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Flarum — Next-Generation Forum Software

The forum that makes Facebook look embarrassingly old.

Flarum is what happens when forum software is built from scratch with modern web standards, real-time updates and a beautiful interface — and none of Facebook's ads, algorithms or surveillance. Your community, your rules, your data. Free for 30 days, then just £0.99/month.

Start Free for 30 Days →Why Leave Facebook?
No credit card requiredNo ads, everYou own everything
Flarum Hosting Plan
£0/first 30 days
then £0.99/month
One-click Flarum install (Softaculous)
2GB NVMe SSD storage
Unlimited bandwidth
1 email account included
Free SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt)
Daily automated backups
Custom domain support
Zero ads — guaranteed
Start Free — No Card Needed
Secured by Stripe · Cancel anytime · No lock-in
60s
Average setup time
2GB
NVMe SSD storage
∞
Bandwidth included
£0.99
Per month after trial

A different league entirely

Facebook is engineered for addiction. Flarum is engineered for community.

Facebook's every design decision serves engagement metrics and ad revenue. Flarum was designed for exactly the opposite — a community platform that respects its users, moves in real time and puts the conversation front and centre.

Your Facebook Group
📢Ads injected between posts — Meta monetises your community's attention without sharing a single penny with you
📉Algorithm suppression — your posts reach a fraction of your members; Facebook creates artificial scarcity to sell paid reach
🔁Designed for distraction — every notification, suggestion and recommended post is engineered to keep members on Facebook, not engaged with your community
🚫Your group can vanish overnight — automated moderation can remove years of community history with little warning and no meaningful appeal process
📊Nothing is yours — your members, your posts, your community's data all belong to Meta. You have no ownership, no portability, no control
Your Flarum Community on Nexforum
🚫Zero ads — your community space is completely clean. Every element on the page is your content, your community, your conversations
📬No algorithm — discussions are visible to every member who visits, in the order they happen. Your community sees everything, always
⚡Real-time updates — Flarum's modern architecture means new posts and notifications appear live without page refreshes. Your community feels active and alive
🔐Total ownership — your forum is hosted by you on your domain. Nobody can remove it, change its rules or shut it down without your say-so
💾Your data, backed up daily — every post, every member, every discussion belongs to you and is safe. Fully portable, always under your control
💡
Planning to move your Facebook group to a proper community platform?

Our full migration guide covers everything — from choosing your forum software to setting up your community and bringing members across smoothly.

Read the Migration Guide →

What sets Flarum apart

Three things that make Flarum genuinely different.

Flarum isn't a fork of legacy code. It was built from scratch using modern PHP and a reactive JavaScript frontend — which shows in ways that matter to every member of your community from their very first visit.

⚡
Real-Time, No Refresh Needed
Flarum's single-page application architecture means new posts, notifications and updates appear live — your members never need to reload the page to see what's happening in the conversation.
✨
A UI Members Actually Enjoy
Flarum's interface is clean, elegant and genuinely beautiful — designed with the same care as a modern product, not assembled from forum templates. Members notice immediately and come back because the experience is pleasant.
📱
Mobile-First by Design
Flarum was built mobile-first — it works flawlessly on phones, tablets and desktops without a separate mobile view. Members who primarily use Facebook on mobile will find Flarum equally natural on their devices.

About Flarum

Forum software built for the way people actually use the web.

Flarum launched in 2014 with a clear ambition: to be the forum software the modern web deserved. It's free, open-source and built on a powerful extension system that lets you add exactly the features your community needs without bloating the core.

🔔
Real-Time Notifications
Mentions, replies and new posts trigger live notifications that appear instantly — no page refresh, no waiting. Members who are used to Facebook's real-time feel will find Flarum immediately familiar and satisfying to use.
🏷️
Tags Instead of Rigid Boards
Flarum uses a flexible tag system to organise discussions — threads can have multiple tags, members can follow specific tags and discussions can span topics naturally. More flexible than traditional forum categories and closer to how modern communities actually organise content.
👤
@Mentions and Reactions
Members can @mention each other to bring people into a conversation, and react to posts with likes and other expressions. Familiar social mechanics that make participation feel natural — without the engagement manipulation Facebook builds on top of them.
🔌
Powerful Extension System
Flarum's extension architecture is one of the most thoughtfully designed in the forum world. The community has built extensions for subscriptions, advanced search, polls, gamification, social login and much more — all installable without touching any core code.
🔒
Modern Security Architecture
Built with current PHP and JavaScript best practices, Flarum has a much smaller legacy attack surface than platforms written in the early 2000s. Combined with Nexforum's auto-renewed SSL and DDoS protection, your community is secured at every layer.
🌍
Fully Google-Indexed
Every Flarum discussion is a public, crawlable page that Google can index and rank. Your community's conversations become a searchable resource that builds organic traffic over time — something a Facebook Group can never achieve.

Why Nexforum

Infrastructure worthy of Flarum's ambition.

Flarum's modern architecture benefits directly from fast hosting. NVMe SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth and reliable uptime aren't just nice to have — they're what make Flarum's real-time capabilities shine for every member of your community.

