Lightweight alternatives to phpBB
phpBB is the holy grail of free and open source forum/discussion board on the internet. With tons of plugins, themes and a amazing community, its probably the best too. But for those like me who don't want the bloat, and would rather use a simple and easy to manage forum, here are a few alternatives:
1. SimpleMachines - Probably the second best known free forum script. Slimmer than phpBB, and with a better, cleaner admin interface, its my personal favourie. And yes, it does have its fair share of themes/plugins and good community support.
2. FluxBB - This one is "really" light. The download comes in under 300kb, is XTML and CSS valid, and with a minimal but delightful interface is bound to loved by Mac fans.
3. bbPress - Comes from the creators of WordPress, its their in house forum software. Nuff said.
4. Vanilla - Other than having a tasty name, it also offers a very small and simple forum. Great for "minimal" fans.
5. Phorum - Its an open source PHP forum. Probably not as good looking as the others, but does the job well.
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May 27th, 2009 - 11:23
Man you really should have a look at MyBB.
It is open source, too. Has a really clean and well-structured ACP and in my humble opinion it is even better than PHPbb.
Its structure, handling and look’n'feel always remind me of the (commercial) god-father of all forums software vBulletin.
Lot’s of plugins are available and a very friendly and helpful community do a real round-up to the thing. (Even the foreign language communities are really great).
Have a look at it: http://www.mybboard.net