Which is the best? At the moment I am tempted by IPB based on the price. I also like the look of it. The ammount of skins available and the option of vbSEO is attracting me to VB. Does vbSEO help alot? What am I better off going for?
If you have the money for vB and have to make a move, go vB. There are free options to vBSEO where the code is not hidden and you can have more control yourself if you choose vB and want mod rewritten URLs.
I was about to raise a similar question, so hope you don't mind me jumping in... Are open-source options like phpbb worth considering, or are the differences in functionality / stability / scalability so great that for a 'proper' forum you need to buy VB or IPB?
If you are a keen developer who likes to get your hands dirty in the code, and have lots of free time on your hands, then one of the free solutions might make for a challenging ongoing hobby for you. However, if you are anyone who wants an advanced rewriting system that is completely configurable via a control panel (along with many other valuable SEO features)... and you would like this to be done with a 5 minute install... and have a professional team manage all the upgrades to the plugin for the life of your forum... then what you need is the vBSEO solution.
vB hands down. I would go vB and vBSEO. I use a free solutoin for SEO for my vB and it does just fine, but I love vB overall.
I have VB and IPB. I think VB is what I like more. I don't use VB SEO because I cannot be convinced to pay for this, but the script is OK.
Personally I like IPB more, maybe because I am more used with it but both are great. So really har to say what would be best, maybe you should just go with what feels right for you. Good luck! //Andreas
I have recently purchased VB and am currently busy with impex to migrate my database. There are about 10K members & 200K posts that need to be moved from phpBB > Vbulletin. I will let you know how it goes in a matter of few days. As for the question: Vbulletin all the way!