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Simple Machines Forum vs Flarum: catalog facts
Simple Machines Forum	Flarum
Free Free and open source under the BSD-3-Clause license.	Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Release packages install without extra build steps Permissive BSD license	Large ecosystem of community extensions Group permissions and built-in moderation
Traditional forum layout rather than a modern discussion interface Needs a PHP and database server to host	Needs a PHP server to host Version 2.0 is still a release candidate
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-3-Clause	License: MIT
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Needs internet
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.