if you encounter problems.

If your web host does not offer a free forum solution, or is incapable of supporting a forum, you might want to consider using a third-party site. Examples of third-party forum hosts include bestfreeforums and Forumotion.

  • How to get more visitors on my forum.
  • See the forum definition for further information and related links.
  • HTML and web design help and support.