How do I add a forum to my website?

[Ozwalt]

[Note: The title of this post has been edited by a moderator.]

Is there a way to embed a forum into my website?

[Sandeep]

You can embed a discussion forum into your weebly website using https://www.websitetoolbox.com. It is fully featured and customizable, shows the correct customized URL in the browser window and in emails, SEO-friendly, and extremely easy to set up.

[tmahada]

I agree Weebly should try to offer forum functionality again to plans with more features for higher plans, (how about offering us a similar forum platform that this "weebly community" is based on? If there is not a requested forum feature thread someone should make one.

I have only seen basic comment apps and only one embedable forum software which appears to have issues given the poor ratings ive seen across several app markets and no attempt to reach out to weebly customers in the feedback section.

the websitetoolbox mentioned above looked interesting until i saw the page view caps and those surcharges not as pricey as others like nodebb but will still cost any forum that is actually doing well. I prefer forums that price based on features not page views, members or active viewers 

[Sandeep]

Most forum hosting companies charge based on activity (like active members, page views, etc.) instead of features because it has several advantages.

It allows the cost to be lower and more accurately match the size of your forum. If a forum is priced based on features, a forum that needs just one feature in a higher pricing plan would end up paying much more even though the activity on their forum may not justify that expense for them.

It allows new forums that are just getting started to have all the features and functionality that they need to grow the forum easily and quickly. The small forums need those great features just as much as the big forums need them.

Even if a company is charging based on features instead of usage, there will always be a point at which the company starts losing money if usage exceeds the price they set for that feature set. To avoid that situation, if pricing is based on features, each pricing plan will need to be priced for the worst case scenerio (a really busy forum), which means that all other clients on that plan will unnecessarily be paying more. Pricing based on usage is directly proportional to the costs the hosting company has to bear and also the success of the forum. A successful forum will justify that in additional customer satisfaction, customer retention, engaged users, ad revenue, or whatever benefit the forum was created for.

So in general, while I understand the desire to have pricing based on features, I think pricing based on usage is much more adventageous for everyone involved.

[mschumpert]

What forum would you suggest to embed in Weebly for a community just starting out?

[NShscoord]

I am creating a website for a class project and want to include a forum too...a response to this would be most helpful.

[Adam7]

There are a few different free embeddable forums out there, although not one that we recommend in specific. I did a quick Google search and found this one:

http://www.nabble.com

[tmahada]

@Adam nabble will not work with https and there are no plans to enable it, therefore it is no longer an option especially with google and other search engine penalties for websites without ssl.

tal.ki also does not support https and looks like they have done nothing to improve it since being bought by muut which is a terrible comment system not really a forum, unfortunately muut is the only "forum option" in the apps section. I tried it out and removed it soon after, all the negative feedback on weebly and other site builders support this. Their pricing is also rediculous if you want to exert any control over your own data and users, although they do not have restrictive member and page view limits like websitetoolbox, plush and other expensive embedable forums.

Until weebly offers what other competing site builders offer (free forum) as part of their plan for all customers, then I recommend selfhosting a forum as a sub or addon domain, will be a lot cheaper as just requires host plan as many selfhosted forum scripts like vanilla, phbb, simplemachines, etc are free and much better than the hosted and embedable forums.

Weebly please provide us a forum thank you. 

[Sandeep]

Hi @tmahada,

Just a heads up that Website Toolbox is fully SEO-friendly even when it is embedded into a website like Weebly. We make sure of that.

There are drawbacks to installing and running your own forum software. We outlined them in an article here:

https://www.websitetoolbox.com/blog/forum-hosting-vs-forum-software-which-is-right-for-you-440

I assume that a lot of Weebly customers chose weebly because they don't want to deal with all of the headache around running their own server. People choose Website Toolbox for the same reasons.

I do agree that it would be easier for Weebly customers if they had their own forum app, but that would detract from their company's main focus, which is to create a great core website platform. A forum is a robust beast of its own. You need a powerful platform, especially as the forum becomes really popular. Anything that Weebly builds in a small amount of time would not do justice to a growing forum. We've been building our forums for 18 years and we still have a lot more to add!

Just my 2 cents. Good luck on finding something that fits your needs.

[webblox]

Hands down, the best free and modern forum for Weebly is Nabble.com. I was looking for a basic free forum, and Nabble is better than most I've seen, especially because it's free. It nicely embeds into your Weebly site and is mobile-friendly.

Now... THIS Weebly forum that we are discussing the topic of "Forums for Weebly" is also very nice. Why can't we use THIS????? It's like asking for a doctor when you're at the hospital.

[tmahada]

@webblox

@Adam

Nabble is no longer an option for anyone who wants to operate a secure website and rank well.

read this.

http://support.nabble.com/HTTPS-SSL-urgent-td7594627.html

Hopefully weebly will provide forum functionality with their sitebuilder in the near future.

thanks

[rl0160]

Hi,

I wonder when will be the near future. Forums are indeed a great way to expand your business and we really are in need of it.

What is the best workaround as of this moment?

Can weebly provide apps that are free and also apps that are not free but with more features? Not just removing the free apps so that we choose to subscribe on paid applications.