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What is ElkArte?

ElkArte is a modern, powerful community building forum software. It is completely free to use and is licensed with an open source BSD-3 clause license.

Initially based on Simple Machines Forum (SMF), it began as an overhaul of the code; to modernise, implement new features and make a forum software more relevant in a time of unprecedented social interaction. It has grown to become a modern and feature rich forum package to meet the demands of today's message board user.

Enjoy the benefits of Volunteers from around the world, who believe in freedom of software and donate thier time making ElkArte what it is today.

ElkArte Features:

ElkArte is designed to provide you with all the features you need for a full featured community forum and website right out of the box.

With an extensive default feature set, there is no need to install a lot of additions to get your site up and running. Just some of our highlights include:

  • @Mentioning users including notifications
  • Likes for posts and topics
  • Drafts, including auto save
  • OpenID 2.0
  • Two modern, responsive themes that look good in any modern browser, smartphone or tablet.
  • Integrated video embedding for youtube, vimeo and dailymotion
  • Drag and drop ordering in the administration interface
  • Drag and drop file attachments
  • Improved Anti Spam measures
  • Improved password hashing using industry standards
  • Bad Behaviour built in
  • Automatic combining and minifying of JavaScript and CSS
  • Posting by Email
  • Ajax previews and responses throughout the user interface
  • Utilizes jQuery and Font Awesome
  • ...and much more!

and all that cool stuff you may already know from the common social networking platforms. Try ElkArte yourself on our community forum.

Using another forum software?

Switching to ElkArte is fast and easy!

Simply install ElkArte using our quick Installer, then utilizing the Open Importer Engine you can migrate to ElkArte from many other popular forums including SMF, phpBB, MyBB, vBulletin, XenForo, IPB and more.

Even more features?

ElkArte was built to be extensible

You can add new features or give it your own custom look, with ease. With 100's of plugin hooks, adding new features or enhancing what is there, can be done without any involved cumbersome source edits.

See the collections of Themes and Addons created by our awesome community.

ElkArte Contributors!

This is a list of generous people who have contributed to the ElkArte project hosted on Github.

This is a list of the awesome language translators who have contributed to ElkArte on Transifex, making it possible for people around the world to use ElkArte in their native languages.

Many other people have also contributed by submitting patches, constructive discussions and support.

Thanks to each and everyone of you!