phpBB vs. vBulletin

[nevetS]

i suppose the thread title says it all.

I like vBulletin myself - specifically what draws me to it is the threaded vs. linear mode capability. I hate threaded myself but it seems to be very popular in my experience. phpBB has a few hacks that do the same thing, but they didn't seem very clean last I looked.

Anyhow.... what are your thoughts? Why do you like one vs. the other? (besides price)

[blueuniverse]

Just a couple of days ago, I wrote an argument for using vBulletin instead in my blog here (http://www.pointless-existence.com/archives/2004/12/vbulletin-the-forum-software-for-pros/). Anyway, I'll summarise why I prefer vBulletin over PHPBB (and I have used both for long periods of time (6 months +) so I'm not judging on a quick browser on the demos of one or the other.

Basically, PHPBB is free and you have to give it credit for that, but if you ever want to give the right impression to your visitors (especially important if it is a business forum) then vBulletin is the choice, because it isn't free and therefore you show your users quality. With PHPBB the impression is usually that the board is free so the site owner isn't willing to invest money in his users.

PHPBB is a board that is free of frills, and in this sense it is admirable, but when I had a PHPBB board, I always had to hack it for little simple things. vBulletin comes with these features (and they can also be easily turned off thanks to the great admin panel). My users love them so much more, and the features being standard makes upgrading the board so much easier, and the board in general much more secure.

That is another thing the PHPBB board lacks; security. There are constantly loads of holes, and timely updates that require doing. While on PHPBB, I had my board hacked numerous times, but in the 6 months I have had vBulletin I haven't had it hacked once. Plus, I've only needed to upgrade the boards once during that time.

VBulletin also has a better community behind it that are willing to do great mods, just take a look at vbulletin.org to see those, although the free style selection is nowhere near as good as for PHPBB. In summary, if you want to look pro or please your visitors get vBulletin. If you don't think they need all the features (and there are lots of useful ones in there) and you can't afford it, then PHPBB is the best option. It isn't as if vBulletin is expensive though, $85 a year is well worth it, and I've noticed a substantial growth increase after upgrading to vB. I'm only 15, and I can afford it, so I don't see why other people should have a problem in purchasing it. Purchasing it, just shows that you are prepared to invest time in your community.

(sorry if that argument was a bit weird, it is only 8am in the morning :D)

[sarahk]

Hi nevetS

It's a no brainer. I've administered vBulletin, Invision and have a friend with a phpBB which I've done bits on too.

vBulletin wins hands down.

You have to pay but it's not much for the far superior product. If the forum you are hoping to set up is worth the effort of installing, promoting, driving the threads and people to it, moderating against idiots and spammers then it's worth the licence fee.

Sarah

[Fishing Forum]

I started on PHPBB then when I new it was working i.e the forum topic , I then upgraded to VB (which is easy to import your phpBB into VB)

Might be the best way to go when you start out , as a lot of forums fail to take off

Just my two cnets :p

[Ned]

phpbb is terrible, new security flaws found for it everyday :/

[ResaleBroker]

What a coincidence that this thread comes up. Just yesterday I made that decision. I dediced on vBulletin for all the same reasons that BlueUniverse mentions.

[Extranet Guy]

I just installed phpbb a couple days ago; I'm just toying around with my forum for the first time and wanted something quick and cheap. The installation was effortless -- had the whole thing set up in an hour (and I'm not technical). But thanks for the insights....if I decide to pursue the forum seriously, I'll invest the small $ to upgrade to vBulletin.

[Tuning]

Vbulletin is WAY better than any other forum software. VB is processing data from about 80 tables while phpbb2 40, IPB 64...

Still VB is faster in page loading. Hence I think VB is the best forum software.

[minstrel]

vBulletin is faster? Here at DigitalPoint it is, because DP has obviously optimized it to make it that way. Every other vBulletin board I've visited has been like molasses.

