Flarum vs Vanilla Forums (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Flarum if

• Fits if you can run a server and want a forum you control
• Works for communities that want extensions and themes

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you can't manage PHP, a database and SSH access
• Not for you if you want courses, memberships or payments, as it has none
• Watch out: support comes from the volunteer community forum, not a paid vendor
• Watch out: no official migration tool, only the third-party Nitro Porter

Pick Vanilla Forums if

• Fits if you run a customer support community
• Works for companies that already use Salesforce

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a listed price, as none is published
• Not for you if you want a forum you download and run yourself
• Not for you if you want to sell courses, which it does not do
• Watch out: the old vanillaforums.com address now redirects to Higher Logic Vanilla

Flarum

• You run it yourself: the installer needs PHP 8.3 or newer, a supported database and SSH access, which rules out much shared hosting.
• No official migration tool; the docs point to Nitro Porter, a third-party import and export tool.
• It has no courses, memberships or payment features, only forums.
• Support comes from the volunteer community forum rather than a paid vendor.

Vanilla Forums

• The vanillaforums.com address now redirects to Higher Logic's site, where the product is called Higher Logic Vanilla.
• No prices are published; the vendor directs buyers to book a demo.
• It is hosted customer community software, not a course platform or a downloadable forum package.

Flarum

Groups and permissions

Assign permissions to groups, control member access across categories, and use built-in moderation and flagging.

Extensions

Hundreds of community-built extensions add features, and bundled ones include Tags, Messages, Realtime, Statistics and Markdown.

Themes and styling

Change the look through admin settings, install themes, or add custom CSS that applies across the whole forum.

Editors

Supports lightweight Markdown editors and full WYSIWYG editors, depending on the extensions you install.

Notifications

In-browser notifications and email digests, with real-time updates available through the bundled Realtime extension.

Choice of database

Flarum 2.0 runs on MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite or PostgreSQL, and search can be swapped to another engine through search drivers.

Vanilla Forums

Q&A and discussions

Customers crowdsource answers to support questions, with federated search that pulls content from outside platforms into one place.

Drag-and-drop layout editor

Change page layouts and add banners and buttons from a widget library, without writing code, plus moderation tools.

Gamification and polls

Badges, points and leaderboards recognize participation, and user polls and a product feedback process collect customer input.

Automation and AI

Automation rules trigger on user behavior or time, AI analysis tracks sentiment and trends, and MCP links ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor to the community.

Analytics

Pre-built and custom reports on how users engage, plus data exports for use in marketing campaigns or other analysis.

Admin and security

Role-based permissions, ranked statuses, individual privacy settings and an AI Bot Shield that detects and blocks bots.

Flarum

• Flarum$0

  Free MIT-licensed software that you install and run on your own server.

Vanilla Forums

Pricing could not be confirmed. See higherlogic.com.