In this article, we’ll be going over some of the best hosting companies that offer forum hosting. We’ll look at their price, features, and overall capability.
In the end, we’ll give a summary of what each host is best at and who would most profit from hosting their forum with them.
What is Forum Hosting?
A forum is either a website or a specific page on a website where your visitors can go and discuss topics with other visitors. Usually, the conversations will be related to the products, services, or information you offer, or you could just make a forum centered around a certain topic.
Before you even begin choosing who you’ll host your forum with there are a couple of things to keep in mind…
- If you don’t get much traffic to your website, a forum would probably require more work than it’s worth.
- Pick a host that can handle spikes in traffic.
- Make sure your host has all the software you’ll need for the type of forum you want.
Technically speaking social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit could be considered forums because they’re online spaces where people go to communicate to each other about ideas and topics of interest to them. Online forums were the very first kind of social media available to the public back before all the modern options we have now.
If you’ve got the web traffic to justify it, an online forum on your website can help boost your ranking and bring in even more traffic.
Because visitors will be conversing with each other you’ll get free content-generating itself on your site all the time. Pulse, people are nosy and just can’t resist seeing what other people have to say so they can react and reply.
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The 4 Best Forum Hosting Providers
- GreenGeeks – best green forum hosting
- Hostinger – best cheap forum hosting
- ProBoards – best free forum hosting
- InMotion – best forum hosting for app-diversity
Below you will find detailed information about the best forum hosting options for your business.
Forum Hosting Reviews
1. GreenGeeks – best green forum hosting
If you know how to install software and are looking for a company to host your forum that’s more friendly to the environment we’d suggest going with GreenGeeks.
While they don’t have as wide of a selection of features as some of the other hosts on this list they are efficient and have everything you need for a good forum as long as you have a rough idea of the maximum traffic that will be drawn to it every month to month.
Before deciding that GreenGeeks is the best forum hosting choice for both you and the environment here are some things you’ll need to take into account before purchasing one of their plans…
- You need to sign up in advance for three years to get the best deal, if you don’t the price will be much higher.
- GreenGeeks isn’t specially designed for forum hosting so you may have to install the necessary software depending on how you want your forum to run.
GreenGeeks promotes their selection of web hosting plans as the optimal choice for hosting an online forum with them. Here are the three levels of web hosting that they offer:
- Lite hosting
- Pro hosting
- Premium hosting
Aside from their eco-friendly business and ‘100% percent green’ guarantee they don’t have any other major claims to fame.
As long as you foresee your forum remaining small and having a limited amount of visitors we would suggest going with the Lite hosting plan, but if you do expect large surges in visitors then you should spring for either the Pro or Premium plan.
Lite Hosting: This plan includes one website, 50GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, 50 email accounts, free SSL, and WordPress installation. Renews at $10.95.
Pro Hosting: This plan includes unlimited websites and storage, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, free SSL, faster performance, and WordPress installation. Renews at $15.95.
Premium Hosting: This plan includes unlimited websites and storage, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, free SSL, faster performance, free dedicated IP, and WordPress installation. Renews at $25.95.
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2. Hostinger – best cheap forum hosting
Hosting is yet another hosting company that isn’t specifically for hosting forums.
They do however have the distinct advantage of lower prices than most of the other possible forum hosts on this list. That makes them a great option if you want something more than just a forum.
Let’s say you want to put all your eggs in the same basket and have a regular website and just have your forum be a part of it. Hostinger would work great for that, but you might still have to install a few software updates to get the forum running the way you want it to if you aren’t satisfied with their one-click installations.
Before you go with Hostinger as your new forum host here are a few facts to consider beforehand…
- Hostinger doesn’t offer any dedicated plans so if you’re looking for a dedicated server to host a business forum you’ll have to look elsewhere
- Their low prices will only take effect if you sign up for their longest payment cycle.
As far as their services go they’re ranked just as high as some of the other big hosting names out there. Here are their three main shared hosting plans:
- Single Shared
- Premium Shared
- Business Shared
If you’re expecting a large turnout of visitors on your forum we would advise going with the shared Business Hosting plan since that plan would allow your site to handle up to 100,000 visitors every month.
Plus, it has some extra features besides the ones we’ve listed here that may come in handy
Shared Single Hosting: This package includes one website, 30GB of storage, 100GB bandwidth, free SSL, up to 10,000 visitors, and one email account. Renews at $2.99/month.
Shared premium Hosting: This package includes 100 websites, 100GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, free SSL, domain name, up to 25,000 visitors, and unlimited email accounts. Renews at $4.99/month.
Shared Business Hosting: this package includes: This package includes 100 websites, 100GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, free SSL, up to 100,000 visitors, domain name, and unlimited email accounts. Renews at $8.99/month.
