# Simple Machines Forum

> Simple Machines Forum is a free, open-source app you can self-host in the social & forums category. Free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes. It has 750 GitHub stars, is released under the BSD-3-Clause license.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/SimpleMachines/SMF |
| Website | https://www.simplemachines.org/ |
| GitHub stars | 750 |
| Forks | 269 |
| Open issues | 137 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause |
| License type | Open source |
| Language | PHP |
| Docker image | No |
| Platforms | PHP |
| Categories | Social & Forums |
| Commits, last 12 months | 1,433 |
| Last commit | Oct 4, 2026 |
| Latest release | v2.1.7 (Mar 8, 2026) |
| Created | Jan 24, 2012 |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained |
| Archived | No |

Topics: smf, php, forum, mysql, mysqli, postgresql, bsd-3-clause, simplemachines, simplemachinesforum

## Install

Simple Machines Forum installs natively; follow the README at https://github.com/SimpleMachines/SMF.

Need it installed for you? [appsgit installation help](https://appsgit.com/services/install): a fixed quote by email, single app installs from $79.

## Similar apps in Social & Forums

- [Mastodon](https://appsgit.com/apps/mastodon): Federated microblogging server. (50,353 stars, AGPL-3.0, Ruby, Docker)
- [Discourse](https://appsgit.com/apps/discourse): Advanced forum / community solution based on Ruby and JS. (47,933 stars, GPL-2.0, Ruby, Docker)
- [Flarum](https://appsgit.com/apps/flarum): Delightfully simple forums. Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun again. (16,411 stars, MIT, PHP)
- [Answer](https://appsgit.com/apps/answer): Knowledge-based community software. You can use it to quickly build your Q&A community for product technical support, customer support, user communication, and more. (15,691 stars, Apache-2.0, Go, Docker)
- [NodeBB](https://appsgit.com/apps/nodebb): Forum software built for the modern web. (15,231 stars, GPL-3.0, JavaScript, Docker)
- [Lemmy](https://appsgit.com/apps/lemmy): Link aggregator for the fediverse (alternative to Reddit). (14,615 stars, AGPL-3.0, Rust, Docker)
- [diaspora*](https://appsgit.com/apps/diaspora): Distributed social networking server. (13,645 stars, AGPL-3.0, Ruby)
- [Misskey](https://appsgit.com/apps/misskey): Decentralized app-like microblogging server/SNS for the Fediverse, using the ActivityPub protocol like GNU social and Mastodon. (11,336 stars, AGPL-3.0, TypeScript, Docker)

---

Canonical page: https://appsgit.com/apps/simple-machines-forum
Source: appsgit (https://appsgit.com), the app store for github. Data from the GitHub API, refreshed nightly.
Machine access: JSON API https://appsgit.com/api/v1/apps (OpenAPI: https://appsgit.com/openapi.json), MCP server https://mcp.appsgit.com/mcp, full index https://appsgit.com/llms-full.txt.
