Simple Machines Forum, usually called SMF, is free, open source forum software that you download and install on your own server. It is developed and maintained by a volunteer team, has been around for more than two decades, and still powers many communities around the world. Website Toolbox is a fully hosted, turnkey forum service: we host, set up, customize, and maintain the forum for you. Both can run a busy discussion community, but they differ sharply in who does the technical work, how the forum fits into your website and brand, and what the service really costs over time. This article compares SMF and Website Toolbox to help you decide which one fits your situation.
Quick Comparison: SMF vs Website Toolbox
| Feature | SMF | Website Toolbox |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Self-hosted. You buy web hosting, install PHP and a database, and manage the whole stack. | Fully managed hosting. No server to set up, patch, or maintain. |
| Setup | Download the software, create a database, upload the files, run the installer, then build your board. | We set up and customize your forum for you, ready to go. |
| Cost | Free, open source software, but you pay for hosting, a domain, and your own time managing it. | Simple, transparent pricing with migration included in every plan. |
| Technical skill | Requires comfort with servers, PHP, MySQL or PostgreSQL, and security patching. | No code or server experience needed. A guided, user-friendly interface. |
| Maintenance | You apply updates and security patches yourself when new releases arrive. | We handle updates, security, backups, and monitoring for you. |
| Embedding | Runs as its own website. SSI functions can pull forum content into a PHP site, but the forum itself is not embeddable. | Fully embeddable directly into your existing website, or run standalone on your own domain. |
| Branding | You can edit templates to remove credits, but a polished, fully branded experience is work you do yourself. | 100% your brand. Website Toolbox is invisible to your members, including a fully branded mobile app. |
| Mobile app | No branded mobile app. Members use the responsive website in a mobile browser. | A branded mobile app under your own name and colors. |
| Single Sign On | No built-in single sign on. You install and maintain third-party bridges or mods yourself. | Seamless single sign on without members leaving your site, and our team sets it up for you. |
| Themes | A large directory of community-built themes, but quality, compatibility, and design work are on you. | Multiple genuinely different themes plus an easy theme builder. |
| Support | Community forums, an online manual, and volunteers. | Email, phone, and chat support, with a team that can set up and customize your forum for you. |
| Migration | Self-serve converter scripts you run yourself, with no dedicated help. | Migration included in every plan: an automated import you can run yourself in a few clicks, or we can do it for you. |
| Webhooks and API | No built-in webhooks or API. Automation requires mods or custom code. | Webhooks and API access included in the standard plan. |
| Company | Volunteer-run open source project. | Profitable company with 24 years of experience. |
Hosting and Maintenance
The biggest difference between SMF and Website Toolbox is who runs the servers. SMF is self-hosted software written in PHP that stores its data in a MySQL or PostgreSQL database. To run it, you need a web host that supports the right PHP version, you create a database, upload the files, and run the installer. From then on you are responsible for applying updates, backing up data, and dealing with downtime. The volunteer team releases security patches regularly, and many of them fix vulnerabilities that could expose your members' data, but every fix only helps if you install it promptly. Letting a patch sit for months is a real risk.
Website Toolbox is the opposite. Everything runs on our managed platform, backed by a company with 24 years of experience keeping forums online and secure. There is no server for you to set up, patch, or back up. You focus on your community, and we handle the operations.
Ease of Setup
Setting up SMF means preparing a server with the right versions of PHP and a database, uploading the software, running the installer, and then building out your forum's structure. The installer is straightforward compared with many open source projects, and the documentation helps, but the process still demands real technical comfort before you have anything to show your community. You also own every compatibility problem between SMF, your mods, your themes, and your host's PHP version.
With Website Toolbox, setup is fast and guided, and our support team will even do the setup and customization for you. You are not wrestling with a server; you are building the community you want. We add every feature you need in a user-friendly way, without the operational burden or the bloat that comes when feature-rich software is left to run itself.
