Forums provide the opportunity to build an online community that allows your audience to connect in a place where they know their interests are shared.
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More work, communication, and socialization are being done online than ever, so having the best forum software to reach your community goals is a must.
Online communities are particularly beneficial for businesses because they allow customers to interact with each other in a smaller circle than they could via social media, which increases engagement and brand affinity.
To help you reach and build your community using a forum, I', going to take you through the best forum software on the market.
1. WordPress (With Plugin)
Price: Free (plus the cost of hosting)
Using a multipurpose platform like a CMS to power your online community allows you to access many different software options in the form of plugins and applications.
For instance, you might use the bbPress plugin to create multisite forums and maintain them from one dashboard within your WordPress site. This is a great option if you want to set up a regular website and forum together.
WordPress offers many options, all of which provide the basic forum features you need, plus plenty of useful extras.
WordPress has been a popular CMS for many businesses and creators for almost 20 years, and it still receives praise for its user-friendliness and many useful plugins.
Reviews like the one below by a loyal user are very common for the tool.
Pro Tip: WordPress has a variety of plug-ins available can enhance the community experience, so I suggest testing out a few and see which you prefer.
2. Joomla!
Price: Starts at $99 per year (plus development and hosting costs)
Joomla! It is a CMS software like WordPress, but it requires more attention to detail and management. This is a robust CMS that will power your forum plugins like Kunena or EasyDiscuss, which are specifically created for Joomla!'s system.
The price point comes from the open-source content management system, which will allow you to build powerful online applications alongside your forum software.
Most users praise Joomla for being easy-to-use, flexible, and a stronger alternative to WordPress.
Pro Tip: Some users complain that while Joomla is a stronger CMS than WordPress it doesn't have as many plug-ins. So, if you want a variety of plug-ins available, you may prefer WordPress.
3. Discourse
Price: Starts at $50 per month
Discourse is open-source forum software that you can in tandem with your existing website and CMS platform.
Not only can community members use it on their mobile devices, but they'll also get dynamic notifications, badges, emoji, and more. Best of all, there's a built-in moderation system to help you protect your community from spam and abuse.
Many Discourse users say it's one of the best community-building and forum apps on the market and that it's user-friendly. Users also appreciate that it assigns badges and rewards to top forum contributors.
Pro Tip: While most users are satisfied with Discourse, a common complaint is that its customization options are limited. Some users work around this by leveraging a developer for more advanced customization and creation.
4. Higher Logic Vanilla Forums
Price: Variable based on your needs
Higher Logic Vanilla has an abundance of features — one of the most notable being the intuitive dashboard that lets you manage every aspect of your community forum.
This software allows you to view stats, manage users, and use an advanced editor that recognizes HTML, BBCode, and Markdown.
Additionally, it allows you to adjust the permissions of forums or members to control access.
The software enables customers to submit, view, and vote on ideas to drive innovation for your business or use the Q&A option to connect with and help each other get more out of your products or services.
Best of all, Higher Logic Vanilla offers an onboarding process with useful checklists, training materials, and help from one of their support reps.
I've found that many users love Higher Logic Vanilla's ability to create categories and groups so they can segment their forums. Other users praise its design functionality and how user-friendly the software is.
That said, some users say they'd like for it to have more email tools and features for personalization.
Best for: Integrating your site's learning management system, ticketing tool, or marketing platform, and more with your community to create a more delightful experience.
5. Codoforum
Price: Free
Codoforum is forum software that has a fresh UI with modern design. It's simple, clean, and easy to use. Codoforum is built with PHP using the latest coding patterns and is fully compliant with new PSR standards.
This software provides a responsive layout structure for mobile and desktop, SSO, and integration, as well as mentions notifications for users.
Best for: Since it's free to use, Codoforum is a good option if you're still testing out forums or are unsure whether it'll be useful for your website and community.
6. phpBB
Price: Free
PhpBB is a forum platform that has a typical and intuitive board set-up where users can post public or private messages. With phpBB, you can create as many internal messaging boards as you want without any additional costs.
Additionally, you can use extensions to add new options to your forum community. This makes the software very customizable and allows you to adapt the software to the growing needs of your audience.
