Vorum
DEEN
Open source. Self-hosted. Yours.

Good conversations.
A place of your own.
Your Vorum.

Vorum is forum software for communities, clubs and projects. Bring people together, build shared knowledge and keep your data on your own server.

Install Vorum Explore the community ↗

Free under the MIT licence. No platform lock-in.

A
AlexAn idea starts a conversation

What if our ideas had a place of their own?

M
MiraBetter together

A place where questions become knowledge. And people become a community.

Room for good conversations.

MIT · Open Source Your server. Your data. Deutsch & English Docker · Flask · SQLite
Meet Vorum

Feels familiar from
the first conversation.

Clear topics, simple navigation and room for what matters: your conversations. At your desk and on the go.

Vorum Community · Forum overview

Actual software screenshots. Content and people are fictional demo data.Click to enlarge ↗

Features

Everything for your community.
In your hands.

From the first topic to multiple forums: Vorum brings structure to your conversations.

Conversations that last.

Categories, rich text and attachments give your knowledge a home. With direct links to posts and an edit history that keeps changes transparent.

Multiple forums. One installation.

Run multiple forums on their own domains. Each with its own content and administration, using local or shared accounts.

As individual as you are.

Your logo, favicon and six colour schemes. Add your own homepage copy and switch between light and dark mode, automatically or manually.

Stay in the conversation.

Reading progress and subscriptions for topics or entire forums. Get email notifications immediately or as a daily or weekly digest.

A well-organised community.

Super-admin, admin, moderator and user: four roles to manage your community. With user administration and email verification.

Connect your application.

Sync users and create one-time login links through the JSON API. Integrate external sign-in and registration into your existing application.

Simple infrastructure. Room to grow.

Python, Flask and SQLite, with no separate database server. You decide where Vorum runs, how it looks and where your forum goes next.

Get started

Your forum starts here.

The recommended route: Docker Compose.
For Linux on AMD64 and ARM64.

  1. Download a release

    Choose a stable release on GitHub and download compose.release.yaml from its assets into a dedicated folder. No image build required.

  2. Start the containers

    Run the two commands in your download folder. The web server and mail worker start together. Data is stored in a persistent Docker volume.

  3. Set up your community

    Open http://localhost:8000, register the first account and create a forum with the hostname localhost in the super-admin panel. Then configure SMTP, appearance and categories.

Terminal · compose.release.yaml
# In the folder containing your Compose file
docker compose -f compose.release.yaml pull
docker compose -f compose.release.yaml up -d
→ http://localhost:8000

Important on first launch: The first registered account becomes super-admin. Complete setup locally or behind an access restriction before making Vorum public. Configure SMTP before inviting other members.
Full operations guide ↗
What do I need for a public deployment?

Docker with Compose, a domain, HTTPS via a reverse proxy, and SMTP for verification emails and notifications. Set COOKIE_SECURE=1 and forward the original Host header. The default port only binds to 127.0.0.1. A proxy running in a container needs suitable Docker networking.

How do updates and backups work?

Stop both services and back up the entire data volume, including the database, uploads and session key. Replace the Compose file with the new release in the same directory and run pull and up -d again. Use pinned versions. down -v deletes the data volume.

Is Vorum free and open source?

Yes. Vorum is MIT-licensed. You can use it commercially, modify it and redistribute it while retaining the copyright and licence notice. You cover your own hosting and email delivery costs.

Are forums private?

Forum overviews and posts are publicly readable. A separate hostname is not an access restriction. Downloading attachments requires a signed-in, verified account.

Vorum is actively developed. Test your use case and set up backups.

Join the conversation

A community starts
with a hello.

Have a question, an idea, or want to get to know Vorum? Join the forum. Share your experience and help shape what comes next.

Join the Vorum community ↗
forum.vorum.de