This is very interesting.
I’ll hold off my comments for now but I’ll be sure to post here soon 
@katos still interested in your views ref this topic
Never chose flarum!
@Hari ouch ! Where did that come from ?
@phenomlab for now this is worrying me https://discuss.flarum.org/d/30402-why-flarum-search-is-bad-and-how-to-improve-with-a-new-extension/9
@Hari hmm. Yes, that’s been an issue for years. The real problem with Flarum is that despite what they’ll tell you, the calls to the database are what slows it down, and the more extensions you have, the worse this gets. Any search facility should be core - it shouldn’t have to be added as a plugin or extension, and the fact that it’s taken Flarum so long to address what I’d consider a show stopper (a bit like their lack of interest around the GDPR subject) in my view.
mongoDB is so much faster as it’s not tied into SQL and is based on collections of data. And who uses MyISAM in mySQL these days ? InnoDB is indeed much faster, but it cannot compete with the speed of mongoDB.
Finally, another huge drawback is Flarum’s usage of PHP. This is notoriously slow in some cases, and when aligned with NodeJS, there is no contest in terms of speed. Search something in this forum and watch how quickly it returns data.
@phenomlab in terms of free forum software NodeBB is the best I’ve tried but I’ve always liked the idea of trying VBulletin and the likes, but they’ve always been way overpriced and quite frankly I bet they are heavy on resources.
@JAC said in Best forum software?:
NodeBB
the only big disadvantage of nodeBB is Themes, i do not see any good themes.
i feel it is more like bbPress backed by nodeBB 
@Hari said in Best forum software?:
@JAC said in Best forum software?:
NodeBB
the only big disadvantage of nodeBB is Themes, i do not see any good themes.
i feel it is more like bbPress backed by nodeBB
Absolutely you’re right they aren’t great!
@JAC yeah, vbulletin never was cheap. Nice platform, but impractical from the cost perspective for those starting out small with no budget.
@Hari said in Best forum software?:
@JAC said in Best forum software?:
NodeBB
the only big disadvantage of nodeBB is Themes, i do not see any good themes.
i feel it is more like bbPress backed by nodeBB
True, but you can make your own. There’s also a theme switcher here that @DownPW and I developed. The next release of Sudonix will also be featuring this along with additional capabilities.
Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…
@phenomlab will it be like quora? can you believe i have a flarum like WordPress theme deeply integrated with wizdiscuzz premium plugins lol that was built a year ago as a backup plan. it does works fastly with CF APO and cache with CF disturbed local servers it loads in less than 500ms.
@phenomlab said in Best forum software?:
The next release of Sudonix will also be featuring this along with additional capabilities.
hmmmm oh yeahhh
@Hari no, it won’t be like Quora. It’s still based on NodeBB, but with some additional functionality.
@phenomlab said in Best forum software?:
@JAC yeah, vbulletin never was cheap. Nice platform, but impractical from the cost perspective for those starting out small with no budget.
I used VBulletin back in 2018 and it was a nightmare, it’s very hard to use, hard to master, the support it’s bad, and if you don’t have tech skills and you are not worried with security it’s ok then… and the prices for a license are not worth it, on the other hand I used Invision community suite too, the prices are ok depending what you want, the support it’s good for what you pay in my experience, it has a lot of themes, a lot of extensions already integrated, it’s easy to get around if you don’t have any knowledge in coding languages, but if you don’t want to spend any money on a license, it’s better to stick around with NodeBB it’s almost, or maybe even better than a paid license, and what can I say about MyBB and PhpBB, I have used them too the past 10 years, they are old, mybb lacks responsive on mobile devices, you will need to pay a lot for a good theme if you want your community to look good and somehow modern, because the free themes are literally trash and very outdated, phbb in my opinion it’s better than mybb but it’s hard to master it, even it’s admin control panel it’s really hard to get around if you’re a new comer to the platform, and flarum… well, flarum it’s good if you want just a little, it lacks many things, I can say that it’s a good platform, you need composer or SSH access on shared hosting to install basic things, something that I didn’t like, it’s hard to secure it if you don’t know just a little PHP
@marusaky Good post. The real issue with Flarum is that even the most minor of changes requires a extension, which is crazy. With NodeBB, you can make changes on the fly very easily, and without too much effort.
There is an element of learning when it comes to making changes to any platform, but Javascript is not difficult at all once you get used to it, and there’s also extensive support for jQuery (and hundreds of code snippets on the internet you can easily adapt and tailor to your own needs)
For years, phpBB used to reign supreme - now it’s incredibly dated, and always did have the most confusing admin panel I’ve ever seen.
