Simple machines forum (SMF) review

User and groups

SMF has the ability to create user groups named membergroups in SMF. Then, custom user permissions can be added to a user group. Then, a usergroup can be assigned to Forum a member. SMF also counts a user reputation system called karma.

SMF secret weapon: the default paid subscription module

The paid subscription feature of SMF makes the difference compared to phpBB or myBB because it is embedded by default in a default SMF forum installation. This SMF module uses PayPal. It also includes an email reminder and allows to set up one-time or recurring billing. It does not require IPN to be set up in Paypal. A membership or a user access to a feature can be set up by creating an additional user group. The paid subscription is, in fact, a user upgrade to a new user group with additional user permissions. Consequently, you must set up a new user group with user permissions.

Themes

Unfortunately, the default SMF theme isn’t responsive. However, the SMF marketplace features professional looking, responsive themes. You should go to https://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/ to find nice themes.

The visual editor has lots of options to modify the typography of your text. It is possible to add urls, pictures, embed videos or polls. 

SEO

A SMF forum URL looks like this: https://inadoo.com/smf/index.php?topic=1.0

To me, it looks good because Googlebot does not like when there are more than two variables. I tried to find other URLs, I didn’t find a situation with more than 1 variable in the URL which is a very good thing. SMF forums are well indexed by Google:

We found out that John mueller from Google discouraged webmasters to use reserved characters in their URLs.

My opinion

While the default layout is ugly and not responsive, the SMF features offer features that are way more advanced than any other advanced open source forum applications. Anyways, just like as usual, this opensource forum application does not compete with any paid forum platform like Xenforo or Vbulletin.

There are many features in Xenforo that aren’t available in the default installation of a SMF forum. For example, the user signature permission, the dofollow behind every link are activated by default. There is no akismet or honey pot modules that are installed by default. The SMF webmaster must install modules separately. Those features are available in separate modules but you never know whether 3rd party modules will be compatible with your SMF theme or SMF version. On the other hand, All those features are integrated in Xenforo and Vbulletin.