Free Forum Hosting: Is It Really Good?

[Nomad]

There are a lot of platforms that allow you to host a forum for free, for instance, proboards, jcink, etc. Well, these platforms also have paid plans but if you choose free option, you will get a forum on a subdomain but it is completely free. What do you think about free hosted forum?

 

[Dominique]

So just like free blogs, you also get to run a free forum, right? I don't think these forums can get a lot of users.

 

[Nomad]

I have been a members on a couple of free hosted forums and they had pretty good activities. People who are interested in genuine conversations and discussions do not care whether your community is free hosted, social media community or self hosted community

 

[Cpvr]

So just like free blogs, you also get to run a free forum, right? I don't think these forums can get a lot of users.

Yes, but some free forums don’t allow you to transfer your data to a paid software if you want to move it off the free forum hosting.

There are some free forums that are very successful, especially on proboards.

These forums can do well depending on the niche and their staff members.

 

[Nomad]

some free forums don’t allow you transfer your data to a paid software if you want to move it off the free forum hosting

Does this mean some forums actually allow you to transfer your data to a paid software? Since you said some forums don't allow, I assumed some forums do. Is that correct?

 

[Cpvr]

Does this mean some forums actually allow you to transfer your data to a paid software? Since you said some forums don't allow, I assumed some forums do. Is that correct?

That’s correct. Most paid forum software have an importer that you can use to transfer your data off a free forum software to their paid software.

 

[Nomad]

That's good to know. By the way, I am not a fan of using free forum hosting. I prefer to se open source instead of free hosted forums.

 

[Dominique]

Yes, but some free forums don’t allow you to transfer your data to a paid software if you want to move it off the free forum hosting.

There are some free forums that are very successful, especially on proboards.

These forums can do well depending on the niche and their staff members.

That's good to know. By the way, how do you compare free hosted forum with open source forums. Free are complete free and to run a forum on open source you need to invest in domain and hosting but it is still cheaper that premium forums. Is this good option for someone with little funds?

 

[dojo]

Well, they weren't good 25 years ago, sure as heck they're not now

I would be OK with being able to transfer for free, but, if most don't allow you to move your database elsewhere, now that's an issue.

Wen hosting is now SO CHEAP, I think paying for it shouldn't be an issue anymore

 

[riberet19]

I've never liked them, but, if at least some of them let you move your database to other services, that's at least good, you can start with these free forums until you have some success, and then consider migrating to a paid forum hosting service.