vBulletin Vs. PHPbb Vs. SMF : Which one to choose? Is it justifiable to pay for VB?

vBulletin Vs. PHPbb Vs. SMF : Which one to choose? Is it justifiable to pay for VB?

SMF and PHPbb are free while vBulleting is very costly. I see DP has vBulletin, but does it make it worth the investment if I purchase VB?

If you have a VB forum, please let me know why it is better to have one.

 

I am using phpbb, it is good enough.

 

I had the same question in my post Why are you paying for vBulletin?, you might also want to take a look there.

 

if u have money than pay for vBulletin, its gooood Enough because u see every big forum use Vb because they are good support and easy to use.

 

The choice obviously differs for every person.
Its very difficult to really recommend vBulletin, PHPbb, SMF or any other forum board solutions to a general audience as the choice and need will differ in different circumstances.

If you are quite new to programming/web development but have money to spare, I suggest going for vBulletin. vB is quite user friendly is terms of modifications and enhancement.

If you are really good at PHP Development, I suggest you go with Phpbb, regardless of your financial capability in purchasing forum board solutions. Whilst phpbb is quite difficult in terms of modification for a newbie, it is a great piece of script for a phpbb programmer. I have used phpbb for my various forums and it is really my number one choice.

Remember, from a security point of view, neither solutions are more secure out of the box. And both solutions can be made highly secure with code modifications and security layer applications. Some of the world's largest forums use phpbb, either out-of-the-box or highly customized to their needs.

Sorry, I did not comment of SMF for a particular reason, I had horrible experiences with it in the past

 

Yes i have a forum using VB.Its my first choice because its affordable and many plugin for VB

 

phpbb is good.its free & u can find lots of free plugins & help from other coders but it basically depends on your needs

 

VB is the best if you ask me. Free forums like SMF or phpbb are good, advantage to SMF - phpbb was very vulnerable in version 2, now its ok, but still I dont trust it, and I hate themes for phpbb!

 

VB is better code, more updates, more testing, more stable, more features, more customization - and more skins are made for VB

It isn't that expensive.

 

reinventing the wheel is a lot of work- vbull is so commercially ready that it is just a super option. there are times where phpbb is appropriate (company board, task manager.. not global stuff) though. even then you can make private forums with vbull though. also, the public is very familiar with vbull.

 

I am gonna buy VB. You guys convinced me enough

Thanks!

 

If you've got the budget, vB is awesome. If not, phpBB is awesome.

 

I got three vB forum. For the average user, I think that vB is really not worth getting.

You hear a lot of people say that get vB it's the best. But not many people can tell you why it's better. Just because something is more expensive doesn't make it better, which is what I think of vB has become. Because it cost money, it's better.

Different forum has it's little difference, but in more ways than not, their pretty simpler.

So unless you got yourself planned to a huge giant forum like dp, putting consideration into vB is really not necessary. You probably won't make your money back for the vB.

 

I have used all 3, VB, SMF and phpBB.

VB - nice piece of kit, easy to use, and it does have the "professional" look.

SMF - I liked this software, again easy to use, and I never once had any spammers on the site!

phpBB - I really do like this one, phpBB2 was a nightmare due to SPAM, but phpBB3 seems a lot better, it looks good, not as easy to use as VB, but not too hard to master.
The support forum is very good, and it is FREE!!

I would choose phpBB over VB

 

get VB free lol thats what i do DGT releses F.T.W get it at vbteam.info

 

PHPBB is very good. But VB if you got money you should get it

 

vBulletin is by far the best and it's not that expensive. $160 for a lifetime license isn't that bad. If you want a free board, I would go with phpBB.

 

VB is by far the most overpriced script in existence. I can't help but laugh at all those who pay high price for this. Take a look at bigboards.com - the biggest boards on the net use phpbb. If it works for absolutely the busiest forums, why would you want to spend ridiculously high money for a script that will continuously cost you even after the purchase. Plus VB is not CSS based. It's all tables one over another. Unless your site is PR6 or higher, your threads will not get properly indexed. Buying VB license would be hands down the worst money spent

 

I'm not sure how VB will continuously cost people, they have a lifetime license available. VB support is way better than any other board and there are so many hacks and styles available for it. There are scripts like vBSEO for indexing. And vB uses CSS and tables.

 

I have a VB and its the best. It is so advanced and secure that it's amazing. Rarely have I found that something is as good as people claim, but VB is actually that.