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.
Invision Community
Invision Community is a suite.
You may only need one part of it.
Invision Community cost is a plan price for a set of apps: forums, and the pieces around them. If the only part you use is customers asking questions, this is the smaller shape, at a flat price.
Free for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
5 minfrom sign-up to a live portal
0security patches to apply
$9one time for a working portal
7 daysfree, no card needed
About Invision Community
What Invision Community is, and what it asks of you
Buying Invision Community means a paid plan for a suite: forums, plus other apps you can switch on. Hosting from Invision is the usual way to run it.
It is a serious product and teams stay on it for good reasons. The moderation tools go deep and the design is polished. One plan covers a lot of ground for a team that uses the whole set.
What to weigh is how much of the suite you actually use. If the answer is one app, weigh the plan price against that. Deep tools also mean more settings, and more settings mean somebody owns them.
There is no importer, and that is the point
There is no importer. Invision content stays in Invision.
A support archive built from the questions arriving now is more useful than one carried over. The fresh start is the plan, not a compromise.
Keep your existing community running for as long as it earns its plan.
Side by side
Running Invision Community, and running this
The same jobs, and who does each one. Their column describes the software as it is normally run, not any one plan.
| Invision Community | Forumcat | |
|---|---|---|
| Install | They set the hosted plan up for you | Nothing to install |
| Server and hosting | Included in their plan | None. We run it |
| Updates and patches | They apply them on hosted plans | We apply them |
| SSL certificate | Check what your plan covers | Automatic, and renewed for you |
| Backups | Check what your plan covers | Part of the hosting |
| Spam and moderation | Deep built-in moderation tools | Sign-in needed to post, plus staff tools and bulk actions |
| Price shape | A paid plan, by tier | $9 one time, or $99 a month on your own domain |
| Your own domain | Yes, check what the plan includes | Yes on Pro, with SSL included |
| REST API and MCP server | Check what the plan includes | On every plan |
| Private questions | Permissions you configure per group | Private questions and private categories |
| Time to live | Varies with the setup work | About five minutes |
Vendor pricing moves, so we describe the shape and leave the number to their pricing page.
Inside
One list, and a search box
The portal is one page of questions with votes, solved badges, categories, and tags. There is no second app to learn and no settings tree to walk down.
Your logo, your accent color, and a Light, Dim or Dark theme.
- Votes on questions and replies, so the shared ones rise
- One accepted solution, pinned under the question
- Search, related questions, and a log of searches that found nothing
Starting over
When a fresh start is the right call
If your community team is really a support team, a Q&A portal is a smaller thing to own. Questions, replies, votes, one accepted solution, and search. That is the whole of it.
The price does not move with seats, traffic, or questions. The number you sign off this month is the number you pay next year.
The fresh start
Three things, and you are running
No download, no database, no certificate. The whole setup is a name and an address.
- 1
Create the portal
Sign in, give it a name and an address, and it is online. There is no server to point at and nothing to configure first.
- 2
Answer the ten you always answer
Post the questions your team types out every week, and answer them once. That is the archive started, and it is public and searchable straight away.
- 3
Send people to it
Link it from your site, from your old board, and from your support replies. Reading and searching need no account at all.
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.
Questions people ask before moving
Fair 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.
Can we keep our old forum online?
Answer
Yes. Your Invision plan is your own and nothing here touches it. Some teams keep the community for discussion and send support questions to the portal. Each one then does a single job.
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.
Does it work on our own domain?
Answer
Yes, on Pro. Point a subdomain like help.yourcompany.com at Forumcat and SSL is set up for you. Your Forumcat subdomain redirects to it.
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.
Where to go next
One job, one flat price
A customer Q&A portal that is live today and costs the same in a year.
Create your portalFree for 7 days. No credit card.
