# Best Forum Software



## nepcker (Mar 20, 2007)

Which forums do you like the most? Vote away!

My favourites:
*Best free:* InvisionFree
*Best paid:* Invision Power Board


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## iMav (Mar 20, 2007)

phpbb3 ... y go for paid if u get something as cool as phpbb 3 for free


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## Aberforth (Mar 20, 2007)

I'd choose vBulletin. IPB upgrades are a nightmare, in every major upgrade the whole thing goes down, their Blog and Gallery are not always compatible with upgrades, availability of mods are very small and takes a long time to upgrade. Nothing like vb.org and the plugin system of upgrade and free decent galleries and blogs (comparable to IPS's paid).


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## iMav (Mar 20, 2007)

hmm ... phpbb2 had sooooooooooooooooo many mods and if mods are what u r looking for then theres no beating the open source wonder - phpbb


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## thunderbird.117 (Mar 20, 2007)

I beta tested Phpbb3 "Olympus". All i have to say his wow. It is going to be one of the best forum software ever also phpbb 2 mods wont work with phpbb3 because they changed the codes. Dont more most of the mods will come for phpbb3.


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## iMav (Mar 20, 2007)

ppl have already started wrking on mods for olympus a lot of them hav been un-officially released


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## Josan (Mar 22, 2007)

thanks for thread but i hav no idea of foum work


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## Arsenal_Gunners (Mar 22, 2007)

Oops I voted for everything(old habit)
phpbb


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## Aberforth (Mar 23, 2007)

I tried phpBB 2.XX for 2 days before making a switch to IPB 1.3 when I started out. The problem with phpBB two was, very few features are there by default and adding a mod can be quite a hell load of coding... Moreover changing a skin required modding the files again or huthing which file we changed at NN point of time with ZZ mod. I found I would end up more time coding than developing my forum so went for robust solutions. The existence of too many exploits was another turn off. Hope phpBB 3.0 changes that, have no experience of it yet.

I would say SMF is not bad. It has a decent amount of features, good free skins and mods to be a strong contender for IPB. SMF and IPB both are light on resources. The best thing about SMF is its free, a steal at the things it offers. If you want to start out a forum, give SMF a try.

vBulletin is a class apart, it has most of the features we need in a forum, built in. Almost all the controls, interface and looks can be customized through the Admin interface and the amount of free or cheap mods/skin available in resource sites is mind boggling. vBulletin is much better in the SEO front than IPB or phpBB. Incidentally IPB 2.1.X versions had a few design flaws which could lead to getting penalized by Google and some popular search engines.


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## iMav (Mar 23, 2007)

ppl log visit the new phpbb.com ... to get a sense what the new olympus is all about ... phpbb has installed the theme they are gonna release with their phpbb3 ... and my opinion its an awesomely cool theme

and aber forgetting our past discussions have a look at phpbb 3

*area51.phpbb.com/phpBB


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## thunderbird.117 (Mar 23, 2007)

The correct link *area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/


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## iMav (Mar 24, 2007)

oops sorry missed the 'a' in area


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## Tech Geek (Mar 24, 2007)

phbb is the best free one


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## Pathik (Mar 24, 2007)

phpbb is d best.. Plus its free.. Olympus is better than ny forum scripts i ve seen b4


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## iMav (Mar 24, 2007)

Indyan said:
			
		

> Atleast from commom members point of view, its Invision Power Board.


c'mon man vb is better amongst the paid ones

phpbb 3
vb
smf
ipb


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## nepcker (Mar 25, 2007)

I love Invision board. But I *hate* SMF.


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## iMav (Mar 26, 2007)

the thing is we should be comparing these softwares as they come and not what can be done after modding .. so in that sense maybe ipb can be better than vb

but as far as ipb what i hate most about it is its admin ctrl panel its just too confusing


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## Aberforth (Mar 26, 2007)

mAV3 said:
			
		

> and aber forgetting our past discussions have a look at phpbb 3



Past discussions? Well....I had a check of the link you mentioned. Looks good but I guess I'll have to give it a good test run on my server to check its full potentials.



			
				Indyan said:
			
		

> Nope. IPB is much more modern.
> One really nice thing is, it automatically resizes large images, to fit to frame.
> 
> Have you seen the new member pages? They are also very nice.



Resizing images in nothing revolutionary, we can add a small JavaScript to one of the Board Header HTML bits.

