How to Create a Forum Website: Your Complete Beginner’s Guide

Creating online forums is a great way to build supportive communities around your business. These forums help attract new customers and keep existing ones by giving users a place to connect and share their thoughts about your brand.

Investing in an online forum can ultimately boost your business's revenue and strengthen customer loyalty. However, creating a forum website and managing a successful online community takes more than just setting it up.

One of the key factors to a thriving community is choosing the right platform. Check out these 10 powerful online engagement platforms to inspire you as you develop your forum.

In this blog post, we’ll look at the many benefits of creating an online community forum for your customer support, product feedback and marketing efforts. We’ll also explore different types of platforms you can use to set up your forum and highlight the key features to consider when making your choice.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in with some useful tips on how to create a forum website that will bring users together.For more insights, check out understanding what is an online community.

What is a forum website?

An Online community forum or message board provides a place for your site visitors to engage with people worldwide about your product. They start conversations, ask questions, share their interests, solve problems, provide feedback, and more. For example, some users might use your forum community for posing questions or discussing common interests in your industry, while others seek advice or support about your product.

Online community forums can range from simple discussion boards to more complex websites that include user profiles, private messaging, a knowledge base, multimedia-sharing options, gamification, and more. 

These features can offer your business many benefits. Let's look at them in more detail.

How can an online community forum benefit your business?

Customer success and support teams

Online community forums are a game-changer for customer success and support teams by delivering the following:

Self-service customer support

Since forums can save all the content that community members post, they create a user-generated knowledge base that customers use to find solutions to common issues. This means they won't need to contact your support team — reducing the number of tickets that customer service agents receive — freeing up valuable resources so they can focus on more complex issues. 

Self-service customer onboarding

A report from Forrester suggests that self-service solutions, including online community forums, play a vital role in helping brands scale onboarding processes effectively. Online community forums help get new customers up and running. 

Online community forums provide 24/7 access to a library of information like Q&A sessions, video tutorials, or other forms of user-generated content that helps educates customers throughout the onboarding process. This means customers won't rely on email support or lengthy calls and can complete onboarding tasks at their own pace. 

Product education materials

Online community forums enable success and support teams to gather valuable insights of all your community members by reading through the discussions other members post. This helps them understand the issues customers face, identify trends, pain points, and areas of improvement. Armed with this information, they can take a proactive approach to customer success by addressing these concerns in educational materials and constantly updating them.

Product teams

As product teams strive to create products that customers love, they know listening to feedback is key. Here's how community forums give your customers a way to voice their opinions:

Collect product feedback and feature requests

Online community forums encourage users to share their product experiences. They do this by getting involved in Q&As, upvoting and downvoting ideas, and more. This provides product teams with invaluable feedback and feature requests — allowing them to make critical decisions on how to better prioritize their projects. This means only spending time and resources on building features that customers need and use — along with deciding on what features to say “no” to.

Perform and discuss beta testing with super users

Product teams can create exclusive spaces in their forum to allow a select group of users to discuss beta features. This irons out any kinks by finding bugs or missing pieces before launching the product publicly. 

Online community forums also provide the opportunity to identify these super users by analyzing forum members activities. This helps the product team to provide beta access to a more diverse set of users - ensuring you receives authentic feedback since the beta testers represent your actual target audience.

Improve product adoption with forum insights

Product teams can dig deep into your forums analytics to understand the user experience and discover exactly what they need to improve your brand's product education materials. This way, customers can better understand the product, its features, and how to use it effectively to solve their problems.

Marketing teams

Marketing teams can significantly boost their brand's presence and connect with audiences through online community forums. Here's how: 

Establish your company as an industry thought leader 

Since users seek advice and support while using your forum, if you bring more valuable insights to your visitors than competitors, it can become the go-to trusted source for information and expertise. This will cement your reputation and solidify your brand's position as a leader in its industry — keeping you at the top of your customers' minds. 

Improve organic traffic 

Since online forums create a hub of user-generated content — they can have a big impact on your website's search engine optimization (SEO). It works like this: when members participate in forums, they generate pages, posts, comments, and more — all of which contain keywords and content that help your site rank higher in the SERPs. In addition, customer community forums increase the amount of time users spend on your site, improving its bounce rate — further boosting Google search rankings. 

