I see so many forums using PHPBB or VB. This thread is for those admins like myself who know that IPB is the far better script out there. Lets start to discuss why IPB is the better script to use.
I think that IBP is on a similar level with phpBB. When it was free it was very widely used, but when it became paid the total number of users has dropped rapidly. I personnally think that vBulletin is the best of the paid forum scripts.
i agree with calum. i have used all three and i love vbulletin whatsoever. IPB made the biggest mistake by removing the free version. also, the price for business version is certainly unaffordable. so vBulletin rules
Another thing is that they started free and turned to paid. If they had started paid they would have none of these non-licensed forums running the older versions. Some of the people who like IPB and are using the free older versions may have actually paid for a license if there wasn't a free version. IPB claim you get no support, but at forums like DP there are loads of people happy to give you support.
the developers are greedy like hell, they dont let me renew the licenses, which were ended their support before they changed to the latest price slab, never ever use them.
I actually really liked the look of IPB when I first saw it, it looks so much more simple and everything from the interface is easier to use. I however recently tried out vB, I did not like it at first, but then you discover there are far more skins/modifications for it and just so much more flexibility. To round it off, I like IPB the most for a friendly community, but I would use vB for most of my communities as there is just far more support for it at the moment. That is why Invision Power Services (the makers of IPB), are trying to get up in that sense of the market with their fairly new Invision Resources site.
I had 1 SMF forum 2 vB forums. Mostly cause I keep hearing people say vB, vB, vB. I also heard people say software wise vB is better than IPB. Personally I think IPB looks way cleaner and sharper than vB. And sure you can get different skins for all of them but the style doesn't usualy change too much. I can usually tell which forum is vB from IPB no matter the skin. What I want to know though is what exactly, specially makes vB better than IPB? This is a question to all the vB supporters, cause I'm considering switching to IPB.
I prefer ipb for its ease to be skinned but i prefer vb for its abundance of mods that are far easier to install than on ipb.
I have never really tried IPB. I have tried InvisionFree which is a free forum host that uses a modified script of IPB. I don't quite get the pricing.
It is not the paid or free factor what makes IPB better. Since early versions IPB comes with a fully featured administration area, something in which both phpBB an vBulletin miserable fail, the first because is too simplistic, the second too due to a complicated structure making tedious your job. IPB has many free skins, mods and hacks, many of which vBulletin has never developed, but incidentally MyBB has implemented a few of them in addition to some others taken from vBulletin being, from my point of view, a more robust and better freeware solution over phpBB or any other free open source.
i m just get the licience of IPB.. i m new in this but i think its quite hard to manage this i spend more than 1 hour for only installing points mod on my board.. i m already use phpbb, mybb, SMF n other free forums but its easy then IPB.. let see when i m bored from this script....
I have used IPB for more than a year, but I really love vbulletin. Purchasing vbulletin instead IPB is the best choice