Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is an open source Internet forum (BBS) application which lets you set up an online community very quickly. The application is written in PHP and uses a SQL database backend, from version 2.0 MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite are supported.
The software is designed to provide you with all the features you need from a bulletin board while having a minimal impact on the resources of the server.
SMF features a powerful Package Manager, allowing you to quickly apply any of the hundreds of modifications that are available.
Key Features
- Comprehensive template system.
- Advanced permission and user management.
- Supports multiple languages at once.
- Open and well-documented source code.
- Tracking of new and old unread topics, not just from your last visit.
- Designed for optimal performance and scalability.
- Multi-media output (XHTML, XML, RSS, WAP).
- Multi-language support from a large community.
- Package manager that automatically installs or uninstalls mods (also known as hacks).
- Search the entire forum, a category/board or within a topic.
- Search within your personal messages.
- Security features.
- SMF is available in over 47 languages including Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English British, Esperanto, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kurdish, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese
Website: www.simplemachines.org
Support: Manual, FAQ, GitHub code repository
Developer: The SMF Team
License: 3-clause BSD License
SMF is written in PHP and uses MySQL for database management. It’s built around established industry standards and has a good track record for security. Learn PHP with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
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|---|---|
| Discourse | Discussion forum, mailing list, and long-form chat room |
| NodeBB | Community platform for the modern web |
| Flarum | Simple discussion platform for your website |
| Forem | Platform for building modern, independent, and safe communities |
| phpBB | Flat-forum bulletin board software solution |
| bbPress | Forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress |
| MyBB | Intuitive, extensible forum software |
| miniBB | Easy, lite, and speedy quick forum |
| Vanilla | Simple and flexible forum software |
| Thredded | Simple and feature rich Rails forum engine |
| Simple Machines Forum | Elegant, effective, powerful forum software |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |