Best Open Source Forum Software?

[peterk]

vbulletin, PHPbb etc..

What do you think is best? I don't really know as I only use phpbb but I do know that PHPbb is very good.

[Administrator]

I swear by PHPbb but i have heard others are also good!

[iollo]

I have yet to find forum software that will totally suit all my needs. Until then I am using punbb which you can see in action at http://www.goalchat.com and http://www.istoritve.com

I like it because it is small, fast and you can mod it anyway you want !

And styling it is sooooo easy !

[iNVERTED]

phpbb

vBulletin isn't free, afaik.

[cloneBaby]

phpBB, but it's fair to say that I am most familiar with phpBB, and this is one of reasons why I pick phpBB.

[Guo Hong]

In this case, I personally like phpbb. :D

[iollo]

I wonder why you all like phpbb. If it is the most widely used one that doesn't mean it is the best or easiest to maintain, since we all know those script kiddies and all. Have you tried something else to say so ?

I personally tried all that is free out there and paid ones ipb and vb. At the end I settled down with punbb and modded it to the sky to have same functions as all the big ones. It is easy to maintain and administrative panel is the best one.

[aeg]

I would go with phpBB. Thats what i currently use for my forums.
The downside to using it is that you have to add mods for almost every function ie attachments, points and subforums. This can be a pain when updating etc

Hopefully phpbb3 will be better, as it has all these options built-in.

[iollo]

aeg ... The problem is in my opinion not that you have to mod it but there is just such a big chance that you will be cracked by some script kiddie. That is the biggest downside of phpbb. Code is very old and everyone is using it so it is easier to find bugs and script kiddies watch for bugs reports and imediately they go to action.

[Tenshi`]

I suggest that if you have money then you can get VB, in my view the best board out there at the moment. But if your looking for a free easy board, phpbb2 all the way!
-Tenshi`

[Duality]

SMF is my favorite. Never had a problem with it. Ever.

[matrixlover]

SMF, and Phpbb are the two best forum softwares out there.

[Mace]

I don't see any support for PunBB here, but if you want to see what can be done with it check out the haveamint.com forums, beautiful looking and quick loading forum running on PunBB!

[seoguyz]

phpBB!!! - It's never let me down! I love it so much, I even went to modding it myself (pretty useless at it, but still, I love phpBB!!!)

Ive used a lot of forum's and phpBB is brilliant, it has the widest variety of modifications too! - Any time I think of something, even if it's not official, there's always a mod for it!!

phpBB for ever!!

[xenon]

phpBB is great! Until you get hacked by some 14 year old Norwegian. Yep, I'm speaking from experience.

SMF is good, but if you're going to create a serious community it's better to pay for vBulletin or invisionboard.

As far as the lite forum softare, I like punbb or you could go with something completely different like Vanilla or the forum module available for a CMS like Drupal.

[Duality]

SMF is good, but if you're going to create a serious community it's better to pay for vBulletin or invisionboard.


Right on the ball. If you are just having a friendly community, then use a free one. Most free ones can't handle too much traffic though.

[seoguyz]

YaBB is nice - but you'd need to be on a dedi srver to have a big community cause its perl... huge cpu load on it..

this is where phpBB comes in - it can handle HUGE amounts of traffic (the mods are what let the origional script down..)

[ptucker]

I'm going to download and try SMF, I had a phpbb board but it was hacked, which blows, but not much damage to it. I havent seen too many bad words about SMF though, may work out fine. I will eventually buy VB, but for now...

[adrjoh]

I swear by PHPbb but i have heard others are also good!phpBB is cool because of the amount of addons and templates there are available for it

[Sam06]

I swear by PHPbb but i have heard others are also good!
*cough* let's donate for Vbulletin than :D

[sahel]

I played with PHPbb before, but for some reason i couldnt digest it. SMF has been great for me. Recently i moved one of my forums from SMF to VBulletin. Switch was great , with all the PAID support of Vbulletin, i dont even have to worry about my forum , open a ticket and ask !!

I like Vbulletin MUCH better than SMF now !!