what is the difference between phpbb and vbulletin? I have made my mind to open my first discussion forum. and I am a tad dumb to computer and doesnt know anything about making a forum. I have researched and got afew tips of phpbb and vbulletin which are widely bulletin systems. and curious why vbulletin is not free and the other is? and which is better and what are the differences? sorry if this post is not suited for general chat.(dont know where is the right place//) and do I have to pay money for server apart from bulletin system fee?
Hi, You probably could have put this somewhere in Design and Development. In a nutshell.. vBulletin is a commerically supported product and pbpbb is not. I like phpbb because its free but certainly vBulletin is a much tighter application. my 2 cents
vBulletin is a better choice for people who want to build a serious community and have money to spend. I've used both, and the administration tools available in the back end of vBulletin put phpBB to shame, but phpBB is great for a first time forum owner who's looking to get into it.. and later down the road, you can always convert to vBulletin.. though it can be a pain. There's also much better support, as an active license holder you can get support (usually in less than 15 minutes) for any serious issue you're having.. whereas with phpBB you pretty much have to post on the forums and hope someone will take the time to reply. There's a dedicated mod / hack site for vBulletin, letting you customize your forum way more than you can with phpBB as well.
Try and figure out a way you can test out each forum and their control panels (would be harder to do for vb) and decide from there. I don't think it's a question of being a first time forum owner or a series community, the largest forum in the world is phpbb based but vb does still have alot more popular forums than phpbb.