# Forum Software suggestions



## Techtech100 (Aug 15, 2019)

Hi Tech Support Forum, 

Apologies in advance if this is not the right place to post this but I was not sure where to post (admin's please feel free to direct me to the right place). 

I am working on a community project where students from university can engage with each other on various educational topics. 

I have done a bit of research but I am not sure which software to use that allows advance features and engage with the students actively. I want the forum to be comprehensive in terms of students gaining reps and are involved with academic activities, us posting and advertising events that the academic departments through banners via the forums etc. and allows me to make changes, migrate data if in the future I want to move to a different software, SEO friendly and targeted towards university students, nothing too technical or boring? 

I have looked into the software as below but I am really confused as to which one is the best in the market as I do not come from a tech background. :facepalm:

Can you direct me? 

here are some that keep coming up on google but I thought best to check with the tech experts 

https://www.vbulletin.com/en/ 
https://invisioncommunity.com/ 
https://plushforums.com/ 
Wotlab 
Mybb (not sure how good this is?)
Flarum 
Vanilla Forums
Zendesk forums
Telligent 
PHBB
Flux bb
Codologic


Thanks in advance! 

:smile:


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Many forums have recently gone on XenForo


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## Confounded Also (Aug 19, 2015)

Simple Machines Forum (SMF) will do everything you want and is very easy to use and highly configurable through add-on modules. 

https://www.simplemachines.org/

It's free as are some of the others you mentioned. Others you mentioned (VBB for one) can be very expensive and often require paid help to install or troubleshoot.

Note, while the 'free' ones are free for personal use, they usually require paid licenses for non-personal use. Whether or not they charge for academic use may vary as well. You would need to ask before installing.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

A lot depends on what add-ons'(Content management solutions(CMS) and blog are 2) you use or will need and which platform they are available for. 
XF 1.5 and VB4 probably have the most add-on content available.

Are you currently using any software now?

Is revenue a concern at all?


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## Techtech100 (Aug 15, 2019)

Confounded Also said:


> Simple Machines Forum (SMF) will do everything you want and is very easy to use and highly configurable through add-on modules.
> 
> https://www.simplemachines.org/
> 
> ...


Thank you - this is useful to know, I will explore this further


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## Techtech100 (Aug 15, 2019)

Wrench97 said:


> A lot depends on what add-ons'(Content management solutions(CMS) and blog are 2) you use or will need and which platform they are available for.
> XF 1.5 and VB4 probably have the most add-on content available.
> 
> Are you currently using any software now?
> ...


I appreciate the above, I don't have a blog but we have an academic site and we are hoping to link the two (forum and site) 

No we are not currently using any software (unless the site count's for WordPress?), and revenue would be a concern as we are hoping to get sponsors to sponsor events and promote some student level activity


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

How about wpForo from Wordpress since you are already using Wordpress the integration and learning curve many bo a lot easier.

In house sponsor content can be easily handled, I was mainly asking because the larger providers have more SEO add-on's for Google Adsense or it's alternatives.


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## Techtech100 (Aug 15, 2019)

Wrench97 said:


> How about wpForo from Wordpress since you are already using Wordpress the integration and learning curve many bo a lot easier.
> 
> In house sponsor content can be easily handled, I was mainly asking because the larger providers have more SEO add-on's for Google Adsense or it's alternatives.


Thank you for that, how do I add wpForo to our WordPress site or how can I do this myself? (or is there a demo I can check out) is it pretty straight forward? also if we wanted to migrate the forum plus content in the future to say VB would it be straight forward? 

We do not have any online presence so SEO add-ons would be super useful


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

wpForo is Wordpress addin > https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpforo/

I have never personally used it but from a couple of people I know who have it sounded pretty straight forward for small forums.

VB 4 & 5 are pretty unpopular with most sites moving to XenForo it seems a lot of the plug in/add-on authors are also.


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