⚡ Internet Forum Software

Internet forums, also known as message boards or bulletin boards, are online discussion sites that allow users to start discussions, post replies, and interact in an organized, threaded format with moderation and user management tools.

According to our statistics, Internet forum software is used on 0.4% of all websites.

⭐ Most Popular in 2025

The following chart shows the leading Internet forum software in 2025, based on market share.

The most popular is bbPress with an impressive share of 31.3%, followed by XenForo with 15.7% and phpBB with 14%.

🚀 Highlights

Here is a list of softwares that is particularly popular in certain countries.
Differences between global and country rankings are shown in parentheses.

✨ Best Internet Forum Software

Below is a more detailed list of all Internet forum software solutions we detect, ranked by their market share.

RankNameMarket share
1 bbPress

A plugin for WordPress that adds forum functionality to your website.

2 XenForoLondon, United Kingdom

An Internet forum software based on PHP and MySQL.

3 phpBB

An open-source forum software written in PHP.

4 vBulletinEl Segundo, California, United States

An Internet forum software solution based on PHP and MySQL.

5 Invision Community

A commercial customizable community software built with PHP and MySQL.

6 Discuz!

A Chinese Internet forum software written in PHP.

7 Discourse

An open source community platform built on Ruby on Rails.

8 Simple Machines Forum

An open source PHP-based community forum software.

9 WoltLab SuitePotsdam, Germany

A commercial software package designed for creating and managing online communities.

10 MyBB

An open source, community developed bulletin board software built with PHP.

11 Higher Logic ThriveArlington, Virginia, United States

A cloud-based community platform for associations.

12 Flarum

An open source discussion platform written in PHP.

13 Khoros CommunitiesAustin, Texas, United States

Community management software that gives businesses everything they need to build an enterprise-class online community and scale engagement.

14 PunBB

A fast and lightweight PHP-based open source discussion board.

15 VanillaArlington, Virginia, United States

An enterprise online community platform for B2B and B2C brands.

16 NodeBB

An open source Node.js based forum software that offers real-time streaming discussions, mobile responsiveness, and rich APIs.

17 Verint CommunityMelville, New York, United States

A community platform that provides an integrated suite of applications such as forums, blogs, articles, wikis, and media galleries.

18 OpenACS

An open-source toolkit for building scalable, community-oriented web applications.

19 ZulipSan Francisco, California, United States

An open source team chat and collaboration software available in cloud and self-hosted versions.

Data updated

👉 See Also

When interpreting and using the results, please read our methodology and disclaimer.