{"id":7204,"date":"2021-11-24T09:53:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T09:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/?p=7204"},"modified":"2026-07-09T17:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:45:04","slug":"flarum-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/flarum-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Flarum review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this first impressions review I&#8217;m going to have a look at forum\/community software <a href=\"https:\/\/flarum.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Flarum<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How easy is it to get set-up, how good are the features and should you use it for your next project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is Flarum?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flarum is free and open source PHP based community software, describing itself as a &#8220;\u2026 delightfully simple discussion platform for your website.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flarum is available as a one-click app on our hosting. Find out more about our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/flarum-hosting\">Flarum Hosting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their stated goals are to create a platform that is fast and simple, beautiful and responsive, powerful and extensible, and free and open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have they achieved all these goals? Let&#8217;s find out&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Who uses Flarum?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are some examples of sites using Flarum to power their communities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webdeveloper.com\/\">https:\/\/www.webdeveloper.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/hacksnation.com\/\">https:\/\/hacksnation.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/community.giffgaff.com\/\">https:\/\/community.giffgaff.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forum.photographylife.com\/\">https:\/\/forum.photographylife.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/otion.wfot.org\">https:\/\/otion.wfot.org<\/a> &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How easy is it to install Flarum?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thankfully Flarum is available as a <strong>one-click app<\/strong> on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/web-hosting\">web hosting<\/a>, so installing Flarum was as easy as it gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you use a host that doesn&#8217;t include Flarum in their one-click apps, their official set up guide can be found here <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.flarum.org\/install\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/docs.flarum.org\/install\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Manual installation is not as easy as the likes of WordPress and does require a certain degree of dev skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once installed, the initial set-up screen asks for some basic information such as your forum title and your admin email\/password.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">One-click forum?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/flarum-hosting\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-install.png\" alt=\"Install Flarum forum hosting software in one click\" class=\"wp-image-7215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-install.png 600w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-install-300x200.png.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-install-370x247.png.webp 370w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-install-270x180.png.webp 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that&#8217;s it. I now have a forum!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, I&#8217;m then shown an empty forum home page with no cues what to do next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That being said, once I worked out how to get to the admin UI it isn&#8217;t terribly difficult, and it is all self-explanatory from that point onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-installed.png\" alt=\"Review Flarum  installed admin \" class=\"wp-image-7216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-installed.png 600w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-installed-300x200.png.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-installed-370x247.png.webp 370w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-installed-270x180.png.webp 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Admin and getting started<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The admin interface is visually clean and well spaced out. It is very obvious where I need to go to perform an action and I&#8217;ve got an on-brand forum ready literally within a few minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-admin.png\" alt=\"Review Flarum admin UI interface \" class=\"wp-image-7217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-admin.png 600w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-admin-300x150.png.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-admin-370x185.png.webp 370w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-admin-270x135.png.webp 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Customising the forum appearance is very easy, and I was able to customise the colour scheme, logo and favicon quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you want to go deeper, other areas of customisation include adding custom header and footer code as well as your own custom CSS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One minor irritation I had was with choosing my colour schemes. I would have loved for there to be a colour picker built in, rather than me having to go off-site to a 3<sup>rd<\/sup> party colour picker site to find my HEX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Managing Flarum users and groups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adding\/removing user permissions was very straight-forward with a few pre-built groups already created for me. Setting up new groups is simple with the icons powered by Font Awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1204\" height=\"684\" src=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/4-Flarum-create-group.png\" alt=\"Flarum create group\" class=\"wp-image-7209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/4-Flarum-create-group.png 1204w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/4-Flarum-create-group-300x170.png.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/4-Flarum-create-group-768x436.png.