Which is the best forum script ?

[hoangvu]

I'm going to choose a forum script for my site so I don't know which is the most popular forum script at the moment. I prefer free but paying if need be. Any suggestions are appreciated !

 

[HostNurse]

MyBB and phpBB are good and free forum scripts.

 

[Holly Nicole]

Free: MyBB, SMF
Paid: vBulletin and Invision Power

 

[wrcato2]

wrcato2

vBulletin ($249.00) Out of the box, this doesn't seem to present any advantage over phpBB. I mention it here because it's something that a lot of people seem to like a lot. Prior to the security fixes in phpBB, but at this point, I don't see the advantages. (I'm sure someone will "educate" me on that.

 

[hoangvu]

I like Vbulletin, although it paid cms but let's see webmastersun running, amazing..

 

[Holly Nicole]

Yes it's good I like it but I notice theres a lot more spammers on it I help run a webmaster forum and I just checked it about 5 or 10 mins and there were countless spam posts I turned it offline to talk to the owner and see what to do and I also enforced a human verfication now for new users It's that insane

 

[aishasony]

Undoubted vBulletin is the best forum software. With its years of experience and great support has made it the best forum software.

 

[Hawker]

Hawker

Let me throw some doubt onto that for you.

While that is true. Because it is the oldest running forum software and the biggest, most used forum software. It's also the most hacked, most patched forum software.

In the same way as any computer OS like Windows is the most used, it's also the most hacked, most patched OS.

That's why Unix or MAC OS has less viruses than viruses written than have been written for Windows PC's.

So, yes VBulletin is the best forum software by way of features and support.

But because it's the biggest, it's also makes it the one that's most prone/vulnerable to an attack of some sort.

There are so many newbie forumers that get hacked at some point and dont even know it. All the time!

So sometimes, it's better to go with something that isn't as big and doesn't have as many vulnerabilities/weaknesses.

If you are very new at foruming or running forum software then this will be a learning curve for you.

Sure, VBulletin and XenForo are the 2 best forum softwares, biggest, most features, most support, most updates, most amount of themes etc.

But for a new forum using VBulletin or XenForo could just be overkill!

Still, don't let what I've said put you off. They are great forum softwares and as long as you back up regularly you'll be fine...

You could always start with something much simpler from the start like Vanilla forums or go with myBB which is easier to control than phpBB which has a few more lockdown features.

I'm only saying this to give you something to think about. It's a potential that could happen to your forum if you get really big and it can be an arse ache to deal with.

You can always change your forum software and upgrade it later on if it gets big and takes off well then. That can be a challenge migrating your forum from one forum software to another but not impossible they provide tools for doing that should you want to it can be done.

Hope this helps the OP.

 

[MichaelBowden]

You will find loads of community programs all around the internet. The best one that is utilized by all of the websites is vbulletin. It's not really a free forum software however. If you want free then you may decide to try phpbb or smf.

 

[mido]

I have always used vBulletin and it is really powerful. You have to pay though but it is worth it in the long run imo.

 

[MrGravyCakes]

It all depends on what features you want. I would suggest having a look at the top few and comparing them:

MyBB
PHPbb
SMF
MyBB is regarded by a lot of people as the best forum software, so I would look at thats. it is free too and I like it

In regards to paid, atm I have heard a lot of people saying Vbulletin is being overtaken by IPB and XF. That is their opinions, but a lot of people are saying this

 

[rf-harris]

vBulletin is the best for me.

 

[SrikanthR56]

I'd suggest phpBB for a free one. If you want to integrate it with WordPress, try bbPress.

If you are looking at a paid solution, do give Woltlab Burning Board a thought.

 

[MarcS]

Here are my favorites.

vBulletin

vBulletin (vB) is one of the most popular premium forum software on the web, and the choice of many big websites. Some of it's built-in features include photo albums, groups, calendar, events management, polls, blog and more.

phpBB

phpBB is the excellent free and open source forum bulletin board software. Its contains hundreds of style and image packages to customize your board.

XenForo

XenForo is a popular paid forum software package written in the PHP programming language and developed by former vBulletin lead developers. It has built-in SEO features, powerful add-ons, recent activity stream, social engagement functionalities, etc.

 

[gerald88]

I prefer vBulletin. Used it many times for different forums in my county and very happy with it. It has a lot of functionings and good usable for visitors.

 

[clickcloudit]

I see a lot of reputable companies using vBulletin so there must be a reason.

 

[Vendzilla]

VB is the way to go, I've been a moderator on a very busy and rude forum that ran it and it has the tools to deal with life

 

[Namoh]

I would have to say phpBB if you're going for free software, just because they have a good modifications database and it's really simple to design your own themes for it. If you're going for a paid one I would have to say XenForo. It is according to me much more modern and has many core features that other software lack.

 

[jordyjl]

MyBB is my best and most trusted.

 

[Sandra]

Well, it is not a forum script per se, but I use Ning. The community has been running smoothly for about 5 years (almost 6K members now). I use manual approval and ask some questions to separate people from bots. Can't say that never have spam, it happens from time to time when they use manual registration, but for the most part, it is a safe environment.

 

[vishwa]

vBulletin and Xenforo is consider as one of the best forum script. I see most of the webmasters using these scripts to create forums. These forum scripts are coming with great features and plugins to expand your forum with variety of options.

 

[Lee06]

Hello, for my part i use PHPBB CMS for my forums, because it's easy to use it and it has a great communauty. And it's a free cms.