Best Forum Software

[misohoni]

I lost a link on this site to the best forum software.

I know you spoke about Vbulletin etc., and how bad PHPBB is - however, I think it's great..

You can customise it - look at http://www.phpbbhacks.com and have the same options as Vbulletin - and of course it's all free!

My Forum site uses it and I'd recommend it anytime. There are also fixes to make sure it's spidered ok also...

[digitalpoint]

I've run phpBB before, and it's nice but it doesn't really compare to vB3 in my opinion...

- Shawn

[misohoni]

Ok we agree to disagree. I've used both but the PHPHacks addons make to be the same thing as VB3. But hey, you've already got VB3 - so you don't need it!

Really like your tools! So useful!

[TampaDave]

For Windows/ASP users I suggest Snitz Forum2000. I've got it running on several of my sites - Free as long as you keep the attribution.

Dave

[flyingpylon]

For Windows/ASP users that need a highly-scalable, high-performance solution, I would recommend ASP Playground, though it's not free.

http://www.aspplayground.net

[t2dman]

Interesting! I searched for "Best Forum Software" and found this thread. $USD160 v free. Hmmm. I do like my experience with vBulletin/digitalpoint though!

The most interesting part is how useful is having a forum? You need to start with a good website with lotsa visitors - like digital point. Then the discussion can happen and prove worthwhile. Otherwise there is no-one posting, no community.

Then there is the question do you allow sigs -

but then that encourages posting, gives "payment" for posting,
encourages interesting forum topics that can publicise the main website - like being high for "Best form software".

Interesting thoughts.

So why vBulletin? - any list of pros and cons comparing say phpbb and vBulletin?

[misohoni]

PHPBB is free for a start and if you look at the long list of hacks and mods then it's better!

..and that was a quick summary, haha

[digitalpoint]

T2DMan - I agree... unless you have a large user base to draw from, most forums will fail, or just sit idle. I would have never attempted to start one without an existing user base.

As far as what is better, the price is better on phpBB, everything else is better in vBulletin IMO (I've run phpBB before). There probably are less hacks for vBulletin, because you don't need to hack it (it pretty much does everything out of the box). And hacking vBulletin is much easier than phpBB.

- Shawn

[NewComputer]

If you do not have access to MySql on your server, another good alternative for free forums is PBLang (http://pblang.drmartinus.de/). It is strictly PHP based and works very well.

[Bernard]

From a user perspective, I enjoy vBulletin much better than phpBB. My biggest beef with phpBB is that it does not clearly mark which threads you have posted in when searching a listing of new posts. I really like that feature in vBulletin. vB3 has a much nicer look and feel IMO. Better usability.

[disgust]

www.vbulletin.org is a great vb hacking resource for those that don't know about it

I actually think I prefer VB2 over VB3 so far, but I'm leaning more towards VB3 as time goes on..

[GuyFromChicago]

I "fell in love" with vBulletin as user and have continued to be impressed as an Admin. I purchased VB for two forums I run & have been very impressed.

[digitalpoint]

Yeah, the backend is pretty bad ass (I've said it a million times now). It's actually given me some good ideas from a general coding design standpoint for some unrelated things.

[misohoni]

I'm still not convienced sorry. The forums for Phpbb seem more comprehensive. New modifications/hacks are coming out daily...the problems you've mentioned about Phpbb have been solved with contributions. Also all the pages spider well.

[digitalpoint]

I've run both phpBB and vBulletin as an administrator, and yes, phpBB can be hacked to do most things. But it's nice that vBulletin does out of the box, most of the things people hack phpBB to do.

But the real advantage is the backend of vBulletin. Most hacks can be done to vBulletin without touching the source/PHP files. Which makes it nice because your modifications carry over on an upgrade without needing to redo them. A perfect example of this is the revenue sharing system (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/faq.php?faq=revenue_sharing) here. It's completely done without touching the PHP files, so nothing will need to be redone on an upgrade.

