Which forum is best?

I am trying to setup a small discussion forum on my site and I would like to know which forum is probably better.
1. SMF
2. phpBB

vBulletin costs money, but is it really worth the money, i don't know, so please shed some light.

 

I used SMF for a while, but I seriously hated it ever since..

I'd go with phpBB as it has hundreds of wonderful templates to go with and great and easy code modding along with many mods to use .

 

For security, I would suggest vBulletin.

I notice many top forums in the world use vBulletin (including DP), but if you want to go for a free one, than the next best is phBB.

Basically its just this two...

 

VB if you want to make your forum big and well established. But you could start off with phpBB...in the end it seems though, everyone has to convert to Vb oneday (once the forum starts getting qwuite big)

 

Totally agree with you DAMNZ. SMF made me insane. When i know of the existence ( ) of phpBB ... like god in Earth, lol

 

I haven't used it myself but I've heard good things about PunBB

Personally though I'd go straight to vBulletin - if you can live with potentially wasting $160 if your forum folds because you can't be bothered to keep it alive.

 

I personally like vB and IPB. Both are very safe, secure and solid forum software. What ever one you prefer, you will be fine with that.

For a free forum solution, I would go with phpBB. It is very supported, modifications are everywhere and same with templates. It is also pretty safe and patches are done on a pretty regular basis.

I have not personally used SMF, but I have not heard bad things about it either. They are both pretty good, just what your personal prefference is.

 

Most of the forums I visit are phpBB and VB.

 

I am using SMF.

vBulletin is the best because it is paid for. Not that the others aren't good. It just says that you get what you pay for.

Among the free boards, I would choose SMF. It is so easy to modify

 

my vote for phpBB , I see mre styles and MODs for it comparing to SMF

 

phpbb, but if you are looking long term I'd invest in vB

 

phpbb is great with many mods to choose

 

I've had 2 sites that ran phpbb that got hacked. I have moved to SMF and been quite happy. They have an excellent community and the amount of features it has is quite comprehensive. I have no idea how the other 2 people who commented on SMF being hard to work with were taling about. It is very intuitive and easy to setup. Also have a look at the Joomla CMS forum which has many new sites setup by users using SMF as their forum.

 

vbulletin is the best forum software, IMHO.

 

Yes, I agree that most free bulletin softwares have are in bug security danger.. But aslong as you're off with free, then it's phpBB..

 

No forum software including vbulletin is 100% secure from hacking. If you are going free, phpBB is the most attacked forum software on the net right now.

 

vBulletin, vBulletin and vBulletin
It's worth the money and great in security.

 

I've always thought phpBB was the simplest. I don't have much forum experience outside of that though. Mostly just toying around with other free forums.

 

SMF is a little tough for setting up custom templates, but I find it to be a great piece of software. I don't think my pages are being spidered like they should, however and that is tempting me to switch to vBulletin.

PHPBB will get hacked if you don't keep it updated. I had a very slow forum that was hammered pretty hard. That's never happened with SMF, but I must admit that my SMF sites are much more serious and I keep them updated.

Brandon

 

vBulletin for paid options and phpbb for free options