Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Flarum VS Discord

Compare Flarum VS Discord and see what are their differences

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Flarum logo Flarum

Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun. It's simple, fast, and free.

Discord logo Discord

Step up your game with a modern voice & text chat app. Crystal clear voice, multiple server and channel support, mobile apps, and more.
  • Flarum Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-27
  • Discord Homepage
    Homepage //
    2024-03-13

Flarum features and specs

  • Modern Design
    Flarum features a sleek, user-friendly interface designed for modern web aesthetics and accessibility. This makes it appealing and easy to use for community members.
  • Extensibility
    Flarum is highly extensible with a robust plugin system, allowing users to customize and expand its functionalities via extensions created by the community or custom-developed.
  • Fast Performance
    Built with performance in mind, Flarum is lightweight and optimized for speed, ensuring a smooth user experience.
  • Mobile Friendly
    Flarum is fully responsive, allowing for seamless use across various devices, including tablets and smartphones.
  • Open Source
    Flarum is an open-source project, which means you can contribute to its development, audit its code, and use it without licensing fees.

Possible disadvantages of Flarum

  • Early Development Stage
    Flarum is still relatively new and in continuous development, which might mean encountering occasional bugs or missing features that are available in more mature platforms.
  • Limited Documentation
    Documentation is still growing, and there may be gaps that can make it challenging for new users or developers to fully utilize all features or develop new extensions.
  • Smaller Community
    Compared to more established forum software, Flarum has a smaller user and developer community, which can result in fewer available resources, themes, and extensions.
  • Hosting Requirements
    Flarum requires a modern hosting environment with PHP and Composer support, which might not be available with all web hosts and can complicate the setup process for non-technical users.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its modern architecture and use of Composer for extensions, there is a steeper learning curve for users unfamiliar with these technologies.

Discord features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Discord offers a clean, intuitive design that is easy to navigate, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.
  • Free-to-Use
    The core features of Discord are available for free, making it an affordable option for communication.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Discord is available on various platforms including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and web browsers, ensuring widespread compatibility.
  • Voice and Video Chat
    Discord offers high-quality voice and video chat capabilities, allowing for seamless communication among users.
  • Customizable Servers
    Users can create and customize their own servers, including various channels, roles, and permissions.
  • Community Building
    Discord is ideal for building and managing online communities, thanks to its various tools for moderation and engagement.
  • Rich Media Integration
    Discord supports the integration of various media types such as images, videos, and links, which can be embedded directly into conversations.
  • Bots and Integrations
    The platform supports a wide range of bots and integrations that can automate tasks, entertain, and provide information.

Possible disadvantages of Discord

  • Privacy Concerns
    Some users have raised concerns about data privacy and the level of access Discord has to personal information.
  • Freemium Model Limitations
    While the basic version is free, some advanced features require a Nitro subscription, which can be a drawback for some users.
  • Learning Curve for New Users
    Despite its user-friendly interface, the plethora of features and settings can be overwhelming for newcomers.
  • Server Downtime
    Like any online service, Discord can experience outages or downtime, disrupting communication.
  • Security Risks
    There have been instances of security breaches and malicious activities facilitated through Discord, posing risks to users.
  • Voice Quality Variability
    Although generally good, voice and video quality can sometimes be inconsistent, particularly for users with slower internet connections.
  • Resource Intensive
    Discord can be resource-intensive, particularly on less powerful systems, potentially affecting performance.
  • Limited Search Functionality
    The search functionality within servers can be limited, making it difficult to find older messages or specific content.

Analysis of Flarum

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Flarum is considered a good forum software by many users.

Why this product is good

  • Flarum is praised for its simplicity, modern interface, and lightweight design. It offers a smooth and fast user experience, and its extensible architecture allows for easy customization through plugins. The open-source nature ensures that the community can contribute to its development, continually improving the platform.