Customization and Embedding
SMF is genuinely customizable. Its template and stylesheet system gives you control over the layout, and the customization site hosts thousands of community-built themes and mods that add everything from galleries to chat. The catch is that you are the one doing that work: themes and mods are built by volunteers, need to stay compatible with your SMF version, and can break when you update. Building a distinctive, modern design is a development project.
SMF also includes a feature called SSI, short for Server Side Includes. With some PHP coding, you can pull forum content such as recent topics or login state into other pages of your site. That is genuinely useful for developers who want to weave forum data into a custom PHP website. But the forum itself still runs at its own address; SMF is not designed to be embedded as a whole into an existing page.
Website Toolbox is designed to look and feel like part of your own website. You can embed it directly into your existing site built on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, or dozens of other platforms, or run it as a standalone forum on your own domain, and use multiple genuinely different themes plus an easy theme builder to match your brand. You get real customization without taking on a development project.
Themes
SMF has a large theme directory, and it is fair to credit the community for it: there are well over a thousand community-built themes to choose from. That said, they are volunteer creations of varying quality, they are version-specific, and installing one is only the start. Making a theme look like a polished part of your brand is usually a design and development project, and theme updates are your responsibility.
Website Toolbox offers multiple genuinely different themes that are maintained for you, plus an easy theme builder, so you can change the look of your forum without hiring a designer or editing template files.
Single Sign On
SMF does not come with built-in single sign on. If you want members to log in with an existing account system, you need to find a third-party bridge or mod, configure it, and keep it working across updates. Because SMF is self-hosted, anything that touches authentication is code you are responsible for securing.
With Website Toolbox, single sign on is seamless and our team sets it up for you. Members log in on your site without being sent away to a third-party service, which keeps the community feeling like a natural part of your website rather than a separate destination. You can read more about single sign on methods.
Branding and Mobile App
Because SMF is self-hosted, no third-party brand is forced on your forum, and you can edit the templates to remove the default footer credits. But that is where the work begins: making the forum feel like a polished part of your brand is entirely on you, and there is no official mobile app. SMF 2.1 is responsive, so it works well in a mobile browser, but anything more polished is a project you take on yourself.
Website Toolbox can be made completely invisible to your community. The branding is 100% yours, and your members do not even know they are using a third-party platform. That includes a fully branded mobile app, so the experience stays consistent on desktop and mobile, under your own name and colors.
Customer Support
SMF has an active community forum and a well-organized online manual, and for an open source project that is genuinely valuable. But there is no dedicated support team on call for your specific community when something goes wrong. You troubleshoot with the help of volunteers and your own skills, and your forum stays down while you do it.
Website Toolbox offers email, phone, and chat support, and our team can help you set up, customize, integrate, and use your community. When you need help, there is a responsive team that knows your forum, not just a general help forum.
Pricing
SMF itself is free and open source, which is genuinely appealing if you have the technical ability and time to run a server. The real costs are hosting, a domain, and the hours you spend installing, securing, and maintaining the software, plus any paid themes, mods, or third-party services you buy. Those add up, especially if your time is valuable.
Website Toolbox has simple, transparent pricing, with migration included in every plan, and webhooks and API access included in the standard plan. You pay one clear price and get managed hosting, done-for-you setup, and responsive support in return.
Migration
If you already run a community elsewhere, SMF provides converter scripts that can import boards, topics, and members from several popular forum platforms. It is a capable utility, but you run it yourself: you handle the server work, the testing, and any problems that come up, and the community forums are your only help.
Website Toolbox includes migration in every plan, and our team handles it for you, so your members and their history carry over without you doing the technical work.
Conclusion
SMF is a capable, free, open source forum with a long history and a large community ecosystem, and it is a strong choice if you want full control over your software and server, and you have the technical skills and time to install, secure, and maintain it yourself. Choose Website Toolbox if you want an embeddable, fully branded forum that we host, set up, and support for you, with transparent pricing and migration handled by our team, so you can spend your effort on your community instead of your server. Check out our WordPress plugin for seamless embedding, or our single sign on documentation if you need to integrate an existing login system.