Frequently Asked
Questions

Yes. Our Starter plan is permanently free — no trial period, no credit card required, no hidden expiry. You get 500MB storage and unlimited bandwidth for as long as you use the service. We make money from optional paid plan upgrades, not from making the free plan unusable.

Under 60 seconds in most cases. Sign up for a NexForum account, select your forum software, choose a subdomain, and click install. The one-click installer creates your database, extracts the forum files, and configures everything automatically. You'll receive an admin login immediately.

No technical knowledge is required to create and run your forum. Our one-click installer handles all the technical setup. To manage your forum after launch, you'll use the forum software's built-in admin panel — all of which are designed to be user-friendly.

The free Starter plan includes all core features: one-click installs, unlimited bandwidth, free SSL, and community support. Paid plans add more storage (5GB on Growth, 25GB on Enterprise), custom domain support, removal of NexForum branding, automated backups, and priority email/24-hour support. See our full pricing comparison.

Log in to your client portal at portal.nexforum.net, navigate to your services, and select your upgrade. Payment is processed securely via Stripe. Upgrades take effect instantly — no downtime, no migration required.

Yes, cancel any time with no penalty. Your plan continues until the end of the billing period. After cancellation, your forum reverts to the free Starter tier automatically — it won't be deleted. We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all new paid plan purchases.

We support 8 platforms via one-click install: phpBB, MyBB, SMF (Simple Machines Forum), Flarum, Vanilla Forums, bbPress, FluxBB, and PunBB. See our forum software comparison page to find the best fit for your community.

Custom domains are available on Growth ($5/month) and Enterprise ($15/month) plans. Free plan forums use a NexForum subdomain (e.g., yourforum.nexforum.net). To use a custom domain, point your domain's DNS to our servers — full instructions are provided in your client portal once you're on a paid plan.

No. Bandwidth is truly unlimited on all NexForum plans including free. We don't throttle connections, and we don't charge overage fees. If your forum experiences a traffic spike, it handles it — no action required on your end.

Yes. Every forum installation gets its own dedicated MySQL database. The database is created and configured automatically during the one-click install. You don't need to set anything up manually.

Yes. If you have an existing phpBB, MyBB, SMF, or other supported forum, you can migrate to NexForum by: installing the same software via our one-click installer, then importing your existing database backup via phpMyAdmin (available in your control panel). We provide step-by-step migration guides. Contact support if you need assistance.

No. We never inject third-party adverts into any forum. Free plan forums may display small NexForum branding (e.g., a footer link). This branding can be removed on paid plans. We consider forced advertising on communities you build and manage to be unacceptable.

We run PHP 8.2.x by default, which is compatible with all forum software we support. Our stack also includes MySQL 8.0 / MariaDB for databases, and Cloudflare for CDN and DDoS protection.

Free plan users can access our community support forums and knowledge base. Growth plan users receive priority email support. Enterprise plan users receive 24/7 priority support with faster response times. All plans benefit from our comprehensive documentation.

You can reach us via the contact page or by submitting a ticket through your client portal. Paid plan users will receive faster response times based on their support tier.