PHPBB is the best for free forums, easy to edit and skin. Some like SMF, but for me, it looks to plain and basic. PHPBB3 will use CSS to layout the forums and stuff, so editing that will be simple, i cant wait to get my fingers dirty
PHPBB, hands-down. It's easy to set up and use from scratch, but open source and easy to customize to your system. There is a huuuuuge network of people using it and lots of great mods available. Popularity can make it a spam target, so make sure to stay up on upgrades and security patches.
SMF is definitely the way to go. PHPbb just has way too many security problems, plus SMF has a lot of serverside includes to use on your main portal page. Also SMF has tons of mods that are way easier to install that any PHPbb mod. SMF is also cleaner imo.
Also take a look at Vanilla -- not saying it's better than the others, but it is different and fits certain types of forums well.
Phpbb, fantastic community support, light on server resources, wealth of plugin and themes available.
I run a couple dozen vbulletin forums. I've tried phpbb, smf, invision board, etc and they all suck in my opinion. With that said, I found a new one the other day called mybb and it's basically a free version of vbulletin. The interface is nearly identical as is the templating system and admin section. I loaded it up on one of my old sites as a test if you want to check it out. http://www.club18t.com It's the only one I would even consider.
Do you need to give three back links? Than vBulliten is cheaper - comparing what you can get for your links
Yep, I like mybb too of all the free options I have tried. My only very minor complaint about it is that it lacks a lot of the mods and extensions that the more established alternatives offer. Other than that it is a great alternative to vB,
I think one of them is for the skin he is using. Like most free software, you are supposed to leave the copyright notice/links intact. Check the license before you install it: http://www.mybboard.net/
I created the skin myself, all of the skins I found for the software suck although they are having a competition from what I understand. I haven't finished the site yet though and the footer is the least of my worries. Their license agreement is very lax so one link in the footer should be more than enough.
I'm surprised phpbb is getting so many recommendations from people. I used it twice and found it the worst out of the bunch to use. I guess I am just spoiled after using vbulletin for years.
I agree. I just can't use anything other than vB. Never heard of SMF, and PHPBB's interface is crap. MyBB looks pretty cool too imo.
I'm always very picky about my forum software, but I was surprised by mybb. It honestly looks like they pretty much copied vbulletin almost completely.
I like phpBB the most. But punBB is a good one too. Also, phpBB will soon come out in a new version - cant wait
I have only reccently started playing with forums and so far I have found PHPbb to be very easy to use. It is pretty easy to start with straight away and so far everything I have wanted to do I have managed (occasionally with a little bit of research). I haven't really started any complex modifications on it, but if you just want a low maintenence forum software, it has my vote... I'm also quite interested in the link to MyBB that someone posted above and I'm going to play around with that at some point to see what it is like. I guess at the end of the day, everyone has their own favourite for everything especially anything to do with computers and I guess thats the way it should be, it might be worth just trying a couple and seeing which one(s) you prefer