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3. ProBoards – best free forum hosting
ProBoards is a hosting company whose whole purpose and system are centered around forums. They’re a popular option for those who want to create an online forum without having to put up a whole website.
There are several reasons why ProBoards is so popular, the biggest being that it has a high-functioning free plan that doesn’t require any special software on your end.
That being said, there are some aspects about their free plan you may find issues with…
- ProBoards’ free hosting plan comes with ads that you can’t remove.
- You can’t use your domain name unless you go with their paid plan.
As long as those issues don’t bother you you’ll be able to host your online forum entirely free of charge.
If you want more than what they offer in their free hosting package, ProBoards has many premium features that you can pay a fee to access such as attaching a custom domain name to your forum.
If you opt for that, however, you’ll have to obtain your domain name through a separate registrar.
These are the plans that ProBoards offers:
- ProBoards.free
- Forums Essentials
- Forums Compleat
- Forums VIP
The Forums plans are all part of ProBoards’ Forum.net option which is specifically used by businesses.
It has extra features, but you won’t need them unless you’re looking to create a larger business forum. Both plans have a wide selection of easy-to-use templates which will be perfect for you if you don’t have any technical skills.
ProBoards Plan: This plan includes unlimited members, posts and page views, full customization, file attachments, live search, mobile-friendliness, youtube embedding, remote hosting, unlimited bandwidth, and premium features available for purchase. This plan is free.
Essential Plan: This plan includes unlimited members and staff, award-winning software, 100,000 page views per month, branding features, extra features for all areas of service. The cost is $49.99/month.
Complete Plan: This plan includes unlimited members and staff, award-winning software, 500,000 page views per month, extra features in all areas of service. The cost is $199.99/month.
VIP Plan: This plan includes unlimited members and staff, award-winning software, 1,000,000 page views per month, extra features in all areas of service, and priority support. The cost is $399.99/month.
4. InMotion – best forum hosting for app-diversity
As long as you add the right plug-ins InMotion is a really good hosting provider with all the tools you’ll need to make a successful online forum.
One of the biggest, if not the biggest perk of deciding to host your forum with InMotion is that they don’t have restrictions on their forum application. That means you can customize and use whatever application you want to create the perfect forum for your website.
Before deciding InMotion is right for you here are a few things to consider…
- InMotion doesn’t have a flawless refund policy. You can get a refund but it may take some time to register in their system.
- Their reviews are a mixed bag of “great” and “terrible” when it comes to their customer support and uptime.
If you were attracted by GreenGeeks’ eco-friendly business approach then you’ll be happy to know that InMotion also takes steps to lessen its negative impact on the environment.
While InMotion’s plans aren’t cheap, they aren’t the worst prices available. As for their refund policies, they offer a 90 day trial period which is three times the length most other hosting providers allow.
Here are the plans they advise using for forum hosting:
- Lite plan
- Launch plan
- Power plan
- Pro plan
Their Power plan is the most popular and probably the best choice if you need a large amount of storage. If you’re okay with less storage their Launch plan’s 50GB should be sufficient.
Lite Plan: This plan includes one website, unmetered bandwidth, 10 GB of storage, one email account, domain name, SSL, and website builder. Renews at $7.49/month.
Launch Plan: This plan includes two websites, unmetered bandwidth, 50 GB of storage, 10 email accounts, free domain name, SSL, and website builder. Renews at $9.99/month.
Power Plan: This plan includes 50 websites, unmetered bandwidth, 100 GB of storage, 50 email accounts, free domain name, SSL, and website builder. Renews at $13.99/month.
Pro Plan: This plan includes 100 websites, unmetered bandwidth, 200 GB of storage, 100 email accounts, free domain name, SSL, and website builder. Renews at $22.99/month.
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Best in Show for Green Hosting: GreenGeeks
If you want your website to be fun off entirely sustainable energy we would highly advise hosting your new online forum with GreenGeeks. If however, you need to purchase a large plan with multiple extra features we would advise looking for a different host, because while GreekGeeks are easy on the environment they aren’t easy on your bank account.
Best in Show for Cheapest Hosting: Hostinger
This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. If you sign up for their longer payment plans you’ll be getting good service for one of the cheapest prices in the industry. Even though their lowest plan doesn’t have as many features as some of their competitors, we still recommend them for people concerned about their finances.
Best in Show for Free hosting: ProBoards
ProBoards is the best free provider for online forums. Their free features and templates coupled with the option to pay for premium features make it easy, effective, and affordable. Their paid Forum.Net options are some of the most expensive in the business though, so this only applies to their ProBoards free option.
Best in Show for Forum Application Diversity: InMotion
If you want the freedom to choose your plugins and applications then InMotion is probably the best fit for you. They’re set up for open source projects which may make your life a little easier.