Simple Machines Forum (SMF)

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Great forum tools, and great support for them.

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You guys really rock! I love your webinstall feature, does all the dirty installation work for you while you're drinking beer! Complex forum or a small corporate BB board - SMF is gotta be your choice.

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I've been using SMF for years on several sites, it's the best free forum software I've seen.

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It is mostly the fastest forum ever, with a great support, clean codes. Whatever one may need.

Author: Terra Firma Design

Not only is it free, but it's well-written and easy to extend or modify. Much, much better than phpBB, its closest competitor.

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You could not ask for anything simpler to load and operate.

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This forum is fantastic with lots of features and the option to install more features if you want. If your looking for a fantastic, fast and free forum, SMF is the one you should choose.

Author: John

Did I mention easy? How about helpful support? How about helpful and FAST support? Yes to all. Mind you, this is the opinion of a non-technical newbie user who needed a message board/forum for guests on his website and needed it to be simple for HIM -and easy for the guests/members to use. This puppy passes on all counts. Get you one!

Author: Abdullah

I have been using smf now for many years and know well what I am talking about. The script in many ways is comparable to vbulletin, which you pay $160! with the difference that smf is free. Let me tell you in other words: smf is free, but I volontarily chose twice so far to be a Charter member (thus donating $50 / year each). I think you see the point. SMF works nicely and is not even as resource greedy as vbulletin. vbulletin is richer on some features. but smf is really lovely.

Author: Chris

IMO this is one of the best forum options out there, especially since its free. Very comparable to Invision and well maintained. I would have rated it a straight 5, but due to issues with Bridges to CMS's, which is almost always needed, had to drop it one. Other than that, this is a great piece of work.

Author: shadow82x

I went though all of them... phpBB2 and phpBB3, IP.Board, IPB 1.3, Ikonboard, mybb, xmb, and even vB. I would have to say this is the best software out of all them, best of it's free! Yes it's very surprising to see a FREE software doing as good as the paid ones. SMF is considered paid for me not just becuase I'm paying for charter membership but feature wise. I would recommend anyone to using this software. The team is great and the community is nice with fast acting support. SMF always wins.

Author: chris jenkins

I have run this for about 3 years now and am totally pleased with SMF. They even let people show 3rd party mods on their website. Way better than phpbb, I have to conclude!

Author: Bill

Hello, This is a really good php open source forum ! I mean, it's complete, you have many basic features and even more mods thanks to a growing community. Moreover, the code remains easy to use, to customize and the forum, easy to administrate. This a good point for PHP beginners like I am. :-)

Author: burro

I used PHPBB quite a bit for a while, but now I much prefer SMF. PHPBB has a very closed community -- very restricted feedback channels -- and they appear to be falling behind in developing the most important tools and framework relaitve to SMF. SMF is doing a lot of things right -- installing mods is a breeze, they seem to be foscuing on the right features such as increased separation of apeparance from content and functionality. Not perfect yet, but excelent and in the right directions.

Author: aku

SMF is simply the best free forum system available! It is simple to use and simple to install just like the name and the support staff is extremely helpful as well. Its wide library of mods/hacks/addons make it a perfect solution for a very wide range of uses and users. I would recommend this forum to everyone who is looking for a forum system.

Author: Robert

If you are looking for the most powerful forum our there this is the one for you. If you are looking for the most user friendly forum out there again this is the software for you. Frequent upgrades, easy to install mod’s via a package manager. Only issue is there are not tons of skins, but its so “easy” to skin that that isn’t even an issue.

Author: Ruskin

I dread doing updates/upgrades. SMF is so newbie friendly that didn't even know I'd done the update until it was almost done! It was literally about 2 clicks and I was finished! Tons of help on their support forum too! Thanks SMF!

Author: Jim Auldridge

With it's incredibly easy install, amazing site integration tools, easy going intelligent support people, and amazing price tag (free) SMF is the clear leader in Forum and Bulletin Board software. I don't recommend you look at any other board--try this one and you'll be pleased.

Author: Mike

The capabilities of this piece of software is without doubt. What really impresses me is the 24/7 availability of a very strong community. Because of its open source nature, the community is made up of a HUGE number of veteran developers, and more importantly, they have an open source mentality, meaning they're happy to share! If you're running a serious community forum and not using SMF, there is something seriously wrong with you. I would rate it as 6 if i could.

Author: Daniel Lo Nigro

SMF is the best forum software that was ever created! The main aim of the SMF Team is to make a forum that's simple to use, yet feature packed. They have achieved this aim with flying colours. SMF has features that all the other forum software can only dream of, like a package manager for automatic installation of MODs, and an 'SSI' file. With the SSI file, you can grab posts from the forum and show them on your website, all with only a few lines of code! Overall, well done to the SMF Team!

Author: Joel Kuan Han-Yu

i like smf because of the mods and theme. SMF mods are really easy to install while the themes are very creative. Although phpBB have more mods and themes than SMF but their mods are hard to install! I recommend smf! Oh yeah, its very safe too! So far i never heard anyone with SMF got hacked.

Author: Tim Ceuppens

Who said that you get what you pay for? Because the best things in life really are free. SMF picks up where others stop. Most mods elsewheres are standard features on SMF. It's amazingly fast and through a terrifcly thought of SSI feature I was able to build an entire website around the forum. Four thumbs up!

