I saw many forums powered by vBulletin and some are phpBB. Recently I downloaded phpBB and installed it my site http://forum.psexam.com. When I started to manage it I wonder why to choose vBulletin. There might be good reasons I don't know, is phpBB lacking something to prefer vBulletin?
Each forum application has pro's and con's. Personally, I prefer SMF but I'm using phpBB3 on a site to get used to how it works as well.
It depends, Why I like vbulletin. vbulletin has better support, very cool features/mods, great skins, very easy to mod & skinning. advance administrator & moderator options. easy to handle etc Why I dislike: Take much load on server than phpbb or smf, Costly $180,
Once you get past the $180 price tag for VBulletin, there is NO reason why you should not migrate from phpbb to vbulletin. The support that VB offers is in every way superior to phpbb. There is nothing like being able to submit a "real" support ticket to a real "support tech" and getting a real "answer." Unlike phpbb where you post in their forums and hope someone answers you. The modifications that the community at vbulletin.org are looked at by the core vbulletin developers. If a mod if found to be insecure, it is removed. The phpbb community offers are lot of mods, but are they looked at by the core phpbb developers? Are the phpbb mods reviewed for security issues? I dont think so. Security, take a look around the internet and see which sites get hacked more, phpbb or VB. When a security issue is found in VB, it is fixed. In fact, an update for VB was released this past week to fix an issue. Does phpbb release updates in a timely manner? Updates, does phpbb email you when there is an update or when a patch is released? VB does. In the past month I have received 2 emails from VBulletin stating there were updates to the software, what the updates fixed and links to more information. I have been a member of the phpbb community for 3 years, and have never received any kind of security bulletin from them. And as far as SMF, they are no better then phpbb. All of my statements apply to smf, phpbb, mybb and just about any other free forum software. Last month, or month before last a security hole was found in SMF with all versions less then 1.5. All I found on the SMF site was one thread in their forums. There was no mention of this on their home page, no email no nothing. I have been a member of the SMF community for about 2 years. I am also disappointed in how the SMF handles security issues, and how they notify their members when an issue is found. If you want a real commercial grade solution, look at VBulltin or Invision Power Board.
why not ask your members instead of us? That would be the smarter thing to do. Yet if your forum has really no members then go with phpbb3 (why? because u can always just upgrade to vb)
to be honest. why even choose phpbb?? it is bigger yes. but it doesnts look very stylish at all..... here is a ranking list which i took into consideration. 1. Vbulletin 2. Mybb 3. IPB 4. SMF 5. PHPbb if you have alot of money to spend go for Vbulletin. but if you have low cash and want a forum that is free but very good still, then choose Mybb, Mybb is good and its just not as big as phpbb but its better since it is more stylish and has very useful Mods.