IPB vs vBulletin vs phpBB: Which is better?

I am curious of which type of forum is the best one to go with for an upcoming community site I am making. First...my budget can swallow any price so let's put that aside and decide which one offers the best features, skins, hacks, etc. regardless of the price tag. So if you were me and you had the choice between these three what would it be?

 

I like vanilla but regarding your list I would have to say Vbulletin. it is considerably faster than IPB.

hope that helps,
Nigel

 

What is vanilla? Also, what forum type offers easy ad integration?

 

I'd go with vbulletin, thousands of styles and mods to do pretty much anything you want

 

http://getvanilla.com/

You can stick ads on any forum system. VB has a few mods that do it as well.

Nigel

 

It's been discussed many times and there's no doubt that vB is the best one.

 

I'm surprised no one has ever asked this before.
Great thread

vb gets my vote

 

I prefer VBulletin then phpBB and then ipb. Of course the intergration and security measures are much better than the other two. And phpbb was my first forum type. So of course loyalty. An just never cared for ipb.

 

I also prefer vbulletin.

 

it is too clear , Vbulletin it is too far better ..

 

IPB has an elegant interface but not very user friendly for administrators but once you understand it - the admin features are very powerful for controlling a rowdy audience. the advent of PHPBB3 has brought a lot of the same features of the paid solutions but it's so mainstream that it's hackable. good to start out with PHPBB3 for free and if the board takes off then migrate databases to a paid solution. vBulletin is mainstream with great SEO and familiar to users but i don't think it's as pretty as the previous 2 but i do love the features. My vote is for vBulletin.

 

IPB, just a personal preference.

 

vBulletin is faster and reliable

 

Really I need to believe you .... I am with vb too

 

vb gets my vote

 

I've been using vbulletin for a little over a year now and have no issues with it. I would definitely choose vbulletin over other forum software. I've used phpbb and smf in the past, but those can't really compare to vbulletin. The admin panel in vB is extensive, but it is ugly - my only problem with it.

There's also a community site for vbulletin with thousands of mods and free templates, so the license is worth the money.

 

Thanks for all the input guys. I am taking it into consideration for sure.

 

vB = Best Paid
phpBB = Best Open Source

 

VBulletin is the best forum solution on the market today. The modifications can not be beat, the support is great, the security is top notch, updates are released in a timely manner - what more could you want?

If you are wanting to open a commercial site, VB has built in feature to process payments, promotion to usergroups after payments are made, reminder emails when the paid subscriptions are about to expire and then move the user back to their original group after the paid subscription has expired. Does phpbb have this same option built in?

The official vb modification site (vbulletin.org) stays on top of security. If a mod is found to have a security hole, it is pulled from the site until the developer fixes the problem. If the software is not patched, it stays removed.

VB support - part of the price you pay for VB is the support. If you have a problem open a real trouble ticket.

The permissions level is great in VB. You can edit and change just about anything.

I have been running a VB site for a year and a half. Before that I tried those free forums and found a lot of them lacking. I now own 2 VBulletin forums. There are some good free forums on the market (phpbb and smf to name a couple) but if you want real quality, go with VB.

 

There are more addons for Vbulletin.