Second quite some of my members will have a problem with the massive use of AJAX in the new member pages, they tend to be complicated. 



			
				mAV3 said:
			
		

> the thing is we should be comparing these softwares as they come and not what can be done after modding .. so in that sense maybe ipb can be better than vb
> 
> but as far as ipb what i hate most about it is its admin ctrl panel its just too confusing



vB still scores quite good and frankly comparing softwares also involves the freebies available. Most forums softwares have basic functions and to suit the needs of the community and to gain 'sticky members' we need good things to offer in addition to contents. Mods and good skins come to help in this area.

IPB resource sites have only a few mods and skins and the developers consist of an uncommitted group which means you have to wait months for a mod upgrade/support or hand code yourself or pay a bomb to get them made. Request a few times and the people at IZE hail you with abuses or insults. vBulletin has a very large community which contributes an equally large array of mods and skins. The only contender in this regard is the phpBB community which is about the most active and helpful I have ever seen.

And yes, Admin Panel is confusing, worse is member interface in IPB 2.2.X version which is why I didn't upgrade. It might serve tech enthusiasts and power users but not your average guy or girl and in my forum, I have lots of them. And including people who have a first time in forums and confusing them would land them off somewhere else. vBulletin has managed to pack sophistication while having the "make call easily" simplicity.


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## iMav (Mar 26, 2007)

^^ hence i say that

phpbb
vb
smf
ipb


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## Aberforth (Mar 26, 2007)

One question. Does phpBB 3 have plugin support for skins and mods like vBulletin or IPB?


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## Third Eye (Mar 26, 2007)

vBulletin is the best forum software.

Invision Power Board is good but it can be hacked easily
pbpBB is freeware


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## thunderbird.117 (Mar 26, 2007)

Aberforth said:
			
		

> One question. Does phpBB 3 have plugin support for skins and mods like vBulletin or IPB?



It is still in beta stage. So far when i checked it is very good. You can check it yourself by using localhost for testing.


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## iMav (Mar 26, 2007)

its theme engine is similar to ipb ... mods will also be released how 1 can install them... i am not aware of that ... but the themes to install require 2 files and all ... u wont need to mod every theme ...


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## navjotjsingh (Mar 28, 2007)

Yeah Ajax is definitely cool to use and makes your server breathe too. Imagine the no. of pageloads and html generated it saves. 

Well SMF beats vbulletin unmodded in 1 way atleast. By default SMF has option of sending HTML newsletter which vb lacks.

I support vbulletin as the best. Its seo mod vbseo mod is another excellent utility which I think no forum has such powerful seo mod. Got my forum completely indexed with correct keywords and meta tags for all pages.

SMF seriously needs a powerful SEO mod even if its paid. SEO4SMF mod still has lot of bugs that can seriously get you penalised by search engines. It currently does not allow any other html page in SMF directory apart from converted urls. This is a big bug which the developer of mod is still not bothered to fix it.

I didn't compare the other 2 forum softwares IPB and phpBB because I don't use them often.

But phpbb seriously needs a change in the way mod/themes work since currently installing mods and themes is a big big pain in the a**. Even Easy Mod installer does not work for all mods/themes.

I hope phpBB 3 changes it. I have used the beta version and its ubercool and a serious competitior to SMF. Don't know how its mods/themes work currently.


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## vish786 (Apr 19, 2007)

nepcker said:
			
		

> Which forums do you like the most? Vote away!
> 
> My favourites:
> *Best free:* InvisionFree
> *Best paid:* Invision Power Board



 no idea what your talking about....


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## thunderbird.117 (Apr 19, 2007)

vish786 said:
			
		

> no idea what your talking about....



1. *invisionfree.com/
2. *www.invisionpower.com/


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## thecyclone2k (Apr 19, 2007)

I prefer vBulletin as, it is far off secure than other systems.

I have been using vBulletin for more than a year and didn't have had any problems.


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## iMav (Apr 19, 2007)

lets get 1 thing very clear guys .... vb, ipb and phpbb2 (moded) or phpbb3 are all same when it comes to security ....


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## Aberforth (May 18, 2007)

I have migrated from IPB to vB and I'd say it is the best decision I made yet, regarding my forum. The conversion took a bit time though considering 50000+ posts and 1200+ users but it was well worth it.

vBulletin has features which are like sci-fi in the IPB world and vB has a responsive and quick action community which contributes a lot of skins and mods free unlike IPB.

By the way, I see invisionfree as a forum software but it isn't actually a software is it? It is a forum hosting service using a modded version of IPB 1.3.


