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ProBoards: The Unseen Giant of Internet Forums
Why a 9-person team is quietly powering 6M monthly visits
In an era of algorithmic feeds and ephemeral social media, ProBoards is a defiant anomaly: a massive, legacy forum platform thriving with 6.2 million monthly visits, all built and maintained by a team of just nine people. This isn't a startup chasing scale; it's a bootstrapped titan proving the enduring power of niche communities.
"ProBoards isn't just hosting forums; it's architecting digital real estate where communities own their data, a stark contrast to the rented space of social media."
The Niche Powerhouse
The traffic data reveals a fascinating story. Over half of visits come from undefined sources (likely direct bookmarks), signaling a loyal, habitual user base. The top keywords aren't generic; they're hyper-specific: 'volleytalk,' 'qmjhl proboards,' and 'huddersfield town a.f.c. forum.' This isn't mass-market appeal; it's deep, vertical penetration into passionate subcultures—from hockey fans to football supporters—who value permanence over virality.
The Anti-Scaling Model
With only 9 employees generating $700k in revenue, ProBoards operates with a staggering efficiency ratio of ~$77k per employee. This is a deliberate, profitable minimalism. They've sidestepped the venture capital treadmill, avoiding the bloat of feature creep and sales teams. Their tech stack—jQuery, Bootstrap, Tailwind—feels pragmatic rather than trendy, focusing resources on core reliability over chasing the latest framework.
The platform's longevity is its secret weapon. While competitors like Reddit and Discord have evolved into algorithm-driven media companies, ProBoards remains a pure utility. The 62% direct traffic is a testament to this: users don't discover ProBoards through ads; they seek it out. The 3/5 Trustpilot rating with 22 reviews hints at a utilitarian, no-frills experience—exactly what many communities want. It's not glamorous, but it's dependable.
- Profitable Bootstrapping: $700k revenue with a lean 9-person team.
- Direct Traffic Dominance: 62% of traffic is direct, indicating strong user loyalty.
- Niche Specialization: Dominates specific verticals (sports, music) rather than competing broadly.
- Pragmatic Tech: Uses proven, stable technologies instead of chasing hype cycles.
The Internet's Hidden Infrastructure
ProBoards proves that in an age of scale, there's immense value in being the reliable, invisible foundation for niche communities.
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Free Forum & Free Message Board Hosting | ProBoards
Unlimited members, unlimited threads, unlimited size! Build the discussion forum of your dreams with ProBoards' award-winning free forum hosting service.
ProBoards
ProBoards is the largest host of free forums on the Internet. We provide the best forums and customer service to help your online community thrive.
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Reviews (20)
I love Proboards
I love Proboards. They sure beat these boring, lame sites like reddit and discord imo. Why? Because they don't harvest your data like the rest of these clowns. You also get to freely CUSTOMIZE your form like you want!!! Does reddit or discord do that? No! You get a stupid avatar that looks how they want it to look. I also love the nostalgia of Proboard forums... Early 2000s I made my first forum and it's addicting because they are so much fun to edit and customize. It feels more like a tight knit community too.... Not just random people, too many people, on one forum posting left and right and your posts get buried or forgotten about on Reddit. I'm on Reddit but it's nothing like having a Proboards forum. You can make your own awards on PB, put in all these cool plug ins! I love it. I'm happy as hell with my PB forum. I don't understand all the crappy reviews - if you don't like PB then GTFO and go back on boring reddit or discord then.
Pro boards forum is really good.
I'm running a Pro boards forum which is doing well. I have over 100 members and counting. I've had good support with questions answered on the Pro boards support forum. I've had some spam posts so I've created a holding area where new members must be approved to join, which has stopped the spam posts. I would recommend the forum and can't understand why so many negative comments? I've changed the colours and fonts to my liking and designed something I'm proudly of. Consisting this is free to use and with some effort in understanding how to setup a forum, it's a good platform for users to use. I've also noticed a sudden jump up the search rankings for some reason. Maybe age and the amount of content helps. I recommend.
Been with proboards for 12 years
Proboards has been nothing but professional the 12 yrs with my forum. I have learned many things such as plugins, theme creation and very simple admin Services. I would recommend proboard forums to anyone. They are great! And very nice people.
