When comparing PHPBack vs Fruum, the Slant community recommends PHPBack for most people. In the question“What are the best web forum software packages?” PHPBack is ranked 12th while Fruum is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose PHPBack is:
It has been already translated to Spanish and they are adding support for more languages.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Multi-language support
It has been already translated to Spanish and they are adding support for more languages.
Pro Easy setup
PHPBack is very easy to setup, all you need is a server with PHP5 and MySQL installed.
Pro Open Source
PHPBack is open source, uses GPLv3 license.
Pro Single Sign On (SSO)
Fruum can tie its user authentication with the authentication system of the hosting website, thus utilize the existing user base without requiring multiple sign-ups.
Pro Slack integration
Plays well with Slack out of the box. Get notifications when users post new stuff or use the /fruum command to query the forum.
Pro Realtime
All updates in the forum happen real-time. No reloads required.
Pro Extensible
New functionality can be added using a plugin interface written in JavaScript.
Pro Free and open source
Source code is available on GitHub under Apache License.
Pro Embeddable
Can be embedded in any website using a small JavaScript snippet and get activated on-demand as a drawer or be setup as a traditional forum.
Cons
Con Small community
PHPBack is fairly young (first stable version was releases in July 2015). Currently the community is small, which may make it more difficult to find help/support.
However, the developer is active on the github page and generally responds quickly.