Reference number: CH000747

How do I create forums for my webpage?

Question:

How do I create forums for my webpage?

Answer:

Although it is possible for someone to create their own forums, because of the wide availability of free forums and low cost forums, we suggest looking at what is available on the Internet before taking the big step in trying to create your own. Below is a short listing of some of the more popular and widely used forums on the Internet.

• Simple Machines - Fantastic free forum system that Computer Hope forums are currently using. If your server supports PHP and MySQL this is a great solution.
• YaBB - Short for Yet another Bulletin Board, YaBB is a great, free, easy to use and install open source forum that is widely used. In fact, Computer Hope initially used this as its primary forum.
• phpBB - Another excellent PHP bulletin board that is also widely used.
• vBulletin - Another great and powerful forum program that requires a small license fee to use.
• Search for others - Click here to search for other free bulletin board solutions.

Note: If you're interested in installing and setting up your own forum, we suggest you refer to the company's website for additional setup information and help if you encounter problems.

In addition to the above forums / bulletin boards that you can install and setup on your own web server, there are many web hosting and ISPs, as well as third-party companies, that will setup and run your forum for you. If you're hosting your website through another company, look at their available options and/or free scripts; often, most will offer a free forum that you can easily enable on their server.

If your web host does not supply its users with a free forum solution or is incapable of supporting a forum, you may also wish to consider using a third-party site such as bestfreeforums and ezboard, which hosts your own forum for you on their site.

Additional information:

• Once you've got your forum setup see document CH000898 for additional information about making your forums more popular.
• See our dictionary forum definition for additional information about this term and related terms.