I also have to say that IU think BlueUniverse's claim that a phpBB forum looks cheap is nonsense -- if you use it "out of the box", it's true it will look like every other out of the box phpBB forum -- if you use vBulletin out of the box, it will look like every other out of the box vBulletin forum.

I'd say the deciding factor is how much customization you are able to do or wish to do. There are free open-source pre-made mods galore for phpBB (I assume that's also true for vBulletin, except for the free part) and with a bit of effort you can learn how to customize phpBB even further.

The bottom line for most forum members is (1) content -- if it isn't interesting they won't care what software you're using; and (2) speed of page loading -- I've been on forums, especially vBulletin forums, where, being limited to a rural dial-up connection, it's simply way too frustrating to have to wait for another page to load and I just give up and go somewhere else.

[Tuning]

Well its from my testing that found VB is better. The test server was a P4 1.4GHZ home machine with 128MB RAM over a 64kbps internet connection.

The s/w were installed as seperate folders on this machine and asked some of my friends to check the page loading time. Most of them commented as VB being faster.

I havent done any real-server tests yet. :o

[minstrel]

I suggest you test them "in the wild" -- go visit several esatblished forums (fora? with established sizeable databases) and load a few pages on each one, with a sampling of vBulletin and phpBB. I have vistied a lot of forums and my experience consistently is that vBulletin non-optimized is significantly slower than phpBB non-optimized every time. When both are optimized, in most cases I see phpBB faster -- this forum being an exception.

[ginostylz]

A small difference.
I frequent as a end user on both phpbb and VB.
VB is cool because it can host our Avatar.(at least on DP anyway)
phpbb makes you upload it to your own webserver which is a pain.

I like and appreciate the features on VB, but phpbb was definately easier to use when it was my first time on a forum.

[dustin]

phpBB can host avatars. It's just up to the admin to choose whether or not they allow it.

I administer a phpBB board and frequent a few vBulletin ones. They both work well as forums. Either one will be successful based on the people/content that it has more then the software that is used. I think vBulletin is slightly nicer out of the box, but there is a wealth of free styles and mods for phpBB. Once you start customizing a little bit it can do everything you want it to.

[nevetS]

Hmm... I haven't ever noticed a speed problem with either. I use kffl forums frequently (fantasy football) and they are pretty fast. Flyertalk is also pretty fast considering their traffic. (both vBulletin). Funny... Most of the forums I visit now are vBB and most of them started out as phpBB back in the day. I hadn't really noticed until I just started cruising around looking to speed compare.

[minstrel]

Are you on dial-up?

[nevetS]

me? no, I have high speed 96% of the time.

[minstrel]

That's what I thought. That's why you don't notice the difference.

[Dominic]

I was using a free forum for two of my sites, had a gut full when they started serving adsense in the forum.

When I went to change I went to the forums I found as a user to be the best [vBulletin].

As for the cost, we can't afford it... so I asked for a donation of owned versions and got 2 for our charitable sites.

They didn't do it cause I would make this post - I've asked for help for our non-profit work 1 million times and been told no and yes so many times.

When a company has no real profit in donating other than contributing what they can to help [e.g. not marketing exposure] it really get's my attention and respect.

So yes, vBulletin is the ultimate forum software - I knew this that's why I sought out the donation... they just get extra points in my book cause they wouldn't let us pay for it.

In terms of using it - there is nothing I want to do with it as a forum and can't.

[kc3]

I like either VBulletin or phpBB, I started on phpBB and I still use both. VBulletin is realy good and gives you more control, though less simple it's still easy to learn. PhpBB is VERY easy to use even though you have less power and it's free. It all depends on how much time you want to spend on it. Honestly it won't take much time for either though phpBB has more templates and hacks to choose from. I use EasyBB which is a pre-hacked form of phpBB, it's phpBB with a lot of add-ons and a lot of options. IF you want to check it out check out my forums at http://forums.freeminz.com/

[jema]

I am an admin on both VBulletin and Phpbb boards.

