Every forum runs our MyBB-optimized engine — nginx + PHP-FPM, full-page caching for guests and OPcache + JIT for everyone signed in — so busy threads are served from memory instead of rebuilt on every request.
Guests are served fully cached HTML straight from memory — the web server just hands back bytes.
Signed-in members always get a freshly rendered page (precompiled PHP in memory) — the speedup is for guest reads.
Same seeded forum, same 2 CPU cores — only the guest page cache toggled.
Anonymous visitors get cached HTML — no PHP, no database hit — so a surge of readers doesn't slow your board.
Signed-in pages run from precompiled bytecode held in shared memory — OPcache + JIT mean MyBB is never re-parsed on each request.
The cache clears the instant someone posts or edits — readers never see a stale thread.
Same seeded forum, same two CPU cores — we changed one thing: whether the guest page cache was on. With it on, the engine barely notices a crowd. With it off — the way a traditional Apache or nginx + PHP host serves the same board — it buckles under load.
That speedup is for guest page-views, the bulk of forum traffic. Signed-in members and anyone posting always get a freshly rendered page.
Median time to get a page back, with 200 requests arriving at once.
Measured with compression on, the way a browser actually requests pages. Only the cache changed between the two runs. The gain is for guests reading cached pages — signed-in members and anyone posting always get a freshly rendered page.
Older mods on one board, the latest on another — each forum picks its own runtime.
Run the version your themes and plugins need — all four are available side by side, and we retire versions once they go end of life.
Change a forum's PHP version from the Developer tab and it reloads in seconds — no rebuild, no downtime.
New forums start on the fastest current release, with sensible, bounded php.ini options you can tune.
Deploy a forum on a 30-day free trial and see how it holds up — no credit card.