How fast can we be live?
Answer
About five minutes. Sign in, name your portal, and it is online at yourcompany.myforumcat.com. Nothing to install.
Compare
Compare Forumcat with the tools you are weighing
A hosted support forum and customer Q&A portal, on your own domain, with one flat price. Live in about five minutes, and nothing to install.
We are the public self-serve layer beside your help desk. We are not a help desk, a chat app, or a community for course creators.
Free for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
5 minfrom sign-up to a live portal
0servers to run or patch
$9one time for a working portal
7 daysfree, no card needed
How we compare
What you can expect from these pages
Every comparison here says what the other tool is good at before it says what to weigh. Most of them are good software, built for a job that is bigger, or simply different, than ours.
Prices and quotes come from public sources. Each one is named on the page, with the date we read it. Where we could not source a fact, the page says "check their docs" instead of guessing.
One thing is true of every comparison on this site: there is no importer. You cannot move an old forum, help center, or community into this one. Teams start fresh, write their most-asked answers, and let real questions build the archive.
The short version of our side is easy to check. You get search, votes, and one accepted solution pinned under each question. You also get private questions, five team roles, and your own domain. Setup takes about five minutes, because there is nothing to install.
We are not a help desk, and we do not try to be one. Keep the inbox you already have. This is the public place beside it. An answer gets written once, then found by the next customer, by Google, and by AI engines.
Our side of every table
What your customers land on
This is the portal in our column on every comparison page. Questions, search, votes, and a solved badge on the answered ones.
Reading and searching need no account, so nothing stands between a customer and an answer you already wrote.
Head to head
One tool, one page. Each page says what that tool does well, then quotes public reviews with a source and a date. The table at the bottom puts the two side by side.
Alternatives and pricing
Lists of the tools buyers weigh on each shelf. Each entry says who it is for, and the price shape we could source. Useful while you are still deciding which kind of tool you need.
Community platformsThe twelve vendors buyers weigh against us, side by side.Invision alternativeA suite priced per plan, and a portal priced flat.Knowledge base toolsWhat the article tools are for, and the Q&A shelf beside them.MyBB alternativeFree software, paid in hours. Here is the other trade.phpBB alternativeFor teams tired of patching a board nobody wants to own.SMF alternativeSimple Machines Forum, and a portal with no server.vBulletin alternativeLicense or cloud, next to a portal with a flat price.vs AnswerbaseProduct Q&A software, and the portal version of the same job.vs Experience CloudCRM-bound customer portal, and the simple version.vs ForumbeeHosted support community, and the flat-price version.vs inSidedEnterprise community suite, and the five minute version.vs KhorosEnterprise community suite, and the focused alternative.vs Stack OverflowDeveloper Q&A, and the customer-facing version.vs Vanilla ForumsEnterprise forum, and the flat-price alternative.vs Website ToolboxLow-cost hosted forum, and the Q&A alternative.vs Zendesk GatherThe Zendesk community add-on, and the standalone version.XenForo alternativeThe license and renewal shape, next to one flat price.
Pricing
Two plans. Both flat.
The bill does not grow with traffic, questions, or seats. Pick a plan, and that is the price.
| Basic | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9 one time | $99 a month, or $990 a year |
| Portal address | yourcompany.myforumcat.com | Your own domain, SSL included |
| Team seats | 2 | Unlimited |
| Registered members | 1,000 | 10,000 |
| Questions | 10,000 | Unlimited |
| Media storage | 1 GB (≈2,000 images) | 50 GB (≈100,000 images) |
| Page views a month (fair use) | 100,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Search, votes, accepted solutions | ||
| Structured data, sitemap, markdown view | ||
| REST API and MCP server | ||
| Google sign-in under your brand | ||
| Analytics and search log | ||
| Free trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days, no card |
Unlimited seats and questions on Pro carry a quiet fair-use backstop, lifted for any real portal that reaches it. Page views are fair-use limits, not a meter.
FAQ
Fair questions
What does it cost in month twelve?
Answer
The same as month one. $9 one time for a portal on a Forumcat subdomain, or $99 a month for your own domain. The bill never grows with traffic or questions.
Can we import our old forum or help docs?
Answer
Not today. There is no importer. Most teams start fresh and let the new questions build the archive, which is live in minutes.
What happens to our answers if we leave?
Answer
They are yours. Every question and answer is readable through the REST API, so you can pull it all out any time.
The quickest comparison is the live one
Open the demo portal, then create your own and answer one question. It takes about five minutes, and you will know more than any table can tell you.
Create your portalFree for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