I recently set up another phpBB board:

http://forum.downsizer.net/

Which I have templated to look a little like the associated mambo main site.

This was very easy with phpBB, not sure how easy it would have been with VBulletin? The user base is also shared between mambo and phpBB with a simple hack.

VBulletin does have a lot more out of the box, and you simply cannot compate the control panels, VBulletin wins hands down there.

But have I been tempted to pay out on a non commercial site for VBulletin. Frankly no. I think it is a bit like mobile phones! Most of what you actually need to do is talk, a lot of the bells and whistles are fairly meaningless. Once with phpBB you have done the "attachments" hack and a few others, what more do you really need?

jema

[blueuniverse]

In my opinion the templating system is also a lot better in vBulletin. I always found it extremely annoying in PHPBB, and editing the colours in the admin panel never seemed to make any difference. In vBulletin the ability to revert to the default is also very important in my opinion.

Oh, and the mambo thing can be done easily with vBulletin as well.

[minstrel]

a lot of the bells and whistles are fairly meaningless. Once with phpBB you have done the "attachments" hack and a few others, what more do you really need?
My feelings exactly. I prefer to have a quicker loading forum with ONLY the bells and whistles I'll actually use.

[jema]

My users are not exactly the most IT literate in the world. I have been looking at the "bells and whistles" here and thinking how badly a lot of my users would cope with them!

jema

[minstrel]

I suspect that's generally true, jema. I'd say the majority of the add-ons/mods I have installed are there to make my admin tasks easier to do rather than to add enahnacements for members.

[jema]

I have even wondered about the use of pulldowns in general in VBulletin?

Yes I know that they are everywhere in applications, but on web pages they are still not that common, it is easy to under estimate just how web illiterate people can be. Have you ever seen poeple routinely type a web address into a search bar to find a site :rolleyes:

Having been coding for 25 years, I do find it hard to grasp exactly what people fail to grasp!

jema

[Refrozen]

I personally prefer IPB over vB and definately over PHPBB... vB makes me not want to post usually, it's weird, I just don't feel like posting on vB forums very much... IPB on the other hand, I love it :D

[digitalpoint]

jema - you can disable them if you prefer. vBulletin has more options than you can shake a stick at. Specifically the Use 'vBMenu' DHTML Popup Menus? option under the admin screen will do it. :)

Refrozen - I think it mostly comes down to what people are used to. It's funny you say about not wanting to post on vB, because I feel the same about phpBB myself. I'm kind of in between on IPB.

[anthonycea]

To be honest, it never entered my mind as to the software used on a forum as a poster. I will post on any forum as long as the administrators are not censors or complete numbskulls.

Next, the software that is used on a forum is not the real issue for users, but the technical and administration of the site are the most important factors for the users.

If a forum is being hacked and is down that is bad, it is also bad when the webmaster does not know how to enable features that are standard on most forums.

So the technical operation of the forum is the most important factor, not the software used.

The reason Digital Point is so successful is with a small staff (Shawn) is because of Shawn's technical ability which is mostly unmatched by most forums across the internet, even those with large technical staffs.

How much downtime have I seen a DP since I have been here, NONE.

That means a hell of a lot.

When I first got here, I got on Shawn's back real bad for a missing thread and he was able to rebuild it quickly, he mentioned the database crashed or something.

I thought he was just censoring me as other forums were doing at that time, but I believe his answer was true as to why the thread came up missing.

[minstrel]

I guess that's why it's nice to have choice... Different people... Different software.

[kiddo]

I'm having a bit of a problem picking out which forum software to use (I'm starting my own forum, watch this space, lol)

Like blueUniverse I'm also 15 and I'm not really sure whether it's worth spending my cash on software if their is a free, competitive alternative.

Should I wait until my forum hits the bit time before I change over, or will that be too much work changing over to be worth it?

I'd really appreciate the advice.

