Is Flarum a Good Choice for My Upcoming Community Forum?

Kabir

I’m new here and excited to be part of this community!

I’m currently planning a non-profit community project and exploring options for building a modern, feature-rich forum. While I’ve been familiar with MyBB for a long time, it seems like the platform isn’t evolving much anymore. So, I’m considering Flarum as an alternative for my upcoming project.

Here are my basic requirements:

Mobile Support: Either an Android app or a fully mobile-responsive design is essential.
Invitation System: Users should be able to invite others, with invitation details displayed on profiles (e.g., "Invited by" and "Invited to").
Installation & Updates: I need a simple way to handle installation and updates via cPanel.
Freeware: As this is a non-profit initiative, I need the platform to be open-source or free.
User Features: User badges, ratings, and permission-level access for better engagement and moderation.

My Questions:

Does Flarum meet these requirements out of the box, or will I need significant customization?
Are there must-have extensions/plugins I should consider?
How easy is it to manage updates and maintenance via cPanel?
How does Flarum compare to MyBB in terms of performance and flexibility?
Any hidden costs or challenges I should be aware of?

Your advice will mean a lot as I’m making a decision for this project. Thanks for having me here—I’m looking forward to learning and contributing!

Take Love
Kabir

huseyinfiliz

Kabir I believe this discussion is important not only for you but also for anyone planning to create a forum.

I have tried several software like MyBB, vBulletin, and XenForo over the years.

When I last used MyBB, there were no automatic updates, and everyone I knew continued using older versions. The main reason for this was the lack of support from the core team for developers, except for a few MyBB plugin developers. At that time, I had to purchase nearly 10 paid plugins and themes.

I’m relatively new to Flarum; I discovered it six months ago. However, especially when compared to MyBB, my only answer to this question would definitely be Flarum.

Core extensions and FriendsOfFlarum extensions will already meet most of your needs.

Does Flarum meet these requirements immediately, or will I need significant customization?

Mobile support (including PWA), an invitation system (via extensions), and automatic forum and extension updates come with an experience similar to WordPress. Badges, profile comments, and hundreds of extensions are actively maintained.

Are there must-have extensions/add-ons I should consider?

Yes, at the very least, you can check the https://freeflarum.com/extensions page, which contains a small list of tested and verified extensions. You can find the most popular extensions there.

How easy is it to manage updates and maintenance via cPanel?

I need to answer this with a comparison. It’s much easier than MyBB. However, it’s not as simple as WordPress. Occasionally, manual intervention may be required due to issues caused by certain extensions.

How does Flarum compare to MyBB in terms of performance and flexibility?

It depends on what you mean, and I think you should test it yourself to see.

Are there any hidden costs or difficulties I should be aware of?

SSH. While Flarum can be used without SSH, sometimes it’s the best way to resolve issues.

All of this is based on my 6-month user experience. During this time, I’ve experimented with developing a few extensions, and the support from the community made me very happy.

My top recommendation is to create a free forum at https://freeflarum.com.

You can achieve everything you want there. If it meets your needs, you can even connect your domain to it and enjoy a seamless experience. You’ll also eliminate hosting costs.

Spez

Kabir I switched from Xenforo to Flarum and I find there are 2 necessary notes when using Flarum. First, if you install Flarum on your hosting and manage it using cpanel, be sure to sign up for hosting that supports SSH access. Second, you have to learn a little about Composer. All Flarum installations and updates go through Composer. However, if you don't know much about composer like me, there are still other options, for example installing Flarum using a zip file; Install and update Extensions using Extensions manager. However, when updating Flarum, I still have to use Composer, I haven't found any other way.

Kabir

huseyinfiliz Thank you for your detailed reply. Your reply helps me a lot.

RelicSystem

I'm a bit tired from writing all day, so I'm not feeling very wordy, so forgive the terse response. While I'm a big fan of the idea of 'give it a go' via Freeflarum (never tried it myself), I think getting to grips with it yourself on your own platform is also a good idea.

In terms of management via CPanel, I've managed one via Plesk for probably around 2 years now with little to no issues. When I first started using Flarum, the extension manager (https://docs.flarum.org/internal/extension-manager/) did not exist, so it was a lot more tedious jumping into a terminal and managing Flarum. But as things stand at present, unless I'm doing something silly, the extension manager does a good deal of the work.

I did see it was compared to WordPress in terms of management - if set up correctly, it's on par with, and you can do most of what you need to do via the extension manager.

In terms of useful/must-have extensions - I don't know your needs, but MyBB is fairly feature-rich, so I would use the official Flarum extensions list to work out 'what people are using’: https://flarum.org/extensions?tableSortColumn=downloads&tableSortDirection=desc

I would say FOF/Upload ( https://flarum.org/extension/fof/upload) is a requirement for most people (should be shifted into core IMO).

In terms of your actual list:

https://flarum.org/extension/fof/doorman - handles invites
Extension manager (comes with Flarum) does everything you'll need - shouldn't need CPanel beyond database setup, although YMMV
I mean, the license terms you could have checked yourself in a matter of seconds, but sure, here is a page: https://flarum.org/software/benefits that breaks all that down .
User features : lots of these exist, mostly in the form of extensions and in many cases more than one. In short, do your own research. Because of the way Flarum extensions are posted (with a discussion attached normally), you can do a full look over the history of the extension to see how well it’s supported and in general what issues people are running into.
Mobile support ... so far as I'm aware, no native apps exist. PWA is an option, but I haven't looked too deep into this.

