Free Forum Softwares

Hey. I thought we all could discuss the free forum softwares. To start off lets compose a list of all decent free forum softwares that have been developed greatly.

I will start the list off;

-phpBB,
-myBB,
-wowBB,
-SMF,

Thanks,
BlueEew.

 

wtcBB
....................

 

Found this page earlier today, comparing alot of the main forum scripts.

The first 3 are commercial packages but the rest are free ones

http://forensoftware.de/index.php?lang=english

 

Get Vanilla. Period.

Simple, clean, beautiful and one of the only forums (afaik) that is built on a CSS default layout.

 

I have used SMF for quite sometime now and I'm simply loving it. It has tons of free themes, mods and a wonderful support community. It's very easy to install SMF and modify the code.

 

Thanks for that link, it was really resorcful. Also IPB is alot more money then vBulletin? Is that correct.

 

you forgot about punbb and snitz

 

Here is another good site that allows you to compare forum software: http://www.forummatrix.org/

 

Thanks for that. That website provides high quality detailed comparasion between any softwares you select. Thanks.

 

mybb is my favorite... mainly because it is very easy to mod with plugins...

 

proboards.com if you're not interested in monetizing your forum. That's how I started.

 

As a SMF user that started off from phpBB I can only say that the SMF software is a lot better. Easy to code things yourself, good support, mods and themes that you can use.

Try SMF and im sure you will like it ..or not..

 

I never have really heard of SMF untill I registered here, I never thought it is that popular. I may try it out in the future just see how it runs, etc.

 

go go SMF

 

SMF and phpbb are both the kings of free forum softwares with the highest mods, themes etc.

The difference between the two are:

1) SMF is more hacker safe and spammer safe than phpbb.
2) SMF has got a better admin panel
3) phpBB on the other hand has got a hell lot of mods which is even much higher than SMF
4) phpBB 3 or Olympus as it is known will be better in every section than SMF as expected as all the bugs are removed in phpbb3 and many additional functions are added.

So, check out your need and functions and then go for the respective forum softwares as per your need.

 

Yeah I have read recently that phpBB as loads of spam problems however there are modifications, also phpBB 3 will basically own it once its finished all bugs etc.

 

It really comes down to whether or not you are comfortable with installing mods to protect and enhance your forum. If you are then there is no better choice then phpbb.

 

Punbb is good too http://punbb.org/

 

http://bbpress.org/

 

bbpress is not bad but it does not look professional at first and it is actually a supporting forum developed by the wordpress developers itself.

Morever, the problem with these forums like bbpress or punbb is that they are not as professional as the popular forums especially this can be said of bbpress and they do not have a very active customer support or community forums. I have faced with a lot of people who approach me with hell lot of bugs with these forums while installation and after installation too. They tell that they cannot find proper support in the respective websites and I am also helpless in many cases as I am not acquainted with these softwares. So, they ultimately receive very less help. It is not only the case with me not helping them but it is the case everywhere as even senior webmasters are not acquainted with them and hence, unable to help in case of bugs.

And a new forum software has a lot of bugs and it is only with perfection that the bugs decrease. So, always opt for either SMF or phpbb for forum. Even mybb is acceptable to some extent but not the rest.