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
Forumbee pricing, and the simple alternative
Forumbee is a hosted community sold for customer support, which is close to what we do. The differences are speed, the API, and the shape of the bill.
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
About Forumbee
What Forumbee is, and who buys it
Support teams buy Forumbee as a hosted community and Q&A product for customer support and self-serve. That is a narrower pitch than most of this shelf, and a near neighbor to ours.
It gives a support team categories, questions and answers, and a public place customers can search. Teams that want a support community without a whole suite look at it for good reason.
It is a small vendor. There is very little third-party review signal about it, so ask for references from teams your size before you sign.
Pricing
Forumbee pricing, in plain words
Forumbee sells hosted plans, and we will not quote numbers we cannot source. When you look at forumbee pricing, compare the caps rather than the sticker. Members, storage, and which domain each plan allows.
Ours has two plans and no seats to count. $9 one time for a portal on a Forumcat subdomain. $99 a month for your own domain, with 1,000,000 page views a month under fair use.
Free for 7 days. No credit card.
What your customers see
The portal, in your brand
Questions, votes, and solved badges, with search across all of it.
Side by side
Forumbee and Forumcat, line by line
Our column is what we ship today. Their column is sourced or plainly descriptive, and says so when we cannot source it.
| Forumbee | Forumcat | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Sign up and configure, hosted by them | About five minutes |
| Price shape | Per plan, hosted | $9 one time, or $99 a month |
| Who hosts it | The vendor | We do |
| Your own domain | Check with the vendor | Yes, on Pro, with SSL set up for you |
| REST API and MCP on every plan | Check with the vendor | |
| Private questions and categories | Check with the vendor | |
| Roles for the support team | Check with the vendor | Five: owner, admin, agent, finance, member |
Sources as of Jul 2026. We only print a competitor number when a public source gives one. Otherwise the cell says "check with the vendor". 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.
Fair to them
When Forumbee is the right pick
Stay with Forumbee if their plan lines up with your caps and your team likes the product. It aims at the same job we do. Swapping a working tool for the sake of it is a cost with no payoff.
If you use parts of it we do not have, that settles it. We do not have an article editor, a widget, or threaded replies.
Why teams move
When teams pick Forumcat instead
Teams move to us for speed and for the API. A portal is live in about five minutes. Every capability is a REST call and an MCP tool on every plan. There is no add-on to buy.
The other reason is the shape of the bill. One flat price, whatever the traffic does, and no per-seat line.
- Live in about five minutes, nothing to install
- Duplicate suggestions while a customer types a title
- A log of searches that found nothing, so you can see the gaps
- Point Claude, ChatGPT, or your own agent at it over MCP
A closer look
See it before you decide
One URL connects an AI agent to your portal, on every plan.
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
Questions buyers ask at this stage
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.
Is there a free plan?
Answer
No free plan. Free for 7 days. No credit card. After that it is $9 one time for a portal on a Forumcat subdomain. You can stay there as long as you like.
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.
Does it replace our help desk?
Answer
No. Keep your help desk for one-to-one work. Forumcat is the public place beside it where the answers many customers share get written once.
Compare them side by side
A trial takes minutes, so you can put both portals on screen and pick.
Create your portalFree for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