~ kiddo

[minstrel]

Forget phpBB. If you have the money, vBulletin. If you don't (and most 15 year olds probably don't), give SMF a try.

[Blogmaster]

I'm having a bit of a problem picking out which forum software to use (I'm starting my own forum, watch this space, lol)

Like blueUniverse I'm also 15 and I'm not really sure whether it's worth spending my cash on software if their is a free, competitive alternative.

Should I wait until my forum hits the bit time before I change over, or will that be too much work changing over to be worth it?

I'd really appreciate the advice.

~ kiddo

If all I had in my name was $180.00 and I was starting a forum, I would spend it on vBulletin.

[minstrel]

If all I had in my name was $180.00 and I was starting a forum, I would spend it on vBulletin.
Maybe you would. That would be pretty dumb, though.

Have you even tried SMF? or phpBB for that matter? or anything else in terms of alternatives?

And byt the way, it's still $160 USD last time I looked.

[crazyryan]

vBulletin, people would much rather visit a vbulletin forum that phpbb in my experience. I'm 14 and there is always money too get a little $$, whatever happens, in the end if you spend 1 month raising the cash, its worth buying vbulletin.

[Blogmaster]

Maybe you would. That would be pretty dumb, though.

Have you even tried SMF? or phpBB for that matter? or anything else in terms of alternatives?

And byt the way, it's still $160 USD last time I looked.

SMF is not bad, but vB is far better. I don't recommend phpBB to anyone.

[dcristo]

I'm having a bit of a problem picking out which forum software to use (I'm starting my own forum, watch this space, lol)

Like blueUniverse I'm also 15 and I'm not really sure whether it's worth spending my cash on software if their is a free, competitive alternative.

Should I wait until my forum hits the bit time before I change over, or will that be too much work changing over to be worth it?

I'd really appreciate the advice.

~ kiddo

If money is an issue, going the phpBB route and coverting to vB further down the track is easy enough. I did it this way and the transition was pretty seamless. Members weren't too fussed having to adapt to new software either (and they ain't very internet savvy)

[minstrel]

I agree with dcristo except for the phpBB part - I think SMF is a better option at this point.

[Blogmaster]

SMF is not bad (example (http://forum.joomla.org/)). But still not the same quality as vBulletin :)

[Notorious]

I am always lost on phpbb forums as there is no "New Posts" or "Todays posts" like VB,Imagine a forum like DP with 30 categories and number of sub-categories running on phpbb,i will have to spend half a day looking for new threads/posts.

Also the support for plugins make VB a lot easier to customize.

[minstrel]

To be fair, there are MODs for both phpBB and SMF that will do that.

[kiddo]

Cool, thanks a lot for the advice everyone, I think I'm going to take dcristo's advice and go with changing down the line to vbul

thanks,
~ kiddo

[Blogmaster]

To be fair, there are MODs for both phpBB and SMF that will do that.Yes, but it's so much easier with vBulletin.Cool, thanks a lot for the advice everyone, I think I'm going to take dcristo's advice and go with changing down the line to vbul

thanks,
~ kiddo

I do think that is the best thing to do. Even though looking at SMF, it's really a great software for being free. But if you want what is best, vBulletin is it :)

[minstrel]

To be fair, there are MODs for both phpBB and SMF that will do that.

Yes, but it's so much easier with vBulletin.

You really haven't ever used SMF, have you? They have their "package" system which is virtually the same as vBulletin's plugins and products system. Adding (compliant) MODs is easy.

And with phpBB, there is EasyMOD, which also greatly simplifies the task of adding MODs.

[dojo]

I have used phpBB for 4 years. I know how it works, I know how to modify the template, I know what to install and how. I pride myself with some of the most remarkable phpBBs (even my webmaster forum was on phpBB and it was amazing). I am using only 1 VB on the forum I mentioned because webmasters are picky with the script. I think I won't pay for another license anymore since I'm very pleased with phpBB

[bnts]

VB is much better, but only if one has a pocket in the first position...