Zonefall
An original battle-royale gaming theme for SMF 2.1: a storm-lit hero header with a shrinking safe-zone ring, glowing board cards, player cards with levels and four colour variants.
Get the free theme: ZonefallFree resources for forum owners
Free SMF themes
A new look for your Simple Machines Forum, at no cost. Every theme here is free to download and use, made for SMF 2.1 and tested on the current release. Pick a design, share Traxio, and the download is yours.
- 9 free themes
- For SMF 2.1
- No account needed
Dark Meridian
A tactical military gaming theme for SMF 2.1: a command-centre board index with a radar sweep and live stats, boards as mission cards, posts as operator cards and three colour variants.
Get the free theme: Dark Meridian
Smush
A near-black, low-key SMF 2.1 theme: quiet greys, thin dividers, outlined chat icons and a wide-spaced silver forum title.
Get the free theme: Smush
Raven
A striking SMF 2.1 theme: a light content panel floating over a misty violet forest, with purple menu and category bars and feather board icons.
Get the free theme: Raven
Next
A clean, light SMF 2.1 theme set in the Lora serif, under a night-sky mountain header, with navy category bars and search built into the menu bar.
Get the free theme: Next
Insidious II
The follow-up to Insidious: a near-black SMF 2.1 theme with rounded charcoal frames, a gothic blackletter forum title and a single blue accent.
Get the free theme: Insidious II
GrayStyle
A dark grey SMF 2.1 theme: rounded mid-grey panels on a charcoal weave background, with amber board names and a centred silver forum title.
Get the free theme: GrayStyle
Gamer
A dark gaming SMF 2.1 theme: smoky glass panels over a deep red glow, frosted category bars, controller board icons and a big search box in the header.
Get the free theme: Gamer
Cleo
A light, calm SMF 2.1 theme: a clean white content panel on a slate-blue frame, with a dark top bar and a tabbed main menu.
Get the free theme: CleoAbout SMF
Made for Simple Machines Forum
Simple Machines Forum, usually just called SMF, is free, open-source forum software written in PHP. It runs on ordinary shared hosting with a MySQL or MariaDB database, and it has powered community message boards for many years.
A theme changes how your forum looks without touching your boards, members or posts. Every theme on this page is built for SMF 2.1, the current version, and inherits what it doesn’t change from SMF’s default theme, so the forum keeps working as SMF intends.
New to running a forum? Choosing forum software and running a forum cover the basics, and how to install an SMF theme walks through the theme side.
How the downloads work
Pick a theme
Open any theme for a full-size screenshot, its details and which SMF release it was tested on.
Share Traxio
Choose any share option. It opens the network you picked, and the download button appears straight away.
Download and install
A .zip you install from your forum’s admin area. How to install it.
Need somewhere to host your SMF forum? Run it on Traxio hosting: your first month is free, then it’s £0.99 a month. The themes are free whether you host with us or not. Forum hosting
Free SMF theme questions
Are the themes really free?
Yes. There’s nothing to pay, no account to create and no need to buy hosting. We ask you to share Traxio before downloading, because it helps us keep making free themes. We can’t see whether you actually post anything, and once you’ve shared on a device you won’t be asked again on it.
Which versions of SMF do they work with?
SMF 2.1. Each theme page says which release it was tested on; the current release is SMF 2.1.7. They won’t work on SMF 2.0: themes made for 2.0 and 2.1 aren’t interchangeable.
Do I need Traxio hosting to use them?
No. They work on any host that runs SMF 2.1. If you’re looking for somewhere to host a forum, Traxio forum hosting is free for the first month, then £0.99 a month.
How do I install an SMF theme?
From your forum’s admin area: Configuration, Themes and Layout, then install the .zip from the Manage and Install tab and set it as the forum default. The step-by-step guide covers it, with fixes for the usual problems.
Can I change a theme or use it on any forum?
Check the licence shown on each theme’s page, which says what you can do with it. Using a theme on your own forum, including a forum for a business or club, is what they’re made for.
Starting a forum? The Forum Hub has free guides to installing SMF, setting up boards, stopping spam and growing a community. If you need somewhere to host it, SMF hosting is free for your first 30 days, then £0.99 a month.