MyBB
Free, extensible forum software package.
Maintained, but at a slower pace than the leaders in its category.
Commit activity more than 58% of tracked projects; popularity more than 39%. How this is calculated.
Commits, last 11 months
| Stars | 1.2k |
|---|---|
| Latest release | mybb_1841 · 16 Sept 2026 |
| Repo updated | 24 Sept 2026 |
| Licence | LGPL-3.0 |
| Built with | PHP |
Is MyBB actively maintained?
MyBB is under active development: 382 commits landed over the last 11 months, averaging roughly 17 commits a month in the most recent quarter.
The most recent tagged release, mybb_1841, shipped within the last month — a current, installable version exists today.
MyBB ranks #16 of 40 in Communication - Social Networks and Forums, placing it mid-table for maintenance activity.
What MyBB actually does
MyBB is a free, extensible forum software package built using PHP and released under the LGPL-3.0 licence. It provides the foundational web infrastructure required to host a community discussion board where users can create topics and reply to threads. The project maintains a steady development pace, with regular code contributions and tagged releases.
Best fit: It is a suitable choice if you need a traditional, self-hosted bulletin board system and prefer an open-source PHP stack that you can modify through its extensible architecture.
Worth knowing: You should consider that maintaining a legacy PHP forum platform requires proactive security patch management and dealing with potential spam registration typical of open web forums.
Deployment notes
Deploying this application typically requires a standard LAMP or LEMP stack, meaning you will need to provision a separate relational database like MySQL or MariaDB alongside a PHP runtime and a web server such as Nginx or Apache.
Links
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