I use Proboards Forums.
I use Proboards Forums. I am currently using Proboards Forums. My site is called "Cabbage" I do stuff with fermenting and souring it. I have to say that the negative reviews that I have read on here really surprise me. I have found the support forum to be among the best I have ever used. Proboards is free to use and its is far better than other forum software that I have used. Proboards servers are super fast and load your pages in a flash. The layout and admin areas are simple to use and a joy to work with. Themes and plugins are available and lots of them. The SEO situation is not perfect but try out some of Proboards competitors and you won't see anything better. If you want your site to load fast you have to go for the add free option which is very reasonable at around $6 a month. Proboards V6 went into beta stage this week and I am looking forward to taking it out for a spin. Yes I like Proboards. Would I recommend Proboards ? ABSOLUTELY. For those of you who have spoken negatively about Proboards, I would suggest at least having the decency to register for an account and use the software before making your comments. I started out with Createaforum software and used it for six months., I never saw a search engine once. Whenever I make changes to my Proboards site the search engines are there in an instant. I have checked most of the forums out there and most of them come with their own set of problems. From very slow page loading times to difficulty understanding how they operate. The trouble with all forums is that you have to be prepared to do a bit of work and this is where Proboards outshines the rest with its simplicity, You don't need to waste your time figuring things out, you can just get on with adding new content. The five stars is based on what you get compared to the rest
If I give you a quarter for free...clam up about the dirt on it.
The link showed up on the first page of google when searching for the ProBoards API. I've read most, if not all, of the comments and although some of the comments appear as valid gripes without merit. Most of the comments appear to be from a certain centric perspective (I, me, mine, wah!). Proboard owners own and ought to operate their world any way they wish (even if it hurts our feelings or destroys any of our expectations). Need I remind that probably most of the comments on Trust Pilot against Proboards are not customers of Proboards (until they can post a valid receipt that some quid pro quo has occurred). Just as if you were to visit my house, you WOULD take your shoes off when I ask you (or you will just leave), as an example (*why am I suddenly envisioning a female?)....Anyway, yes Proboards has some odd behaviors such as the sudden visitors I see when I log in as admin (but when anonymous, it's a desert), this though is just an assessment made for the time, I could be wrong about any devious manipulative covert or clandestine plottings. And yes, when I tried to incorporate various chat software with proboards, it failed (that's my wah!). ****Now let's hear the positive news about ProBoards: 1.) It's free (if you can build yourself a better chat server, then DO IT! nothing in mind? Enough said.) 2.) I noticed that when googling "Springfield Ohio Chat" that Proboards brings up my page on the top of the first page of results. For any of us not professional at SEO, that is an accomplishment. 3.) It's free (if we don't like it, kick it to the curb. it doesn't mean it was bad.................IT JUST MEANS IT DIDN'T WORK FOR YOU OR YOU OR YOU OR .....YOU). 4.) Although I was at one time kind of miffed a few years back (they took my administrative privileges down to a glorified user or sub-admin level), but in all honesty I break a LOT of stuff and seeing as how it's been years without full admin of the FREE proboards account, it's used to the capacity that is probably best (for me....and maybe you if you are on my proboard site at the time I press the red button.). amen
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About proboards.com
Unlimited members, unlimited threads, unlimited size! Build the discussion forum of your dreams with ProBoards' award-winning free forum hosting service.
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Technology Stack
proboards.com uses 9 technologies across their website including reCAPTCHA, Google Analytics, Twitter Cards, and more.
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reCAPTCHA
Analytics & Marketing
Google Analytics
Web Standards
Twitter Cards
Build Tools
Vite
UI Libraries
DaisyUI
CSS Frameworks
Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS
Traffic & Audience
proboards.com receives approximately 6.3M monthly visitors and ranks #8,348 globally. The website has a bounce rate of 34% with visitors viewing an average of 5.7 pages per visit. Users spend an average of 5:46 on the site.
The majority of proboards.com's traffic comes from undefined, undefined, .
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This page provides publicly available information about proboards.com. Data is collected from various public sources and may not always be up to date. For the most accurate information, please visit proboards.com directly at https://proboards.com.