Recommended for

  • Communities looking for a modern and sleek forum solution
  • Developers who want a customizable and extensible platform
  • Organizations seeking a community-driven, open-source solution
  • Users who prefer lightweight and fast-loading web applications

Analysis of Discord

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Discord is a highly versatile and powerful tool for communication and community building. Its wide range of features and active development make it a strong contender in the space of online communication platforms.

Why this product is good

  • Discord is a popular communication platform that offers a comprehensive set of features including voice, video, and text chat, making it ideal for communities, gaming groups, and teams. It offers server customization with various roles and permissions, seamless integration with other applications, and strong moderation tools. Additionally, its user-friendly interface and large number of active users make it an attractive choice for both casual and professional use.

Recommended for

  • Gamers looking for a reliable platform to coordinate and communicate during gameplay.
  • Communities and clubs seeking to organize group activities, discussions, and events.
  • Teams needing an efficient way to communicate in real-time and manage projects.
  • Individuals who want to connect with others who share similar interests through various community servers.

Flarum videos

How to Install Flarum Extensions to Super-Charge Forum?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Custom pages that open modals and discussion composer (Flarum beta7 extension tutorial)

Discord videos

IS DISCORD REALLY THE BEST? - Voice Chat Platform Showdown

More videos:

  • Review - The Discord App Review
  • Tutorial - How to Use Discord App - EASY Discord Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Flarum and Discord)
Forums And Forum Software
Communication
0 0%
100% 100
Forums
100 100%
0% 0
Group Chat & Notifications

User comments

Share your experience with using Flarum and Discord. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Flarum and Discord

Flarum Reviews

  1. GraceyMartin
    · employ at Digital Marketing ·
    BPM Counter

    BPM Counter analyzes the tempo of incoming audio in beats per minute (bpm). The detection circuit looks for any transients, also known as impulses, in the input signal. Transients are very fast, nonperiodic sound events in the attack portion of the signal. The more obvious this impulse is, the easier it is for BPM Counter to detect the tempo.


IndieHackers: Best forum software
I used Flarum when trying to get a community set up for my product (ended up abandoning it to revisit when we have a larger customer base). It worked fairly well and I enjoyed it but it's definitely beta and unless you're fairly tech savvy it's not quite worth the setup / maintenance. Lots of config changes, crashes, huge issues with plugins, and some features missing. I'd...

Discord Reviews

  1. Rohan77
    · co at Youtube vanced ·

    At present, there’s no better platform for bringing together a global audience with shared interests. However, server admins must invest significant time in moderation to balance community engagement. While it’s important to remove problematic members, it’s equally crucial to allow lively discussions without excessive moderation. Additionally, Discord’s support for communities dedicated to serving their users could be improved to better support these efforts.

  2. Great way to gather communities

    Currently there is no better platform to gather a worldwide audience of people that share a common interest. Server admins just need to invest a lot of time to ensure the community receives the right amount of moderation. Bad apples need to go while folks are still allowed to engage in a spirited conversation that isn’t stifled by over-moderation. Discord support itself could be better in assisting communities that exist to serve their user base in good faith.

    🏁 Competitors: Twitter Ads, Facebook
  3. Absolutely love this app.

    There used to be bugs every update or so, but they've managed it well. I like chatting with my friends, having a server as my personal calender and task list as well as playing games.


