Hi people,

I want to know which is best to create a forum. My webhost only provides PHPBB and SMF.

Thanks.

If you have to go with free I've used PHPBB and it's good. Never used SMF so I couldn't say.

 

If you want to go with a commercial solution look into IP.Board.

Invision Power Board is hands down the best software out there.

You have to pay (around £60 I think? - check out their site) - But it is easily worth it... EASILY!

 

If its only ever going to be a tiny forum (eg as a support forum for hosting) you might also want to look at bbpress. I've only used it once - but was quite impressed.

i use smf for all my clients, its far the best free forum software, its easy to skin yourself or there are hundreds of mods to install and themes, there is also a very large support forum...

I've tried PHPBB2, PHPBB3, SMF , MyBB and a few others.

Out of all of them I really prefer PHPBB2, although phpBB3 may have matured in the past year.

Try Vanilla. If you can setup MySQL and have PHP support then this is the easiest and simplest solution out there. It is intended to be light weight, so doesn't come with all the features some of the others do, but it's dead easy to setup and use.

I'd vouch for SMF - IMO it's the best free software out there, and I honestly prefer it to vB too.

I've used both VBulletin and phpBB and much prefer phpBB. They both require effort if you want a nice, clean looking interface, but aside from that they both work pretty much the same for users. I find for me the administrative interface for phpBB a little easier to use.

Demo : free forums

I've tried out most forum software and I prefer phpBB 3 as the best free choice. But Vanilla is also very good for a simple lightweight forum.

 

If you want to pay for some forum software I would recommend VBulletin or IP.Board. They are both as good as each other and have massive communities.

Hi people,

I want to know which is best to create a forum. My webhost only provides PHPBB and SMF.

Thanks.

 

We would vouch for PHPBB , but SMF is also good.

 

But note that if you choose PHPBB , please make sure that you update the software regularly . The software is security vulnerable ..

 

Thanks

MyDediServer Support

Quality Servers and Support

phpBB by far. Granted you have to modify the theme via the files, but isn't life hard? I love the selection of themes, and unlike SMF, phpBB has more control it seems.

Demo : free forums

Ive used phpbb for a few years now but im contemplating moving to SMF. Are there any big advantages with it over phpbb?

Ive noticed even with additions to phpbb you still get bots signing up.

Quite tempted by SMF although id have to convert a few thousand posts so not sure how easy that will be.

If it you are willing to pay, I'd suggest IPB. It's by far the best software out there for sure.