Learn how to implement SEO best practices for community forums

Collect feedback and source customer success stories

Reading through online community forums allows marketing teams to identify customers who are happy with your product. Then they can ask them to share their experience in a case study, testimonial, or thought leadership piece. This type of content provides valuable social proof for potential customers who are still in the decision-making process.

How to create an online community forum 

There are several types of online platforms you can use to launch your community. Let's take a look at three:

Social media platform

If you're looking to start small and want to keep your costs down, building an online community forum on a social media platform may be the right fit. Sophisticated enough to cover the basics, you'll reach a wider audience beyond just your traditional customer base, boost brand awareness, and connect with your current customers. 

At the same time, you can promote your products and services, share company news, and offer customer support. This is done with features that let you publish frequent updates, respond to comments, appoint admin and moderators, and more. You can also have limited control over the content your members consume by approving, denying, and removing posts or comments that don't adhere to your community's guidelines.

Choosing the best social media platform for your forum will depend on your target audience and the type of content visitors consume and create. There are various options available, like an open-to-all public forum like Twitter or Reddit, or a private community like Facebook or LinkedIn groups. 

However, it's worth noting the downsides that come with creating online communities on social media platforms. You'll have zero control over the platform's algorithms and the content that shows up in your audiences' feeds. This means you'll compete with distracting content, making it harder to capture their attention. 

Understanding these limitations will ultimately help you decide what platform is best for your online community.

Pros:

• Free
• Comes with a built-in audience
• Easy for new visitors to join
• Easy to get up and running
• Appoint admins and moderators

Cons:

• No real control or ownership
• Limited features
• Competing communities on the same platform
• Minimal analytics and reporting
• Limited privacy options

Messaging apps

Building an online community forum with a messaging app like Discord, Telegram or Slack means you have access to a variety of useful tools, such as creating separate channels or sub-forums for specific discussions, sending out community-wide announcements, and allowing voice and video calls. Having all of these core features available means you'll get your online community forum up and running in no time. 

It is worth noting that Discord comes with features that better serve gaming communities. While Slack's features align with working professionals that collaborate regularly. Telegram is known for its high level of security. Its secret chats come with a self-destruct timer that causes messages to disappear after they've been opened for a certain amount of time.

Though powerful, creating an online community with a messaging app comes with limited customization options and integration capabilities.

Pros:

• Some messaging app platforms are free to use
• Create different channels within your community
• Audio calls
• File sharing
• Identify and assign permissions to moderators

Cons: 

• Limited customizations 
• Often can't remove the messaging app's branding
• Limited support
• User limits
• Limited integrations with third-party tools

Check out the ultimate comparison between the messaging apps Discord vs Slack

Community forum software

Let's take a look at key features of Bettermode's community forum software:

• Powerful search functionality: Users can easily find discussions and new topics through a highly optimized search bar, that shows the most relevant search results right away.
• Discussion boards: It has a discussion board where users can start conversations on various topics. The goal is to encourage users to participate and help other users easily find topics of interest.
• Customizable forum themes: Bettermode lets community managers personalize the forum's theme to match their brand. You can adjust colors, fonts and layouts to create a unique look. The platform also offers free themes, making it easy to design a forum that fits your community’s style perfectly.
• Customizable templates: Bettermode offers customizable templates that gives you the flexibility to create an engaging and well-organized forum. Check out Betteribble, designed for Dribbble-like communities and Redditify, for a Reddit-style experience.
• Rich text editor: Bettermode includes a comprehensive rich text editor that lets users create visually appealing posts. Members can improve their content with design elements like images, videos, code blocks and lists, making discussions more engaging and high-quality.
• Direct interaction: Members can engage in conversations within the active forum directly on the forum page, easily commenting on posts and interacting with other users. This direct engagement helps encourage users to participate actively, building a sense of community.
• Gamification: Bettermode uses gamification tools like badges, leaderboards and rewards to motivate users and encourage more participation, helping to build a more active community.
• Analytics: Bettermode offers analytics to track member activity, discussions and content performance, helping you understand your community and improve engagement.
• Advanced moderation tools: Bettermode’s moderation tools help admins with manage content easily, making sure that the community remains welcoming space. These tools make it easier to enforce community guidelines, maintain healthy discusssions and remove inappropriate content when needed.

