Simple Machines Forum vs Discourse

Struggling to choose between Simple Machines Forum and Discourse? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

Simple Machines Forum is a Social & Communications solution with tags like forum, community, messaging, profiles.

It boasts features such as User profiles and private messaging, Forum creation with categories and subforums, Spam prevention tools, Search engine optimization, Custom themes and layouts, Add-ons and plugins, Moderation tools, Email and digest notifications and pros including Free and open source, Easy to install and use, Active developer and user community, Highly customizable and extensible, Regular security updates, Scales well for large communities.

On the other hand, Discourse is a Social & Communications product tagged with opensource, discussion, communities, organizations, conversations, teams, categories, tags, private-messages, notifications.

Its standout features include Topic-focused discussions, Real-time notifications, Private messaging, User roles and permissions, Mobile app, Categories and tags, Search, Moderation tools, Custom theming, Plugins and integrations, and it shines with pros like Open source and self-hosted, Active development community, Feature rich out of the box, Good performance at scale, Extensive theming and branding options, Robust moderation and admin tools.

To help you make an informed decision, we've compiled a comprehensive comparison of these two products, delving into their features, pros, cons, pricing, and more. Get ready to explore the nuances that set them apart and determine which one is the perfect fit for your requirements.