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## satyamy (May 18, 2007)

Vbulletin


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## Sukhdeep Singh (May 18, 2007)

Aberforth said:
			
		

> * By the way, I see invisionfree as a forum software but it isn't actually a software is it? It is a forum hosting service using a modded version of IPB 1.3.*


Correct, when IPB was launched ,the developers said it will be free for life. But 1.3.1 was the last free version from IPB and it can be freely distributed.

Look at IPB now, most expensive forum script. I am with vBulletin, then IPB, SMF, phpbb last since customizing phpbb with skins and mods is a pain in ass


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## iMav (May 18, 2007)

well not any more phpbb3 has a nice theme engine now ...  bu yes still u want to manually edit them its a little difficult


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## nileshgr (May 18, 2007)

The current forum beast is PHPBB 3.0 It has many features and a cool interface. But the best free one would be IPB free. Download it @ *invision.mihalism.com/  

It is a part of Mihalism, Inc my website host. They were allowing to host the forum on their server but due to some bugs they abandoned the project.


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## Aberforth (May 19, 2007)

sukhdeepsinghkohli said:
			
		

> Correct, when IPB was launched ,the developers said it will be free for life. But 1.3.1 was the last free version from IPB and it can be freely distributed.
> 
> Look at IPB now, most expensive forum script. I am with vBulletin, then IPB, SMF, phpbb last since customizing phpbb with skins and mods is a pain in ass



IPS was a one house in Virginia company when Matthew Mecham lanched it. After people began to move from Ikonboard and phpBB to IPB as it was a great free software, Mecham changed his stance and started off offering a lifetime license for $200 with support and upgrades free for life. It was around then that I purchased a license, later their support crumbled with wait time for 4 days to a week for each query. I got fed up of their extreme Microsoft style commercialism and decided on a switch. Today IPB is losing popularity as it is one of the buggiest, ill featured forum softwares if the prices and features are compared to vBulletin.

And phpBB is still a pain when it comes to the modding and skinning front, I wish they would follow a plugin system of modding for phpBB 3.0. I would rather save a week's worth of time for improving the SEO and other aspect of my vBulletin forum than spend all time modding and skinning phpBB.



			
				The Unknown said:
			
		

> The current forum beast is PHPBB 3.0 It has many features and a cool interface. But the best free one would be IPB free. Download it @ *invision.mihalism.com/
> 
> It is a part of Mihalism, Inc my website host. They were allowing to host the forum on their server but due to some bugs they abandoned the project.



Are you sure that site is legal? IPB Terms of Service don't allow public distribution of their forum scripts.


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## Zeeshan Quireshi (May 19, 2007)

nepcker said:
			
		

> Which forums do you like the most? Vote away!
> 
> My favourites:
> *Best free:* InvisionFree
> *Best paid:* Invision Power Board


 Nepcker InvisionFree isn't a Forum Software , it's a forum Service .

As for me , 
Best FreeHPBB3
Best Paid:vBulletin


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## nileshgr (May 19, 2007)

Aberforth said:
			
		

> IPS was a one house in Virginia company when Matthew Mecham lanched it. After people began to move from Ikonboard and phpBB to IPB as it was a great free software, Mecham changed his stance and started off offering a lifetime license for $200 with support and upgrades free for life. It was around then that I purchased a license, later their support crumbled with wait time for 4 days to a week for each query. I got fed up of their extreme Microsoft style commercialism and decided on a switch. Today IPB is losing popularity as it is one of the buggiest, ill featured forum softwares if the prices and features are compared to vBulletin.
> 
> And phpBB is still a pain when it comes to the modding and skinning front, I wish they would follow a plugin system of modding for phpBB 3.0. I would rather save a week's worth of time for improving the SEO and other aspect of my vBulletin forum than spend all time modding and skinning phpBB.
> 
> ...



Mihalism, Inc is Owned by Lubu, Mike, Earl and one more person (i don't know the name).  
See this post from their blog:



> Invision Power Board is an Internet forum software produced by Invision Power Services, Inc. Written in PHP and primarily using MySQL (other database engines are available), it is comparable to other forum software.
> 
> Version 1.3 was the last free of charge version, and IPS still permits it to be used, but does not offer a download or support. This is the only version of IPB free IPB hosting companies can use (the ipb2.x+ license does not allow hosting multiple boards by using the same license).
> 
> Regardless of the lack of help, many users still use the older version, even though it has known security holes. Up until 2005, IPS offered security fixes, but with the advent of version 2.1, these have ceased. The website IBForen offers unofficial security patches for the 1.3.1 version, as well as a compatibility fix for PHP5 and MySQL 5, however use of these fixes are not supported by IPS as the version is discontinued.


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