[misohoni]

Ack, I'm sure someone at PHPBB HQ could create a revenue sharing system...

Seems like you copied and pasted what you wrote before about vBulletin haha. How come no one is backing me up on PhpBB? oh lala

[digitalpoint]

No doubt... the revenue sharing thing could be replicated in phpBB. My point is that it was done in vBulletin without touching any PHP files. (You don't need to rehack anything when you upgrade)

[wbcentral.netfirms.com]

I am trying phpbb and it looks good with heaps of mods available

[misohoni]

Let me know if you need any help with it

[Shoemoney]

I started and am currently stuck with phpbb. It seemed like a good idea when starting out but now with 15k unique visitors a day and 2 million total hits per day it is quite the resource hog.

I have been simulating vbuliten over the same load and it appears to handle it MUCH better.

now to switch over 150k users =(

[misohoni]

I personally wouldn't use Phpbb anyway, completely messed up my forum after 6000 registered users - mainly to do with cookie problems.

I upgraded to Invasion (paid version) and think it's the biggest waste of money! I thought paying would help me in the support forums, but the Invasion team are not interested in helping out one bit!

Vbulletin may be ok, DP seems to be using it well...

[SEbasic]

Just as a side note, If you aren't looking for something as beefy as VB or PHPBB, then miniBB is certianly worth a look...

Really good bit of kit for a small-medium sized forum.

Also the support is awesome.

[bLaDeY]

I have administered forums running phpBB, Invision and vBulletin. Actually my main site went from phpBB > Invision > vB which is where it will be staying.

Support for phpBB I found quite good although many missing options in the admin control panel and many features you want to have in a forum although it's free what more could you ask for?

Invision looks nice but support and mods I found were fairly disappointing especially the support which I found to be the worst by far.

Since moving to vBulletin I haven't looked back, it's a fantastic board, easy to use admin panel, user friendly and the support is simple awesome with the longest support ticket I've had to wait for was around 20 minutes. Quite simply vBulletin is the best ever money I've spent on my web site without a doubt.

[daboss]

i've asked this question in this forum before but didn't get a response so i'll try my luck here...

is there a free version of the invision power board forum software? if so, what's the difference between the free and paid versions?

[seoxperts]

look at wowbb, it has options to have paid membership forum areas like at WMW.

[yfs1]

Speaking of no mySQL or database. There is also Lite Boards (http://www.liteboards.com). They are free open source and use .txt files as a database.

*Yes I know this thread is old but it wasn't me that revived it :cool:

If you do not have access to MySql on your server, another good alternative for free forums is PBLang (http://pblang.drmartinus.de/). It is strictly PHP based and works very well.

[bLaDeY]

is there a free version of the invision power board forum software? if so, what's the difference between the free and paid versions?

I believe Invision have gone commercial like vB nowadays. You might find an old version of 1.2 or 1.3 floating around but a fair few security patches etc would have been released in that time I would have thought so free isn't really the best option.

[joeychgo]

IMO -- vBulletin is the best - plain and simple.

[ResaleBroker]

I prefer vBulletin over phpBB.

[daboss]

I prefer vBulletin over phpBB.

i agree and everyone else says so too... but i guess one needs to keep in mind that vbulletin costs $$$ while phpbb is free. that should counts for something :)

[yfs1]

This goes back to Joey's plain and simple remark...It isn't quite plain and simple as people have different requirements.

There are instances where you may not need all the bells and whistles or where you don't want to use a database (as in the two examples of forums given earlier)

I do think though that after reading through this thread, the future forum owner would at least be educated on what those differences are.

[joeychgo]

i agree and everyone else says so too... but i guess one needs to keep in mind that vbulletin costs $$$ while phpbb is free. that should counts for something :)


Sure it does. There are occasions where vb doesnt make sense... But all things being equal, vBulletin is the way to go.

[riziko]

If you are hosted on Windows with SQL server there is also:

http://www.communityserver.org/

It seems pretty good but I have not run it myself.