Open Source Alternatives to vBulletin

Discourse

Modern forum and community platform

★ 47,956 Updated: Oct 2026 Status: Active

phpBB

The bulletin board software that helped define online forums, still going strong

★ 2,099 Updated: Oct 2026 Status: Active

C

Carbon Forum

High-performance, topic-based PHP forum

★ 1,836 Updated: Jan 2020 Status: Inactive

MyBB

Community forum software built by volunteers

★ 1,242 Updated: Sep 2026 Status: Active

S

SMF

Simple Machines Forum for building online communities

★ 750 Updated: Oct 2026 Status: Active

F

FluxBB

Free, fast and light forum application

★ 544 Updated: Mar 2023 Status: Inactive

P

PunBB

Small, speedy PHP discussion board

★ 201 Updated: Jul 2018 Status: Inactive

E

ElkArte

Modern community forum software derived from SMF

★ 189 Updated: Oct 2026 Status: Active

M

my little forum

Simple threaded PHP and MySQL forum

★ 151 Updated: Sep 2026 Status: Active

P

Phorum

The original PHP and MySQL forum software

★ 67 Updated: Aug 2026 Status: Active

F

FUDforum

Fast discussion forum that doubles as a mailing list manager

★ 51 Updated: Oct 2026 Status: Active

T

TangoBB

Simple bulletin board focused on ease of use

★ 26 Updated: Apr 2017 Status: Inactive

V

Vanilla Forums

A lightweight, highly extensible community forum software.

Status: Unknown