what's the difference? why pay major money for vbulletin when you can get forum software for free (like phpbb and SMF)?
the reason i use vbulletin for all my forums is because when i look for a forum the image in my mind is vbulletin. when someone says forum thats what i think of. on top of the support available mods etc i thik it is a lot better. Plus having some money behind it does allow better developent than free software will probably ever enjoy
i would have to disagree, i find that after using a forum for a couple days i get used to the navigation/buttons/layout no matter what service it is. think i will stick with free just my opinion though
I had the same question before I started my first message board. Now that the message board is doing well and producing money for me, I'm still asking the same question. It's not that I'm opposed to switching to vBulletin, though. I'm just satisfied with phpBB right now because it's working for me.
vBulletin is very reach with mods, hacks, templates, for about 3-4 hours ago I look at SMF and I can say it's very poor with templates mods etc. phpBB I don't know it's good and i think it's better than SMF but vBulletin is the best and for that reason you have to pay for it
In the end this does not matter. People will get used to whichever script you use as someone else mentioned. What will make a difference is how you market your forum and what kind of users start posting on there. My experience with phpBB: Great forum system, excellent user following, and pretty much any modification you could think of has already been created. I have no experience administering the other two systems, but vBulletin is a nice forum for the end user.
The main issue is security, you will be for sure more secure to exploits and other attacks if you use vBulletin.
What is the basis of this claim? I'm just curious. vBulletin is so widely used that that alone would make it more vulnerable, i.e., more people would have access to its code to find security holes.
The thing about Vbulletin is its easy to get a pretty URL hack, a photo gallery and video extension hacks, etc. All that is difficult on SMF, plus SMF doesn't have all the features or nice as looking templates. All in all SMF is OK for average website but if you have a real busy forum I would go with Vbulletin.
I went through the same dilemma about 8-9 months ago. Choosing which forum you want is a challenge and there are many great scripts. vB is awesome and easy to use BUT.... You must have deep pockets to upgrade it. There mods and templates cost a pretty penny. phpBB has lots of good mods and templates for free. If you hired someone to custom build your theme, it'll be cheaper and original than vB. For example, look at THIS CUSTOM phpBB THEME --That's unique and easy to navigate. SMF, same thing as phpBB. I personally like SMF the best. Their support is top notch and on their forum, everyone is ready to help. The mods are plenty-ful. And in my experience, the SEO (esp. with SEO4SMF --which is free) is kick butt! I've hired someone to make me a custom template for less than vB templates, you can see it at my GUITAR MESSAGE FORUM All-in-all, the three you are inquiring about are good. vB has the out of the box edge, because it is paid (and expensive) while the free ones are basic, but very upgrade-able / customizable to fit your personal needs. If I were you, I'd go with the free forum script and if you don't like it, you can always change to vB later on. There is a converter tool out there that allows you to transfer all your data to a different forum.. and it's also free Good luck!
I don't think the SEO 4 SMF mod works on the 1.1X series. They say on the smf forums that pretty urls dont help with indexing. I don't think thats true but does anyone know for sure?
I may be going a bit off, Though Invasion Power Board is much more better to myself than Vbulletin as a payed script. The interface is great. Everything works out. It seems Vbulletin seems to lead in the public thought.
I have 1.1.4 and it does help and helps significantly! My 8 month PR2 SMF forum is competing with 10+ year old PR6 (vB) corporate sites. I don't know why, but it does. I'm no SEO guru at all and don't spend money, while these corporate sites probably pay in the upper thousands per month. Here is a test for you; Google: music gear forum -- and check the results. You'll see me in the top 5 - 8. (sometimes on the top #2 or #3 on the first page) My small (free) SMF music gear forum competing with corporate (vB) sites like Harmony-Central.com and TheGearPage.net is definitely something to boast about! I give all the credit to SMF and their free SEO mods!
But the seo mod only gives pretty URLS which means better SERPS for individual forum THREADS & FOLDERS. Your doing good for your FRONT PAGE with major keywords, which has nothing to do with the benefits of pretty urls for individual folders and threads.
I think we're talking about two different mods. SEO 4 SMF is a mod by "The God Father". It has soooo many features that I don't even know where to begin. It's not available on SMF MODS website anymore. He moved it to his exclusive webmasters message forum. I believe members must sign up to have access to it. It's the best MOD for SMF and it has more (better) features that vB SEO mod. The pretty URLs do work on my site too, btw. And I'm getting good solid traffic from search engines. Like I said, vB is an awesome script, I just think it's overpriced considering the free forums out there competing so well.