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/4-Flarum-create-group-370x210.png.webp 370w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/4-Flarum-create-group-270x153.png.webp 270w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/4-Flarum-create-group-740x420.png.webp 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1204px) 100vw, 1204px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The features that come bundled with Flarum include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Approvals<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Emoji usage<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Likes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Post locking<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Markdown<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mentions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nicknames<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sticky posts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Subscriptions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tags<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Suspend users<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the large majority of these features you can choose which groups have permission to use\/manage them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I would have liked a marketplace or extensions library built in to my admin UI (with user reviews) rather than having to find them on 3<sup>rd<\/sup> party sites via Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The forum user management options are relatively limited but the simplicity of it might be attractive to site owners who want a more hands-off approach to running their forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From a user&#8217;s perspective, managing your profile is really simple and done directly through your own profile page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From there a user can choose when and how to receive notifications, online visibility, their profile picture and password management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1230\" height=\"894\" src=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-profile-settings.png\" alt=\"Flarum profile settings\" class=\"wp-image-7210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-profile-settings.png 1230w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-profile-settings-300x218.png.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-profile-settings-768x558.png.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-profile-settings-370x269.png.webp 370w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-profile-settings-270x196.png.webp 270w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-profile-settings-740x538.png.webp 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1230px) 100vw, 1230px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The front end<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Flarum home page and posts are really well designed, with plenty of white space and a very modern look and feel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The post timeline is a nice touch and especially useful for long discussions over a long time period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UX has been very well thought out and it&#8217;s very clear how to use features like follow, reply and managing your profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1180\" height=\"742\" src=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-discussion.png\" alt=\"Flarum posts set up\" class=\"wp-image-7211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Flarum-discussion.png 1180w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-discussion-300x189.png.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-discussion-768x483.png.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-discussion-370x233.png.webp 370w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-discussion-270x170.png.webp 270w, https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/11\/Flarum-discussion-740x465.png.webp 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1180px) 100vw, 1180px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall I liked how comfortable I became with the front end UI with very little fuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Flarum community<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official Flarum community board is here <a href=\"https:\/\/discuss.flarum.org\/\">https:\/\/discuss.flarum.org\/<\/a> which is powered by (as you&#8217;d expect) Flarum. It is fairly active with news posts and replies every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re looking for new ways to expand your forum&#8217;s features, the official discussion group is here <a href=\"https:\/\/discuss.flarum.org\/t\/extensions\">https:\/\/discuss.flarum.org\/t\/extensions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/friendsofflarum.org\/\">https:\/\/friendsofflarum.org\/<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/freeflarum.com\/extensions\">https:\/\/freeflarum.com\/extensions<\/a> build and share free extensions to add new functionality to Flarum. There&#8217;s a really useful directory of extensions here: <a href=\"https:\/\/restorebin.com\/powerful-flarum-extensions-list\/\">https:\/\/extiverse.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A note of warning: adding these extensions is not as easy as the likes of WordPress and will require some dev skills to get them installed. This is a real shame because it really limits the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Final thoughts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My initial impressions of Flarum are that it&#8217;s fantastic, lightweight forum software with a very quick learning curve supported by some powerful features out of the box. If you&#8217;re looking to create an attractive and simple forum, Flarum is a great choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the limitations can soon feel a bit restrictive, especially if you&#8217;re used to the huge ecosystem of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/wordpress-hosting\">WordPress<\/a> and bbPress\/BuddyPress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think Flarum could take a leaf out of WordPress&#8217; book when it comes to adding new extensions and make it much easier for non-dev users to take advantage of the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> party extensions available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, that one gripe wouldn&#8217;t stop me from using Flarum and overall <strong>I would highly recommend this software<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you agree? If you have used Flarum and would like to share your experiences, leave a comment below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Self hosted app reviews<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are there any self hosted apps you&#8217;d recommend we review in a future post? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\"@context\":\"http:\/\/schema.org\",\n\"@type\":\"Webpage\",\"name\":\"Reseller Hosting \u2013 20i\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/reseller-hosting\",\n\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/reseller-hosting#webpage\"}\n<\/script>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\"@context\":\"http:\/\/schema.org\",\n\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\n\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/flarum-review\/#webpage\",\n\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/flarum-review\/\",\n\"inLanguage\":\"en-gb\",\n\"name\":\"Flarum review & How to install and get started\",\n\"description\":\"Get our opinion of Flarum, the free and open source forum-building software that's self-hosted. 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How easy is&hellip;","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[94,92],"class_list":["post-7204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-review","tag-open-source","tag-self-hosted-apps","cs-entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7204"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18163,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7204\/revisions\/18163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}