What to consider when picking a forum software for your business 

• Purpose and goal: First, analyze your business's goals and purpose so you can choose the best forum software that aligns with your vision. Are you looking to gather product feedback, provide a platform for customer support, or both? If your goal is to enhance customer service, for example, you need a forum platform that allows you to manage user-generated content and provide self-service capabilities.
• Customization and branding: One of the most crucial elements of online community software is customization. You want to build a branded community that's tailored to your company, including the ability to add your own logo, font, navigation, community name, colors, and more. Bettermode offers customizable templates that make it easy to adjust your forum’s design to fit your brand, without needing any coding skills.
• Budget: Depending on the size of your business and the level of functionality you're looking for, the cost of forum software can vary. Do your research and compare your options to find the best fit for your budget. Bettermode offers competitive pricing plans that provide great value for the features included, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
• Ease of use: Look for software that offers intuitive navigation with a clear and straightforward design to ensure it's easy to use.
• Features and functionality: It's important to consider forum features and functionalities that align with your community's needs. For example, you may need software that provides advanced community management capabilities, powerful spam filters, or interactive gamification tools that help you better serve your members. 
• Scalability: You want software that's flexible enough to adapt to your business as it grows and expands — without any hiccups or roadblocks along the way. Look for software that can handle a large amount of traffic and number of users without slowing down or crashing.
• Integrations: You want a platform that seamlessly integrates with third-party tools, like your CRM, ESP, and analytics platforms. Bettermode offers advanced integrations with third-party apps.
• Mobile compatibility: It's essential that your forum software is mobile-friendly — offering a responsive design that adjusts to different screen sizes. Additionally, consider features like push notifications that allow users to receive alerts on their device when someone responds to their post. 
• Security and privacy: The last thing you want is for your customer's data to be compromised due to weak security measures. Look for software with robust security protocols in place, such as strong password requirements and encryption of sensitive information. 
• SEO and discoverability: Features that enable you to optimize your forum for SEO, such as customizable meta tags, schema markups, SEO-friendly URLs and more. 
• Analytics and reporting: Gather data on user behavior, like what topics are popular and which threads have the most engagement. The platform should provide easy-to-read reports and customizable analytics dashboards so you can tailor your insights to your specific needs. Bettermode offers in-depth analytics and reporting features to help you track your community’s growth and engagement levels.

Conclusion

Building a thriving online community forum is an excellent way to engage with your customers, gather valuable feedback and provide effective support. By selecting the right platform, you can create a welcoming space where users feel valued and can connect with your brand in meaningful ways.

Bettermode offers a wide range of features that simplify the process of building and managing your ideal online forum, including powerful customization options, analytics tools and gamification elements to keep users engaged. With its user-friendly interface and advanced capabilities, you can easily create a forum that meets the unique needs of your audience.

Ready to see the difference for yourself? Try Bettermode for free today and start building your community!

This article was originally published on May 3rd, 2023, and was updated on December 3rd, 2024.

FAQ

How to create a forum website for free?

If you want to create a forum website for free follow these steps:

1. Choose a platform: Bettermode offers a free trial with powerful customization options, ideal for building a branded forum.
2. Set up and customize: Register, choose a name and design your forum’s layout. Check out Bettermode's advanced customization for a unique look.
3. Connect your domain: If you want to establish a professional presence, consider connecting a custom domain to your forum website to improve its credibility.
4. Configure and moderate: Organize categories, set permissions and add rules. Moderate regularly to ensure a positive community.
5. Invite new users: Share your forum link to build your forum community.

How much does it cost to build a forum website?

The cost to build forum websites depends on the platform and features you choose:

1. Free platforms: Use them for a basic, no-cost forum website with limited customization.
2. WordPress website: Use a free forum plugin such as BuddyPress or bbPress plugin. A premium wordpress forum theme and custom code may cost extra for better user engagement and user management.
3. Paid platforms: Bettermode stands out with plans starting at $19/month, offering more control and advanced features such as a SSL certificate, search functionality and extensive customization options for building an active community.

Is it hard to create a forum website?

Creating a forum website is not hard, especially with platforms like Bettermode, which offers a range of tools for building and managing online communities. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible even for those without technical skills.

Users can easily set up their community forum by choosing a theme from various templates, organizing content and establishing community guidelines to encourage user engagement. With options for forum plugins, advanced features and better user management, you can create a space that fosters an active community and promotes meaningful discussions.

What is an example of a forum website?

An example of a forum website is Bettermode, a platform designed to help both small businesses and larger ones create and manage online communities. It allows users to build community forums, engage community members and foster active communities.