20 Telegram Alternatives to Chat With in 2024
You probably know about Discord. It’s a forum-builder with a mix of live streaming tools built in. Created for gamers to share about the games they love plus show off their skills, Discord has some good features. You can chat with other members, create channels, and grow a community.
The 7 best Zoom alternatives in 2024
Discord pricing: Free to use; starts at $2.99/user/month for Nitro Basic, which lets you share larger files—up to 50 MB—and offers cosmetic upgrades like animated avatars and custom video backgrounds.
Source: zapier.com
Top 10 Zoom Alternatives in 2024 — Better Video Conferencing Software
Overall, Discord is your best Zoom alternative if you’re looking for great audio performance. I believe voice communication is where Discord shines. The online lessons I had over Zoom can’t compare to Discord in terms of impeccable audio quality, mostly thanks to the Krisp noise suppression, which made all the difference for me.
Source: pumble.com
The 10 Best Twitter Alternatives if You’re Thinking of Quitting X
Discord presents a unique opportunity to build community, tailor audience experiences with roles, and host live events. Its infrastructure supports the spontaneous creation of sub-communities, allowing for targeted, engaged interactions.
4 Twitter alternatives for brands considering leaving Twitter in 2024
At Unwinnable, we use Discord to connect with our digital magazine subscribers. Since it's limited to subscribers only, there are fewer people to reach out to than on our other channels, but it also has our most dedicated readers. I actually turned to them to figure out what social media channels they use to follow sites like ours.
Source: zapier.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Discord should be more popular than Flarum. It has been mentiond 137 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Flarum mentions (37)

  • Looking for the best forum software to start a new forum community in 2025
    Flarum is great [1]. Looks good, works on mobile, continuously updated. Try it out. Edit: Oh wow, downvoted for posting a good recommendation? 1: https://flarum.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Ask HN: User communities that aren't Discord?
    Flarum is a really nice open source forum https://flarum.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Stop Using Discord
    Load quicker than Discourse and feel snappy. [0]: https://flarum.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Posthog is closing their Slack community in favor of forum
    From a user perspective I really like Flarum https://flarum.org/ Some example forums that use flarum: Flarum itself: https://discuss.flarum.org/ GrapheneOS: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/ Kagi and Orion: https://kagifeedback.org/ https://orionfeedback.org/ Mailcow: https://community.mailcow.email/ Many more can be found here: https://builtwithflarum.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Introducing the new Godot Forum
    Nice! I kinda wish they went with https://flarum.org/ instead of discourse, though. I think Flarum is the better forum software and it is also open source. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

Discord mentions (137)

  • Enable End Task in Taskbar by Right-click on Windows 11?
    Enable End Task in Taskbar by Right-click : When we are using applications on Windows 11, when our work is done, we close the application by clicking on the Close Button (X) in the Top bar of the application. We can also close an application using the ALT + F4 key combination. Either way, the system will ensure the application is shut down properly, saving the data before exiting. Certain Applications, like... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Getting Started with Programming: A Beginner's Guide
    Joining programming communities like Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Discord. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Financial Sustainability in Open Source Projects: A Guide to Thriving
    An engaged community is a cornerstone of financial sustainability. Active community members can provide resources, spread the word, and attract potential sponsors. Utilize platforms like Discord or GitHub Discussions to maintain regular communication and foster collaboration. For more on community strategies, check out community engagement strategies. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Mastering Crowdfunding for Open Source Projects
    Before launching a crowdfunding campaign, it's crucial to build an active community. Platforms like GitHub, Twitter, and Discord are excellent for fostering relationships and trust with your project's users. An engaged community can serve as your initial group of backers and help spread the word about your campaign. For more insights on community engagement, explore community-driven projects. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Empowering Open Source: The Role of Funding Workshops
    A thriving community is intertwined with sustainable funding. Workshops emphasize effective communication through platforms like Slack and Discord, as well as recognizing contributors to maintain engagement. For more strategies on building a sustainable community, consider exploring open source project sponsorship tips. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Flarum and Discord, you can also consider the following products

Discourse - Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.

Slack - A messaging app for teams who see through the Earth!

XenForo - Intuitive. Social. Engaging. Fast. XenForo brings a fresh outlook to forum software.

Telegram - Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security. It’s superfast, simple and free.

phpBB - Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a cheap, credit-card sized computer. The official website uses phpBB for their discussion forums. phpBB is not affiliated with nor responsible for any of the sites listed on the showcase.

Element.io - Secure messaging app with strong end-to-end encryption, advanced group chat privacy settings, secure video calls for teams, encrypted communication using Matrix open network. Riot.im is now Element.