Author: Martin

I used it for three months then an update screwed it up. They tell you they have mods, so you modify your board, but their updates erase or disable your mods, so you have to reinstall them. Until they get updates that do not effect your mods, I would stay away from this one. Why modify your board then have to start over again? There are over 500 forums in this area to try. I have tried many and found that paying for it is the best way since I need a stable and low geek factor forum.

Author: gratis

while searching for free forum software. I put up a couple of different ones and SMF was the best. I had some trouble with the install (my fault)and their support was fast, gracious, and really pulled me through.

Author: Matthew

A really good free forum system. Thankyou simple machines for providing it to me for free!

Author: Abdullah

I honestly find smf an excellent script to use. It has all the features I need for my forums, even features that you can not find in paid software such as vbulletin. I can't but congratulate the developpers of that great job they did. I am really impressed. I have used vbulletin, invision board, phpbb, and pnphpbb for many years... and I never saw anything even close to smf. SMF is really what every forum admin needs. you have an absolute control of what your members are allowed to do. I love it

Author: Rob Stone

I tried many different forums looking for the right one for my website, and I have yet to find one that rivals SMF. It's easy to install and set up, it's fast, it looks good, and still manages to pack in an impressive amount of functionality and customisation. If I had to criticise it, I would say that it's caused me to waste a large amount of my spare time just playing around with it and seeing what it can do! Strongly recommended.

Author: ben

Absolutely top-class forum software. I use multiple languages on my site and have never had a problem. Excellent software and good support forums.

Author: Daniel Tarry

I've just installed this, not come across any problems yet but you never know! No, that's very negative, it's just great!

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Works flawlessly, fastest and most reliable forum around. I defenatly recommend it.

Author: Michael

If you're in the market for a forum system, don't settle for anything until you've tested out SMF. I never thought anybody could pack so many features into a free system, but the developers have somehow managed to accomplish this. This system has just about everything you could ever want in a forum system - polls, a quick reply box, powerful permissions system, powerful template system that's easy to understand, easy-to-use admin center, lots of moderator features (including the ability to split one or more posts into a seperate topic and the ability to merge two or more topics into one) and tons of other goodies, such as XML, RSS and RSS2 feeds, 3 different wireless modes and an automatic mod installer. Simply put, SMF is the most powerful and most feature-packed free forum system out there. Don't settle for anything less.

Author: Tau Online

I have used and tested many other forum softwares, although I have found nothing to match the quality of Simple Machines Forums. The support is great, and the code is well written and maintained. Things seemed daunting to me when I first changed to using SMF, although that was because there were so many features. Once you get used to SMF, you'll start to discover the capabilites of it. I have been using SMF for almost a year, and am still finding new features! If you're doubtful, just give SMF a try. That's what I did, and I don't regret it.

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SMF is amazing, instant install of mods with the package manager and upgrades take seconds, they dont even effect modifications! With no hostory of security issues, SMF is the best forum software out there. The community is better than any other and the developers are willing to help even the newest of people, no system better on the web. If your conisdering starting an online community then this is the way to go. If you want to change forum system, theres an easy way to do that too!

Author: Dani

I tested many other popular PHP forums before deciding to use SMF. The main reasons why I picked it for my newest site are the following: - ease of use for members and administrators - ease of upgrading, adding mods, and themes - speed of forum loading - out of the box options available on the forum - forum security - resource usage in how intensive would the forum be on the server SMF excels at each of the above. It has a package manager for automatic updates, it has more out of the box options that are mods on several other open source/free bulletin boards, it is fast and well-coded as well as having good security. The jewel in the crown for this script, however, is their support forum. They have the most helpful and nice people to answer your questions, whatever they might be.

Author: Rick Caudill

I've used other forum software, but none can match the speed and versatility of SMF. If you want a software that is easy to install, highly customizable, and has thousands of happy users backing it, then you want SMF. Even if you are running another forum, try out SMF, I bet you’ll like the admin panel better, and I know I did. SMF will allow you to convert from just about any other message board without loosing users or posts! I fully recommend SMF, you will be glade you did.

Author: Trekkie101

SMF is amazing, instant install of mods with the package manager and upgrades take seconds, they dotn even effect modifications! With no hostory of security issues, SMF is the best forum software out there. The community is better than any other and the developers are willing to help even the newest of people, no system better on the web. If your conisdering starting an online community then this is the way to go. If you want to change forum system, theres an easy way to do that too!

Author: Saaad

I thought others are already dominating the forum's industry :) but I guess with this new comer things ought to be changed. Everything in SMF ,so far, is a job well done. Only thing I lack is the shortage of hacks, though am sure they will grow with times.

Author: Imsum1

This board rules! Honest to god, I never thought this much functionality could be stuffed into something free, until I saw this software! Considering buying software to run your board on? DON'T!!! This is free and can do everything those other boards can, and has the potential to do even more. If you have any experience coding, you can modify it in every possible way you want. If you don't, you can spend the money you saved by going with this board and get someone else to do the modifications for you - costing you less than with other boards and leaving you with more in the end! The only downside I can POSSIBLY think of is that they're not promoting it enough, THIS IS WORTH PROMOTING, SO DO IT! This is definitely worth downloading!