Here’s our take on 70+ forum engines, hosts, and tools. Forum Engines (Free Software) http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/phpbb.png Advanced Electron Forum (http://www.anelectron.com/) - Easy to use PHP forum engine. aterr (http://chimaera.starglade.org/aterr/) - Simple multi-threaded board engine. bbPress (http://bbpress.org/) - From the creators of Wordpress and Akismet comes an elegant bulletin board. Beast (http://beast.caboo.se/) - A Rails-based forum written in only 500 lines of code. Beehive Forum (http://www.tehforum.co.uk/) - PHP forum engine with support for mobile browsers. Blursoft MetaForum (http://www.blursoft.com/metaForum/) - Has a ton of AJAX features, but manages to stay search engine friendly. And yes, the back button does work. bttlxeForum (http://www.bttlxe.com/bttlxeForum/) - Basic ASP board. Deluxe Portal (http://deluxeportal.net/) - All-in-one portal solution. DeluxeBB (http://www.deluxebb.com/) - Speedy engine with database optimization and GZIP compression. dnfBB (http://www.deluxebb.com/) - 3-tier C# forum that works with Firebird and MySQL. E-Blah (http://www.eblah.com/) - Basic BBS with Akismet spam protection. Elite Bulletin Board (http://elite-board.us/) - Light and customizable board. eXtreme Message Board (XMB) (http://www.xmbforum.com/) - On the outside, it appears to be a basic forum engine. Until you download the mods for it. IceBB (http://icebb.net/) - Beautiful board with feeds, calendars, and much more. Ikonboard (http://www.ikonboard.com/) - Popular forum software. Unique in that it can use both a database or a flat file as a backend. JForum (http://www.jforum.net/) - Great board with karma, phpBB migration, and search-friendly URLs. MegaBBS (http://www.pd9soft.com/) - Fully featured ASP board engine. Note: only free for personal use. miniBB (http://www.minibb.net/) - Minimalistic board powered by PHP. mvnForum (http://www.mvnforum.com/mvnforumweb/index.jsp) - Powerful JSP board under the GPL. mwForum (http://www.mwforum.org/) - Great Perl forum with a wonderful look. MyBB (http://www.mybboard.net/) - Plugins and an easy-to-use admin system make MyBB a keeper. MyTopix (http://www.jaia-interactive.com/home/work/mytopix/) - Great forum with a unique design. nextBBS (http://www.nextbbs.com/) - Popular board with a ton of features and integration with Mediawiki, Coppermine, and Zoints. Orca (http://www.boonex.com/products/orca/features/) - Nice forum engine with tools like a live post tracker and a WYSIWYG editor. OvBB (http://www.ovbb.org/) - Lightweight vBulletin clone. Phorum (http://www.phorum.org/) - Popular forum engine that powers boards like the MySQL forum. phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com/) - The granddaddy of Internet forums, phpBB sports a modular design for the control panels, support for almost any kind of database, and a host of plugins. No wonder it won the SourceForge Community Choice Awards’ Best Project for Communications (http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=572273&sid=de7d6316fef14eb9b54fd3f4922cb900). Pocoo (http://www.pocoo.org/) - Never heard of a Python-powered board? Neither did I, until I found Pocoo. It’s WSGI compatible, and has an advanced plugin system. PunBB (http://punbb.org/) - With XHTML-compliant pages, simplicity, and speed, what’s not to like? Quicksilver Forums (QSF) (http://www.quicksilverforums.com/) - Based on the now dead MercuryBoard, QSF has grown into a mature engine sporting features such as 3D permissions or skinning. RForum (http://rforum.andreas-s.net/) - Strong forum with mailing list integration, powered by Ruby. http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/smf.png Simple Machines Forum (SMF) (http://www.simplemachines.org/) - Originally a fork of YaBB SE, SMF features WYSIWYG, powerful groups, and much more. Note: there is some dispute about whether SMF is free software or not, since you are not allowed to redistribute the forum/software itself without written permission. Snitz (http://forum.snitz.com/) - Basic ASP forum. txtForum (http://sourceforge.net/projects/txtforum1) - Tiny forum that stores its information in TXT files instead of a database. Unclassified NewsBoard Forum (UNB) (http://newsboard.unclassified.de/) - Easy to use forum engine with Jabber notification. UseBB (http://www.usebb.net/) - Lightweight, clear, and efficient board package. Vanilla (http://www.getvanilla.com/) - Terrific AJAXified forum with a really nice look you won’t find anywhere else. Vikingboard (http://vikingboard.com/) - Minimalistic board engine for high performance. Viscacha (http://www.viscacha.org/) - Board with integrated CMS and conversion from CuteCast, Vision Board, phpBB, and WBB. YaBB (http://www.yabbforum.com/) - Easy to install and easy to use, YaBB is more than yet another bulletin board. Yazd (http://www.forumsoftware.ca/) - Basic forum engine under the Apache license. Forum Engines (Commercial) http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ipb.png AspNetForum (http://www.jitbit.com/asp-net-forum.aspx) - Clean and powerful ASP.NET forum engine. $85-$169. Burning Board (http://www.woltlab.com/products/burning_board/) - Easy to set up board that will import existing Invision Power Board, MyBB, phpBB, PunBB, Simple Machines Forum, or vBulletin forums. $139.99-$269.99. FuseTalk (http://www.fusetalk.com/) - Powerful forum software used by big-names such as Adobe, Boeing, NASA, NBC, US Airforce, McAfee and Lonely Planet. But the names will cost you. $649-$4599. FusionBB (http://www.fusionbb.com/) - Calendar, photo gallery, PayPal, article templates, and much more are available with this great piece of software. $425 flat fee or $149 flat fee and $39/year. Ideal BB (http://www.idealscience.com/site/products/idealbb .aspx) - ASP/COM board with a nice revision feature. $299-$2099. Invision Power Board (IPB) (http://www.invisionboard.com/) - One of the most popular commercial boards of all time. $149.99-$299.99. Jive Forums (http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/forums/) - Powerful board used by companies such as EA and ESPN. Unfortunately, very expensive. $14950 flat fee, $1950/1000 users, $4950/5000 users, or $9950/20000 users. MyProBB (http://www.cubiclesoft.com/MyProBB/) - Powerful anti-spam features makes this one a keeper. It’s cheap, too. $25/year. UBB.threads (http://www.ubbcentral.com/) - $725 flat fee or $229 flat fee and $125/year. vBulletin (https://www.vbulletin.com/) - Extremely popular board with tons of features. $160 flat fee or $85/year. WowBB (http://www.wowbb.com/) - WYSIWYG, internationalization, and much more available with this PHP board. $99 flat fee or $55/year. Forum Hosts http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/proboards_look.png Blursoft MetaForum (http://www.blursoft.com/metaForum/) - Has a ton of AJAX features, but manages to stay search friendly. And yes, the back button does work. Free. Conforums (http://www.conforums.com/) - Unlimited categories, boards, and posts with HTML and JavaScript customization. Free. CuteCast (http://www.cutecast.org/) - Basic forum hosting. Free. GoBoardz (http://goboardz.com/) - Nice forum with photo sharing and a nice interface. Free. Hyperboards (http://www.hyperboards.com/) - A big hosting provider with global login (one Hyperboards account logs you into every Hyperboards forum), skins, pages, and unlimited posts and boards. Free. Invision Power Board (IPB) (https://docs.google.com/www.invisionboard.com) - One of the most popular commercial boards of all time. $10-$75/month. ProBoards (http://www.proboards.com/) - A well known host powered by YaBB. Free. Sudden Launch (http://www.suddenlaunch.com/) - Forum host with unlimited posts, replies, and boards. Free. WowBB (http://www.wowbb.com/) - WYSIWYG, internationalization, and much more available with this PHP board. $99 flat fee and $3.95/month or $7.95/month. Forum Integration http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/fireboard.gif bbPress and Wordpress integration (http://bbpress.org/documentation/integration-with-wordpress/) - Official howto on integrating the two sister projects. FireBoard (http://www.bestofjoomla.com/) - Joomla component that adds a powerful forum. Integrating Vanilla and Wordpress (http://lussumo.com/docs/doku.php?id=vanilla:integ ration:wordpress) - Official guide to integrating the two popular CMSs. IpbWiki (http://www.ipbwiki.com/Ipb_Wiki:Integration_Of_In vision_Power_Board_with_MediaWiki) - Connects Invision Power Boards and MediaWiki. Joomla!Vanilla (http://www.open4g.com/index.php?option=com_conten t&task=view&id=21&Itemid=2) - Bridge between the Joomla CMS and Vanilla.