Best Customer Forum To Install on Shopify?

[TheWaterbug]

I would like to add a customer forum to my store, and I'm searching for one that fits my needs:

1. Single-sign-on, so customers can use their existing accounts.
2. Focused on technical discussion of very technical products.
   1. The social aspect of this should be secondary to the technical content. Our primary motivation is for users to share technical solutions involving our products to other customers in the industry who may be looking for similar solutions, and also so that we can answer a technical questions once instead of a dozen times.
   2. As such, we're not very interested in "comment" or "chat" features. 
3. Sorted into categories
   1. I don't prefer Muut's "single page" presentation. My products are distinct enough that I want discussions about each product category to be presented separately.
4. Easy to integrate. I'm not a programmer, so I'll need this to be point-and-click.
5. Affordable
   1. I'm not sure how much actual business a forum will actually generate, so I don't want to start out spending $hundreds/month.

I've done some research, and I'm not finding anything that looks compelling:

1. This article suggests that Shopify has some sort of built-in forum:

   1. Shopify actually has a built-in forum feature that you can use to create a forum for your store.
      
      To get started, go to your Shopify admin and click on the “Settings” tab. Then, click on the “Forums” sub-tab.

   2. but I don't see that in my shop's admin.
2. XenForum seems like it has the look and feel that I want, but:
   1. Of the six URLs they present as examples of "Customer forums are built on Xenforum," only one of the links goes to an actual forum, and every link in that forum returns, "Permission denied!
      Please Log in / Register to view the contents in this section." so I can't actually view the demo.
3. Champ also seems to have the right functionality, but their entire demo page is filled with spam, which leads to think that either no one is actively managing their app and/or their spam moderation doesn't work.
4. Chatigy is supposed to "add a forum to each page," but I see no forums on their demo site.  
5. I don't like the presentation of Social King. It's too spread out. 
6. WebsiteToolBox looks promising, but I don't see a demo. 

Is anyone here implementing a forum on their store that they like? Please share! Thanks!

[ilrein]

Hey @TheWaterbug 

I've been looking for a new project to sink my teeth into. I would be interesting in building this for you. Care to collaborate with me?

[FunkoBros]

Did this ever pan out?  I’m looking for the same thing!

[ilrein]

Hey! I never got a response from the OP, so I haven't proceeded.

I would still love to build this, as long as I have someone I can share my work with and bounce ideas with. Down to work with me @FunkoBros ? Shoot me an email @ ilia.reingold@gmail.com !

[TheWaterbug]

LOL. I was logged in under my other account.

Thanks, but I don't have the budget to fund a custom app. This is such a generic need that I'm really surprised that there aren't good offerings out there already. 

[Steven_Kan]

Thanks, but I don't have the budget to fund a custom app. This is such a generic need that I'm really surprised that there aren't good offerings out there already. 

[ilrein]

Oh haha. I don't charge for custom app development.

I would build it entirely free, and release it as a public app to other merchants if it brought enough value for you.

I just don't like working in the dark, I would need someone to bounce feedback with (some emails/screenshots etc). The goal would be a minimal viable product (with a longer roadmap as well).

[TheWaterbug]

If you're interested in doing this with no development fees, then I'm interested, and I'd be your first paid subscriber if it all works out!

In terms of look-and-feel, arstechnica is a forum that I use daily:

https://arstechnica.com/civis/

and it's built on XenForo, but there's no canned integration feature of XF with any store, at least not that I can find. 

Regarding desired features, they're pretty much listed in my original post, e.g. single-sign-on (if that's even possible, given Shopify's security model), and some integration with my store's product structure. 

[ilrein]

SSO wouldn't work as shopify doesn't expose customer login via API. I would do a google oauth though. Another challenge is how to embed this forum onto a store. Something messy like creating a new Page via api and embedding an iframe might work. There's quite a few challenges.

[lustdiva]

I have been on the same journey myself. Nothing comes up that would be an asset and I’m not into blogging. Good luck!