Invision Community

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Invision Community

A curated collection of the 2 best self hosted alternatives to Invision Community.

Invision Community is a commercial community platform that provides forums, content publishing, member management, commerce, and moderation tools to build, customize, and monetize online communities.

Alternatives List

#1
Flarum

Flarum

Self-hosted, extensible forum platform with a modern UI, rich text editor, notifications, and a robust extension system.

Flarum screenshot

Flarum is a modern, PHP-based discussion forum platform designed to be fast, simple to run, and easy to extend. It provides a clean single-page interface for end users and a modular architecture for admins to customize functionality via extensions.

Key Features

  • Single-page application (SPA) forum UI with fast navigation and real-time-feeling interactions
  • Extension system for adding features (SSO, integrations, custom content, moderation tools, theming)
  • Built-in notifications and user mentions for community engagement
  • Role- and permission-based access control for categories/tags and moderation actions
  • Tag-based organization (in core) to structure discussions beyond classic subforums
  • Responsive design optimized for desktop and mobile browsers
  • REST API for integrations and custom frontends
  • Admin dashboard for managing extensions, appearance, permissions, and settings

Use Cases

  • Support and feedback communities for products/projects
  • Private team or organization discussion space with granular permissions
  • Public hobby or interest forums with customizable features and theming

Limitations and Considerations

  • Many advanced capabilities (e.g., richer moderation workflows, SSO providers, deep analytics) typically require installing third-party extensions
  • Major version upgrades may require extension compatibility updates, so extension-heavy installs should plan upgrade windows

Flarum is well-suited for communities that want a modern forum experience with a flexible extension ecosystem. Its core remains lightweight while enabling sophisticated setups through add-ons and API-driven integrations.

16.2kstars
1.7kforks
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#2
NodeBB

NodeBB

Real-time Node.js forum platform with plugins, themes, SSO, moderation tools, and integrations for building scalable community discussion boards.

NodeBB screenshot

NodeBB is a modern forum and community platform focused on fast, real-time discussions and extensibility. It provides a web-based discussion board with rich moderation, user management, and integration options, designed to scale from small communities to large deployments.

Key Features

  • Real-time updates for topics, posts, notifications, and chat (WebSocket-based)
  • Extensible plugin system for adding auth providers, integrations, and custom features
  • Theme system for customizing UI/branding and layouts
  • Built-in moderation tools (flags, user moderation controls, permissions)
  • Social features such as mentions, notifications, reactions, and user profiles
  • Built-in chat/messaging for community members
  • Multiple database backends supported (commonly Redis or MongoDB)
  • REST API and admin UI for configuration and management

Use Cases

  • Hosting a product/community support forum with roles, categories, and moderation
  • Migrating from legacy forums to a modern, mobile-friendly discussion platform
  • Building a branded community hub with SSO and plugin-based integrations

Limitations and Considerations

  • Requires an external database service (Redis or MongoDB) and operational tuning for larger installs
  • Many advanced capabilities depend on selecting and maintaining the right plugins/themes

NodeBB fits organizations that want a performant, modern forum with real-time interaction and a strong extension model. With its admin tooling, theming, and plugin ecosystem, it can be tailored to a wide range of community and support scenarios while remaining scalable.

14.9kstars
2.9kforks
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Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running