Does Flarum meet these requirements out of the box, or will I need significant customization? Depends on what you want to do. Based on what I've read, you could have most of it up within an hour (not including messing with visuals).
Are there must-have extensions/plugins I should consider? Yep, IMO, fof/upload as noted above, but do your own research.
How easy is it to manage updates and maintenance via cPanel? Easy, but YMMV depends on how your cPanel is set up and how your knowledge set can deal with whatever issues you may encounter.
How does Flarum compare to MyBB in terms of performance and flexibility? no idea.
Any hidden costs or challenges I should be aware of? Depends on what you do, I guess. The core is FOSS, and a massive amount of the extensions are FOSS too. Some cost money (one-off, yearly), others are subscriptions (hate subs), but for the most part, unless you are looking for something very specific, you can coast cost-free. If your needs exceed what's offered, then expect a developer to want to be paid for your request (usually via bounty).

I think you need to dig into the documents, wander the community, and check out the extensions list (all linked above) to find out if Flarum suits you, maybe setup a dev/staging setup and play with the 'product' before making your own decision.

Kabir

RelicSystem Thank you for your detailed reply. I hope you can assist me with the Doorman extension when you are free.

About the Doorman extension? Can every registered user create an invite code? Does it display invitation details in the user profile, such as which user was invited by whom and which users they have invited? It is a mandatory requirement to track users and ensure proper moderation, as my upcoming forum may extend beyond known people. We need to maintain peace.

luceos

People don’t buy from companies, they buy from people. And the best people to sell your product are the ones who use it and love it.

😍 Thank you @RelicSystem and @huseyinfiliz for drafting such great, extensive replies. I applaud your contributions.

More recommendations can be found here: https://www.slant.co/topics/898/viewpoints/7/~best-web-forum-software-packages~flarum#recommendations (although it seems there are no recent ones).

Kabir

I also need at least 10-12 user groups based on their professions and roles in the forum. My upcoming forum community is for civilians of all ages and genders. I may also use the user group names as badges. If there is a way to assign two different user groups to a user — for example, one as Administrator and another as Teacher — and display only the Teacher badge in their profile while still allowing them access to administrator-level permissions, it would be a great feature.
Is this feature available by default, or will I need to add extensions? Sorry for asking too many questions!

luceos

Kabir not visible to you but I hold many more roles than the ones you can see. You can make roles invisible to non-elevated users.

Kabir

luceos So I can assign multiple roles and hide if I want. That's a relief to know.

huseyinfiliz

Spez In Flarum, updating to the latest version can be achieved by simply installing, uninstalling, or initiating a batch update for extensions via the Extension Manager. This process automatically updates Flarum to the latest version. At least, this has been the case in many forums I’ve tested.

Additionally, I believe this will be more noticeable in version 2.0. In the promotional visuals, core updates were shown in the Extension Manager as well. (Currently, when I test it, core updates do not appear when I click Check for updates in 2.0.0.beta1 but auto updated)

Note: When I tested it, it seemed like I could update Flarum through the Extension Manager, just as if I were installing an extension.

I typed "flarum/core:v2.0.0-beta.2," and it updated automatically. For you, this might appear as something like "flarum/core:v1.8.9."

Kabir

Spez Flarum on your hosting and manage it using cpanel, be sure to sign up for hosting that supports SSH access.

If this is the case, it's a big deal for me. The person(s) supposed to maintain the forum once it's finished shouldn't have SSH access to my server. They aren't experienced enough to be trusted with SSH. By the way, could you please let me know the version you're using so I can avoid that version?

SychO

huseyinfiliz core updates were shown in the Extension Manager as well

that is also the case for 1.8, you just have to initiate an update check after some time to make sure the cached results are updated. Although it probably doesn't matter that much anymore..

Kabir

huseyinfiliz I don't like auto-updates. Auto-updates in any CMS can pose a risk of things becoming complicated. However, it's great to display if an update is available, as long as it doesn't update automatically.

One more thing—what is the most stable version I should choose? I prefer a version that doesn't require SSH or Composer for installation or updates.

Spez

huseyinfiliz Note: When I tested it, it seemed like I could update Flarum through the Extension Manager, just as if I were installing an extension.

I typed "flarum/core:v2.0.0-beta.2," and it updated automatically. For you, this might appear as something like "flarum/core:v1.8.9."

New knowledge. Thank you.

huseyinfiliz

SychO This is very interesting. I’ve updated Flarum dozens of times on different servers, but I’ve never seen a core update appear. Usually, Flarum updates automatically while updating a different extension.

If that’s the case, as you can see from this discussion, people are very confused about this. I think a clearer system needs to be implemented.

luceos

huseyinfiliz Usually, Flarum updates automatically while updating a different extension

This is actually true for minor and patch releases. Your composer.json restricts flarum to a major version as depicted by flarum/core set at a certain value.

Kabir

luceos What is the most stable version I should choose? I prefer a version that doesn't require SSH or Composer for installation or updates.

Spez

Kabir As far as I know, Flarum only has 2 versions: normal version and no-public-dir version. It's just different in Flarum's path. Flarum installs and updates using Composer, that's the basics. However, as I said, you can install and update Extensions (Plugins) using the Extensions Manager tool available on Flarum. And as @huseyinfiliz said, you can also update the Flarum version using ExtensionsManager. The version I use is the no-public-dir version, I see a lot of people using this version.

Kabir

Anyway, I am sure of one thing: the community is rich and responsive. Whether the issue is resolved or not, an immediate response matters a lot. You guys are amazing!
@huseyinfiliz @SychO @Spez @RelicSystem @luceos