Simple Machines or phpBB?

I just had a question for everyone here. Which free (open) forum should I go w/? I want to open a business / career related discussions and I was deciding between these two. What do you all think? Or is there another better than these 2?

Thanks!

 

Question 2 regarding this topic:

You know how in word press you the choice to allow members posts (comments) to show up automatically, or wait for approval (i believe the default is to wait for approval), is any of these 2 forums allows the admin to do this? Or for that matter, any other forums that does this? It can be a feature that comes w/ it, or a mod that I have to install. It doesn't matter as long as this feature is available.

Thanks again!

 

I used smf in the past and i must say it is really cool.It has also this approval feature in the latest builds.I have never used phpbb so i can't tell the differences between them.

 

The major free forum softwares are, in order of popularity
1) phpBB
2) Simple Machines Forum
3) PunBB
4) bbPress
5) Drupal's forum packages
6) MyBB
7) Vanilla

I would highly recommend against phpBB. It lacks a lot of features when it comes to quickly and effectively managing communities. PunBB is also completely and utterly eclipsed in feature set and purpose by the others. Drupal and Vanilla are faster, to boot.

Of the remaining five, it depends on what you are focusing on.

1) Vanilla is a good 'single issue' sort of forum - simple for less savvy users. It's a new take on an older forum style, there there are no separate boards, just one forum with a thread list.
2) bbPress integrates nicely with Wordpress, and the focus is, naturally, ease of use. It is not particularly powerful at the moment, and it is quite slow, however.
3) Simple Machines currently has the best permission structure in any of the currently extant forum packages, though it takes some getting used to. It's faster than phpBB but slower than MyBB. It has an extensive array of modules available, surpassed only by vBulletin and Drupal.
4) MyBB is the new GPL kid on the block. Unlike SMF (pure patch system) or phpBB (patch and discovery), MyBB uses a system of hooks for its modules. This makes for a much cleaner module-handling system. The schema is a bit less robust than the others, however.
5) Drupal is a full-fledged content management system, with associated complexity. It is incredibly powerful, however, and gains viability by the month. I don't think it's quite ready to replace all other solutions, yet, but it works for some.

SMF and phpBB both have post moderation, though SMF only has it in version 2.