What forum software should I use?

Hello, so I'm starting a new forum and I am new with building forums. I have played around with a few forum builders including myBB, Vanilla and phpBB. I am trying to decide between Vanilla and myBB. I like Vanilla and how simplistic and easy it is to use, everything just seems so 'fresh'. For myBB it seems a lot more custom but also still fairly easy to use. Overall I liked the feel and use of Vanilla better but myBB is still manageable. When I started looking at other sites that use these two forum builders it seemed the ones using myBB generally had more users and activity. I just need some opinions that will maybe help in my decision. Thanks.

 

my 2 cents (pardon the pun) it's the niche more than the software that determines activity. Use the one that makes it fun to run your forum.

 

As jamesplato said, the forum software is not a problem.. the main thing is the Forum categories... What will make your forum different and attractive for users !? what is the main field that the forum will be About !? answer this 2 questions and go ahead by using any Forum software you feel good With!

 

mybb is the first in my list. its much more easy to customize.

 

MyBB very easy to use and customize with lots of themes available for free

 

I use vBulletin for my ClickBump Speed Freaks Support Forum.

But...

If I were building a new forum today (and I will soon be), I'd go with Discourse

 

I would go with MyBB. I think its the best free forum software around, and has a great community with tonnes of plugins and themes available both premium and free. The interface is very nice, and you can create some very nice looking sites with it.

 

I use phpBB and have no problem with it. The add on mods give it some flexibility.

 

Here's one modern open source forum software: https://www.discourse.org/

It's founded by Jeff Atwood, one of the founders of Stackoverflow: https://blog.codinghorror.com