WWWBoard was the original threaded discussion forum for the web. Today, powerful forum software offers rich features for community building.
Forum Software
Civilized discussion platform for the next decade of the Internet. Real-time updates, trust levels, gamification. Used by GitHub, Atom, Docker.
Simple, elegant forum software. Fast, extensible, mobile-first design. Built with PHP and Mithril.js. Active extension ecosystem.
Node.js-based forum platform. Real-time notifications, social media integration, mobile-ready. Supports MongoDB, Redis, or PostgreSQL.
Standards-based, flexible community forum. Clean design, extensive customization, enterprise features. Cloud and self-hosted options.
World's most popular open source bulletin board. 20+ years of development, thousands of extensions, extensive documentation.
Free and open source forum software. Feature-rich, easy to use, active plugin ecosystem. Good balance of power and simplicity.
Professional grade forum software. Powerful, customizable, with extensive theme and mod library. Lightweight and efficient.
Premium forum software by the creators of vBulletin 3.x. Modern architecture, responsive design, extensive add-on marketplace.
Complete community suite. Forums, blogs, galleries, commerce. Cloud-hosted with self-hosted option available.
Fast, light, user-friendly forum software. Clean code, easy to customize, minimal resource requirements.
Minimal bulletin board system. Very small footprint, easy to install, flat-file option available.
| Feature | WWWBoard | Modern Forums |
|---|---|---|
| User accounts | No | Yes |
| Moderation | Manual delete | Full tools |
| Private messaging | No | Yes |
| Search | None | Full-text |
| Mobile support | No | Responsive |
| Real-time | No | WebSockets |
| Spam protection | None | AI + CAPTCHA |
| Media embeds | No | Yes |
Modern & powerful: Discourse
Simple & elegant: Flarum
Classic & proven: phpBB
Enterprise: XenForo