Forums

**Dan** · #1 (**permalink**) 10-09-09, 12:54 PM

There are many forum development companies out there, some develop their software for free, others require licenses to use their software under a paid basis.

What's everyones favourite forum software?

Mine has to definitely be vBulletin from Jelsoft, even though it requires a license, it's definitely worth it.

Pumazooma · #2 (**permalink**) 10-09-09, 03:13 PM

phpBB

I've used it for 5-6 years and never had a problem.
Then again I'm now on the support team for it so I might be slightly biased

**Dan** · #3 (**permalink**) 10-09-09, 03:35 PM

Ah congratulations. PHPBB has to be one of the best free ones, followed by SMF. I do like IBP as a paid solution but vBulletin tops it with features and the ability to customise it.

MrTWS · #4 (**permalink**) 10-09-09, 07:20 PM

Sorry Dan but I have to disagree - I use and also have a great regard for Web Wiz Forum software and in fact have several forums that I have modified very successfully and am getting much more used to ASP than PHP, but then I am biased too

You can review one of our forums here which is just for fun, so don't read beyond the lines

**Dan** · #5 (**permalink**) 10-09-09, 10:32 PM

That's fine, I just wanted to see what other people's opinions were. Keep em' coming.

**Harry** · #6 (**permalink**) 11-09-09, 11:04 AM

Well, my vote goes for vBulletin though it's bit pricey but it worth

Hexosphere · #7 (**permalink**) 12-09-09, 04:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan

Mine has to definitely be vBulletin from Jelsoft, even though it requires a license, it's definitely worth it.

Yeah, I'd have to agree there, it's well worth it for the ease of template conditionals, as well as adding extra content. I personally have an owned license for vbulletin, so that makes me a little biased as I've learnt lots of ways to modify the code, including adding my own cms type pages. There is also the administrator side, which i think personally has better usability features over phpbb.

I suppose it all depends on what you want to use it for, in the past I've used phpbb, SMF, and then you have the portals like phpnuke etc. Sometimes it's better to start out with the free versions and as you expand, upgrade.

**Administrator** · #8 (**permalink**) 12-09-09, 09:59 PM

my vote goes to vBulletin and I won't consider any second option.

You can make everything possible in vBulletin. I didn't try PHPBB3, but I found myself helpless with PHPBB2 few years back, I then decided to switch to vBulletin.

**Dan** · #9 (**permalink**) 13-09-09, 11:33 AM

My two cents is that if it's free, it's more prone to exploits.

Pumazooma · #10 (**permalink**) 13-09-09, 05:38 PM

Depends how well written it is.
For instance, phpBB hasn't had any exploits for years.

Hexosphere · #11 (**permalink**) 13-09-09, 07:26 PM

I think they all have bugs and exploits at times - otherwise what are patch releases for, and just because vbulletin isn't free, doesn't mean it's targetted any less.

From what I remember of the stock controls in phpbb though, the spam control was a little dire, and less useful than vbulletins.

**Dan** · #12 (**permalink**) 13-09-09, 07:59 PM

What I meant by less vulnerable is that Jelsoft has a dedicated team to work on bugs, day in, day out whereas PHPBB doesn't from what I can tell.

Hexosphere · #13 (**permalink**) 13-09-09, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTWS

Sorry Dan but I have to disagree - I use and also have a great regard for Web Wiz Forum software and in fact have several forums that I have modified very successfully and am getting much more used to ASP than PHP, but then I am biased too

You can review one of our forums here which is just for fun, so don't read beyond the lines

You know, it's taken me ages to think of when I used a web wiz forum lol - I knew i knew the name but couldn't place it, I used to use soop portal as well a long time ago, it was one of the first domains that I set up, and yeah the forum side of it was based on the web wiz forums. Re-reading your post in reference to ASP, made me think, I remember when I moved the site, and had to re-look at what was running it due to being on Linux hosting.

Web wiz is also very customisable from what i remember, and one look at your site (which looks good btw) reminded me of what it was like.

**Administrator** · #14 (**permalink**) 13-09-09, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hexosphere

I think they all have bugs and exploits at times - otherwise what are patch releases for, and just because vbulletin isn't free, doesn't mean it's targetted any less.

From what I remember of the stock controls in phpbb though, the spam control was a little dire, and less useful than vbulletins.

I agree with you Hexo.

I have seen some phpbb forums getting hundreds of spam threads daily and most of them have gone dead now as the owners stopped bothering about those forums.

Pumazooma · #15 (**permalink**) 14-09-09, 09:38 AM

phpBB2 got hit by spambots just like every other forum software did. A simple 2 line edit could stop them dead. I didn't get a bot for well over a year on my old 2x board.

3x has built in antispam measures that are very good and will be adding more in a couple of weeks. I haven't had an automated bot registration now since about 2006. They're very easy to prevent.

Quote:

Jelsoft has a dedicated team to work on bugs, day in, day out whereas PHPBB doesn't from what I can tell.

There's a very dedicated bug fixing team for phpBB actually.