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.
Hosted support forum
A support forum you switch on,
not one you host.
Sign in, name it, and your forum is online. No server to rent, no Docker, no update day. $9 one time on a Forumcat subdomain, or $99 a month on your own domain.
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
Setup
Your first five minutes, and the work you skip
How to create a support forum here: sign in, name it, answer the first question. The right column is the work a forum you host yourself asks for instead, and keeps asking for.
| With Forumcat | A forum you host yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Server | None. We run it. | Rent one, size it, watch it |
| Install | Sign in and name your forum | Docker, a database, a mail sender |
| SSL certificate | Automatic, on your own domain too | Issue it, then renew it |
| Updates | We ship them. You do nothing. | Update day, every release |
| Backups | Part of the hosting, nothing for you to run | Yours to run, and to test |
| Spam and clean-up | Moderation and bulk actions, built in | Pick plugins, then tune them |
| Sign-in | Magic link, 6-digit code, or Google | Set up an auth plugin, then keep it |
| Time to a live address | About five minutes | However long the rows above take |
The right column describes the work any self-hosted forum needs. It is not a claim about one product.
The answer that ends the question
One accepted solution, pinned under the question
A customer asks. Your team replies. Someone marks the reply that worked.
That answer moves up under the question, and the thread turns to solved. The next customer with the same problem reads it first and stops there.
- The asker or your staff can accept the solution
- Votes push the questions many customers share to the top
- Related questions and duplicate hints appear while a customer types
Your team
Five roles, so the support team shares the work
Invite the people who answer, and give each one a role. Owner, admin, agent, finance, and member each get their own access.
The same roles apply on the web, in the REST API, and on the MCP server. Staff replies show the role next to the name, so an official answer looks official.
Basic comes with 2 seats. Pro is unlimited, with a quiet fair-use backstop.
- Invite by email, change a role, or revoke an invite
- Finance can handle the bill without touching the forum
- Every staff action that changes something lands in the audit log
Private questions
The one-to-one cases stay private
Not every question belongs in public. Your staff can make any question private, and a whole category can be private too.
Only the person who asked and your team can open a private thread. Everything else stays public and findable.
Your domain
A community forum for customers, on your own domain
Add one DNS record for something like help.yourcompany.com, and SSL is set up for you. Your own domain is part of Pro.
Your Forumcat subdomain then points at the new address. The ranking you build belongs to your domain, not to ours.
- One DNS record, and SSL is issued and renewed for you
- Old links keep working, because the subdomain redirects
- Your logo, favicon, accent color, and Light, Dim or Dark theme
Straight answers
What buyers ask before they pick a forum for customer support
- Can it run on our own domain?YesYes, on Pro, with SSL set up for you.
- Can customers read without an account?YesYes. Reading and searching are open to everyone.
- Can customers answer each other?YesYes. Any signed-in member can reply and vote.
- Can we keep some questions private?YesYes. Private questions, and private categories too.
- Can we sort questions into categories and tags?YesYes. One category per question, and up to 3 tags.
- Can our own AI agent read and answer?YesYes. Every capability is a REST call and an MCP tool.
- Does it work on phones?YesYes. The pages are light and readable on any phone.
- Can it look like our brand?YesYes. Logo, favicon, accent color, and Light, Dim or Dark.
- Can we take the content out?YesYes. Everything is readable through the REST API.
Three honest noes. There is no importer, no embeddable widget, and no answer bot.
Pricing
One price for the forum, not a price per seat
Traffic is good news here. It is not a bigger bill. Start on a subdomain, move to your own domain later, and keep every answer you have written.
Basic
$9 one-time
Create your portal- Portal on yourcompany.myforumcat.com
- 2 team seats
- 1,000 registered members
- 10,000 questions
- 1 GB (≈2,000 images) of media
- Full SEO and GEO: structured data + sitemap
- Analytics built in
most popular
Pro
$99 per month
Start with ProEverything in Basic, plus
- Your own custom domain
- Unlimited team seats
- 10,000 registered members
- Unlimited questions
- 50 GB (≈100,000 images) of media
- 1,000,000 page views / month
FAQ
Fair questions
Do we have to host or patch anything?
Answer
No. There is no server, no Docker, and no update day. We keep it online, fast, and current.
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.
We run Discourse as a support forum today. Can we move it over?
Answer
Not the old threads, because there is no importer. Teams start fresh here and leave the old forum up to read while the new one fills in.
Can our whole support team answer?
Answer
Yes. Invite teammates as owner, admin, agent, or finance. Basic includes 2 seats and Pro is unlimited (fair use). Staff replies show the person's role.
Are replies threaded?
Answer
No. The reply stream is flat and in order, with an "in reply to" marker when someone answers one reply. It stays readable for non-technical customers.
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 next
Community help centerThe same portal, described as a help center made of real questions.Compared with DiscourseWhat each one is good at, and what hosting one costs you in time.Ticket deflectionHow public answers absorb the questions you type twice a week.Customer self serviceThe wider job: let customers find the answer before they write in.
Your support forum can be live before lunch
Want customer support forum examples first? Open the live demo. It is a real portal, running on Forumcat right now.
Create your portalFree for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
