best free forum software

[Bigbacon]

what are the best options?

I have windows hosting with access to mysql databases

 

[mikeblas]

How long should a piece of string be?

 

[Dogs]

How long should a piece of string be?

1 Sagan.

Some people may argue that the answer is that it depends on what you need it for.

 

[mikeblas]

Some people may argue that the answer is that it depends on what you need it for.

They'd be right! With no constraint on the application, and without any clue of how "best" might be measured, there's simply no way to answer the OPs question.

 

[pxc]

phpBB would be a decent option if you had Linux-based hosting. I'm not sure how well it would run on IIS. I've always had weird problems with PHP on IIS.

If you host has a list of standard applications you're probably better off asking which of those options are best.

 

[Dogs]

phpBB would be a decent option if you had Linux-based hosting. I'm not sure how well it would run on IIS. I've always had weird problems with PHP on IIS.

If he ends up having problems with PHP on IIS for some reason, he can simply use Apache on Windows.

 

[uOpt]

PhpBB is really nice these days.

It's php, but what you gonna do?

 

[kencheeto]

http://www.discourse.org/ is a cool thing

 

[:LJ:]

We've had decent results with Vanilla over at TheFretboard - it seems to be handling 40k+ hits per day without much bother, running on the cheapest VPS Linode do.

It did take a bit of Apache optimisation, but it's fine other than that.

 

[JustinG]

phpBB. I've used them on 2 websites both with no problems! Its open source, highly customizable and easy to work with.

 

[shade91]

phpBB tends to be the forum of choice for people looking for the ultimate in configurability and customization. The largest forums in the world run on this. It is not for the faint hearted and is nearly a full time job maintaining it.

SMF (Simple Machine Forums) has been a popular choice for low-end forums. It is free with a lot of plugins though doesn't have the customization abilities of something like phpBB.

MyBB (MyBulletinBoard) tends to be the choice of wannabe hackers or script kiddies. A notable wannabe/script kiddy forum that runs this software is HackForums.

vBulletin is the preferred paid choice of people wanting a paid forum but not being that technically inclined and want the "in thing". Ever since version 4.0 it has been complete bloated garbage and based on old web tech.

Xenforo is a newer more advanced forum software (also paid) from the original developers of vBulletin. A LOT of large forums have been migrating to it due to how powerful and fast it is and how incredibly light it is on server resources.

 

[uOpt]

vBulletin is the preferred paid choice of people wanting a paid forum but not being that technically inclined and want the "in thing". Ever since version 4.0 it has been complete bloated garbage and based on old web tech.

Have you seen that trainwreck that their 5.x preview is?

 

[PCunicorn]

PhpBB is nice, I like SMF the most, MyBB is slow.

 

[shade91]

Have you seen that trainwreck that their 5.x preview is?

No, I gave up on vB during 4.x. I can only imagine how much further Internet Brands has destroyed vBulletin and figured their popularity would help their newly garbage software proliferate. There was a hint of sarcasm in my comment regarding vB . vBulletin is so far behind the times. If Xenforo continues on its path it will easily dominate.

 

[mngl1500]

My choice is SMF. Tapatalk also works well with SMF.