How Important is Hosting a Forum on a Subdirectory or Subdomain?

General Web Hosting Forum
1

Hello…I’m currently in the process of setting up a new forum and decided to go with Flarum. So far, the setup has been pretty straightforward, but I hit a bit of a decision point and could use some advice.

Flarum’s default installation instructions recommend setting up the forum in a subdirectory (e.g., mywebsite.com/forum) for security reasons. While I understand this might add an extra layer of protection, I’m not entirely sure how crucial it is in the grand scheme of things.

A couple of questions have been nagging at me:

  1. Security: How much more secure is it to host the forum in a subdirectory rather than a subdomain (e.g., forum.mywebsite.com)? If someone manages to hack the forum, won’t they still be able to access user information regardless of whether it’s in a subdirectory or a subdomain?
  2. SEO and Performance: Are there any other significant differences in terms of SEO, site performance, or maintenance between hosting on a subdirectory versus a subdomain?
  3. Best Practices: What have been your experiences? If you’ve run a forum or a similar site, what route did you take, and why?

I want to make sure I’m setting things up in the best possible way from the get-go, so any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance :blush:

2

I’ve been down this road with Flarum before. Here’s the scoop:
Security: A subdirectory (like mywebsite.com/forum) might be a tiny bit more secure because it’s under the same domain, which can make it a bit trickier for hackers. But if they get in, they’ll probably find their way to user info no matter what. It’s not foolproof.

SEO & Performance: Not much difference here. Both can be optimized well. A subdomain might feel like a fresh start, but subdirectories are smoother for SEO and easier to manage if everything’s under one roof.