⚡
NVMe SSD — Real-Time Ready
Flarum's live updates and real-time notifications depend on fast database responses. NVMe solid-state storage ensures every query resolves in milliseconds — keeping your community feeling genuinely live, not lagging behind.
🌐
Unlimited Bandwidth
Flarum's single-page application model means members load assets once and the forum updates live — efficient by design. But unlimited bandwidth ensures you're never penalised for having an active, growing community.
🔒
Free SSL, Auto-Renewed
Flarum's modern JavaScript frontend requires HTTPS. Every Nexforum account includes Let's Encrypt SSL that renews automatically — your forum works perfectly, securely and without browser warnings from day one.
💾
Daily Automated Backups
Every discussion, member profile and extension configuration is backed up daily. If anything goes wrong with an extension update or configuration change, your Flarum community can be restored quickly and completely.
🌍
Custom Domain Ready
Run your Flarum community on your own domain — a proper address that builds your brand identity and search authority. Point your DNS to Nexforum and we configure everything, including SSL, from there.
🛡️
DDoS Protection
Network-level DDoS mitigation keeps your Flarum community online even under pressure. Your members stay connected and your real-time features keep working regardless of what's happening at the infrastructure level.

Getting started

From Facebook group to live Flarum community in three steps.

01
🆓

Start Your Free Trial

Sign up at Nexforum — no credit card required. Your 30-day free trial begins immediately with the full plan. No restrictions, no commitment, no risk. Take as long as you need to explore before committing a penny.

02
🖱️

Install Flarum in One Click

Open Softaculous in your control panel, find Flarum and click Install. Set your domain and admin credentials — the installer handles all database configuration and file setup automatically in under 60 seconds.

03
📣

Bring Your Community Home

Set up your tags to organise topics, customise your theme and share your forum link in your Facebook group. Flarum's beautiful, intuitive interface means members adapt immediately — many communities fully migrate within days.

From the community

Facebook group admins who moved to Flarum.

★★★★★

"I'd tried a couple of traditional forum platforms and my members hated how old they looked. Flarum was completely different — the first thing my members said when I shared the link was 'this looks really good.' Real-time updates, beautiful layout, zero ads. My Facebook group feels embarrassing by comparison now."

Aaron T.
Tech enthusiasts community, 1,400 members
★★★★★

"The real-time notifications sold it for me. In our Facebook group, members would miss replies for days because of the algorithm. In Flarum, when someone @mentions you or replies to your post, you find out immediately. Engagement has gone up since we moved, not down."

Natasha W.
Film discussion group, 680 members
★★★★★

"Flarum on Nexforum is the best £0.99 I spend every month by a considerable distance. The 30-day free trial gave me time to install extensions, set up tags, migrate our pinned posts and test everything before telling the group. The migration was seamless and my members are happier than they ever were on Facebook."

Ben A.
Outdoor pursuits forum admin, 920 members

Frequently asked questions

Flarum hosting — your questions answered.

Is Flarum stable enough for a real community?
Yes. Flarum reached its stable 1.0 release in 2021 after several years of beta development, and has been actively maintained and improved since. It powers thousands of communities worldwide and is considered production-ready. The extension ecosystem has matured significantly alongside the core platform — it's a solid, reliable choice for any community of any size.
How is Flarum different from Vanilla Forums — both seem modern?
Both are modern-feeling platforms, but they differ in technical approach. Flarum is built as a single-page application with real-time updates — it feels more dynamic and live. Vanilla Forums is a more traditional server-rendered application with a clean modern aesthetic. Flarum tends to appeal to communities that want the most contemporary feel; Vanilla Forums is often chosen for its familiarity. Both are excellent choices for Facebook group migrants.
Can I install Flarum extensions on Nexforum?
Yes. Flarum extensions are installed via Composer, Flarum's package manager, which is available on your hosting environment. The Flarum Extension Manager (available as an extension itself) also provides a web interface for installing and managing extensions from within your admin panel — no command line knowledge required for most installations.
Will Google index my Flarum forum?
Yes — Flarum generates server-side rendered HTML that search engines can fully crawl and index. Every discussion page is discoverable by Google. As your community grows and discussions accumulate, your forum builds an organic search presence that brings new members to your community — something a private Facebook Group fundamentally cannot do.
Can I use my own domain name with Flarum on Nexforum?
Yes. All Nexforum plans support custom domains. Point your domain's DNS records to our servers and we'll configure your Flarum installation to serve from it, including automatic SSL setup via Let's Encrypt. Your community gets a proper address that's yours to keep.
What happens when my 30-day free trial ends?
Your Flarum community continues running without interruption at £0.99/month, billed via Stripe. You'll receive a reminder before the trial ends. If you decide not to continue for any reason, cancel at any time — no charges, no lock-in, no questions asked.

Explore other forum software

Not sure Flarum is the right fit? Compare your options.

Every forum platform on Nexforum installs in one click via Softaculous. Your 30-day free trial covers all of them.

🟣
Vanilla Forums
Modern feel, great for Facebook migrants
 🔵
phpBB
World's most popular — deep feature set
 🟠
MyBB
Fast, flexible and extensible
 🟢
SMF
Simple Machines Forum — easy to admin

Ready to move your community off Facebook?

Free for 30 days. Then just £0.99/mo. No credit card required. No Facebook needed.

Start Free for 30 Days →No hidden fees · Secured by Stripe · Cancel anytime