Flarum
Delightfully simple forums. Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun again.
- Social & Forums
- PHP
- MIT
- Actively maintained
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 16,411
- Forks
- 1,665
- Open issues
- 0
- Commits, last 12 months
- 14
- Last commit
- Aug 27, 2026
- Latest release
- v1.8.19Aug 23, 2026
- Created
- Dec 30, 2014
Data from the GitHub API, refreshed daily.
About Flarum
Delightfully simple forums. Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun again. Flarum is open source under the MIT license and written mainly in PHP, so you can read the code, run it on your own hardware and keep full control of your data.
The project has 16,411 stars and 1,665 forks on GitHub, with 14 commits over the last year. It installs natively rather than through an official Docker image, so plan for a short manual setup.
Topics
- php
- forum
- flarum
- laravel
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What is Flarum?
Flarum is a free, open-source app you can host on your own server, listed in our Social & Forums category. Delightfully simple forums. Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun again. The source code lives at github.com/flarum/flarum, where it has 16,411 stars.
Is Flarum free and open source?
Yes. Flarum is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run Flarum with Docker?
Flarum does not list an official Docker image. It installs natively (PHP), so follow the install steps in its README or look for a community-maintained container.
What are the best alternatives to Flarum?
Popular open-source alternatives to Flarum include Mastodon, Discourse and Answer. Flarum itself is a self-hosted alternative to Reddit.
Is Flarum actively maintained?
The most recent commit to Flarum was on Aug 27, 2026 with 14 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is v1.8.19, published Aug 23, 2026. Check the open issues on GitHub to gauge how quickly maintainers respond.