smf or phpbb?

which is the better one for SEO, built in security and can handle a large community with few to no modifications?

 

SMF would be better out of the box, but you have much more customization, templates, and mods available with phpBB.

 

I would take SMF over phpbb anyday. It has more features prebuilt inside, adding mods is easy. Includes options to use search engine friendly urls.

 

I agree, SMF by far. phpBB might have a larger mod community, but that's not what he is looking for.

SMF is cleaner, faster, more secure, with more features - out of the box.

phpBB also comes with session ID's out of the box which SMF does not - SMF is definitely the way to go with what you're looking for.

 

if and when SMF takes off it will be much better, if your not into modding then SMF is for you!

 

If and when it takes off? SMF has been advancing and improving faster than any free forum software I have ever seen.

 

yes but it still is no where near as big as phpbb is.

 

Of course not, phpBB has been around for 5 years (I think)...SMF only about a year.

Just because more people use phpBB does not mean it is better.

 

I agree with GTace. See my comments on phpBB here.

 

I am not a phpBB fan - it was fine several years ago, but lately the development has stagnated and is apparently in a complete disarray. Still, I would take it before I would touch SMF.

A great article and follow-up comments on this very subject can be found at: http://www.hiveminds.co.uk/simple_machines_forum_is_not_free_or_open_source. The article and the last two (currently) comments are possibly the most revealing. A read of them might jump-start this topic, even.

On top of the points covered by that page, SMF is not as good as everyone says. It is all but invisible to search engines and its features are up to 2001 standards. It's admin panel is confusing as anything and when you add mods, there is a good chance you will muck up the works. You could cause an install failure or worse, you could mess up the code and slow down your entire site. Uninstalling mods is messier than uninstalling software in Windows 95. A lot of mess is left behind.

 

i would go with punbb or mybb ..... the third is smf and fourth is minibb....

what i found out about minibb is that authors are pricing around 20 dollars for private messaging board and attachment mod ... both for around 50$ .... that was big down for me ... i rather buy vbulletin for 160 than give 50 for minibb and not all feautures inside ... i like it still for its smallnes

 

PhpBB need more improvemnts in security ... my chose is smf ...

Regards

 

I agree that phpBB is in need of a lot of things - but how do you get around the mess that is SMF & SEO?

 

SMF, as phpBB has major problems if you connecting from a proxy. a lot of ADSL users from south africa have problems using phpBB forums in the US. It asks you to login on every page.

 

check smf license it is pretty evil

 

I glanced over it ... which parts are evil ?

 

the part when modifications you do and submit for smf are not yours and smf authors can later sell them if they decide to make smf commercial which will be eventually !!

 

that's ok .. don't have time to modify SMF

 

i personally find that very disturbing ... but it doesnt matter since i desided to go with punbb with mods and mybb which is better than smf ... !my opinion! very easy to customize ...

 

Don't believe everything you read. Drifter, your comments remind me of another thread where someone is railing against David Duval and phpLD because he was told he had to keep the copyright notice or pay a $75 fee to remove it.