PhpBB is praised for being easy to set up and highly customizable. It also offers multilanguage support.
What I Like: Among other things, phpBB lets you create password-protected forums for added security, sub-forums, the option to display active topics at the top of your forum, and the ability to add forum rules at the top of a forum to ensure your community abides by set guidelines.
7. VBulletin
Price: vBulletin 5 Connect $249, $15/month
Over 100,000 websites are built on vBulletin -- including NASA, EA, and Sony Pictures — so it's a popular option for hosting your forum.
The software includes tons of great features, including built-in SEO, security, and responsive web design. With VBulletin you can have an unlimited hierarchy of forums as well as private forums.
Best of all, VBulletin provides fun and unique features for your community members, including private messaging, a friends list, member birthdays (shown on the Forum homepage), and the ability to see who's online.
Pro Tip: VBulletin is not known for being the fastest forum, so if speed is important to you, this platform may not be the best match. However, its design is clean, and it offers quality support for its users.
8. Invision Community
Price: Varies for forum size/data needs, but starts at $45/month for 65 online visitors
IP Board was a very popular forum software that has since expanded to Invision Community, which includes a forum application in addition to its other offerings.
According to the Invision Community website, the forums module powers thousands of message boards around the web, and Invision Community has many other community management apps to help you interact with your audience.
What I Like: The software allows your users to take control of their own online communities, which you can monitor at your discretion.
For instance, Invision Community lets users create and manage their own communities, called "Clubs," which are fully integrated with your website.
These clubs have designated Club Leaders who can add new forums, calendars, or galleries to the community.
9. Flarum
Price: Free
Flaurm has a streamlined design that is extremely easy to navigate. Forums using this software are fully responsive, and features include smooth animations and available swipe features for mobile optimization.
What I Like: Flarum was built by the developers of esoTalk and FluxBB, two of the fastest forum platforms, and has great performance reviews.
10. MyBB
Price: Free
MyBB is a free and open-source forum software that powers thousands of communities.
It features hundreds of plugins and themes for customization, and the forum users will help you establish your own community. Users have also contributed to the translations available for the software's content.
Now, forums are available in over 30 languages to help you grow a more global community.
Best for: Businesses who want to build a global and accessible community.
Users appreciate that MyBB is open-source and user-friendly. They also appreciate the helpful tools and various plug-ins available.
11. Gainsight
Price: Variable based on your needs
Gainsight (formerly inSided) is a full-featured Community Platform aimed at Customer Success and Community professionals looking to increase engagement, advocacy, and effectively gather product feedback.
It has a killer combination of a customer community platform, a knowledge base, and in-app support.
What I Like: What sets it apart from other platforms is its integrations with software like Zendesk, Salesforce, Mixpanel, and Gainsight, so you can connect your community to your entire tech stack and create a 360-degree view of your customers.
Ways to Build Your Community Using Forum Software
People notice when brands listen to and converse with their customers, and they especially notice when brands foster their own communities. How?
Through the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Customers who view themselves as valued members of your community are much more likely to talk about your brand to their friends.
Here's how you can build a strong community using your forum software.
1. Spread the word.
Nobody will join your online community if they don't know it exists. Spread the word about your new forum by including CTAs to join your forum in email newsletters or social posts.
Ask your brand ambassadors or loyal fans to start posting about the forum, and post content on the forum so when other users join, you already have an established presence on the channel.
2. Listen to and check on your community regularly.
Reviewing your forum and responding to what your audience has to say is a crucial part of community building.
Your customers are far less likely to continue to interact and engage on your forum if they feel as though they are being ignored. Responding to their feedback shows your users that you value their opinions and care about their experiences with your product.
Additionally, it's your job to make sure everything is running smoothly on your forum. Checking on your community regularly will help you dissolve any service escalations, and give people the support they are seeking.
3. Foster a helpful discourse.
A forum should be a safe place for your customers, prospects, employees, fans, and audience to interact, ask, and answer questions.
By establishing a helpful ethos early on or creating community guidelines that prioritize patience and kindness within responses, your community will grow without the need to constantly monitor it 24/7.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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