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vBulletin or phpBB?

TeeJayHoward

TeeJayHoward

Limpness Supreme
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Joined
Feb 8, 2005
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I'm looking to do something fun on my home network. One of the things I'm wanting to do is set up a forum. I'm partial to vBulletin 4's look and feel, and I'm somewhat familiar with their back-end. However, a recent google search showed that phpBB has the majority share of forums on the web today. I was really surprised to see that.

If you could put one of the two in place, which one would you go with, and why?
 
Is there a free version of vBulletin? Because that's what would ( and has ) drive my decision.

I've set up a couple dozen phpBBs over the years. No complaints about it.
 
phpBB. It's free and it doesn't sound like this project is going to make you any money. If what you're doing it making money, then you need to decide if you're making enough money to cover the costs of vB. While vB is nice, PhpBB is very fun to mod.
 
If you want to go with a paid forum then IP.Board is far superior to vBulletin. vBulletin is a bloated buggy mess, and if you go back to version 4 (which you can't buy anymore other than from another v4 user) then you are stuck with old technology (that's what hardforum is using), which doesn't have any of the modern ajax and ui features (notifications, likes, yadda yadda yadda).

For a free forum Simple Machines is probably better than phpBB if you don't plan to spend a lot of time monkeying with code.
 
Since V4 VBulletin is terrible, I wouldn't use it even if someone paid me to. Most of the big forums like this one have all remained on V3.

A good alternate to VB is either IP.Board or XenForo (lighter on features, but has a more modern feel).

PHPBB seems decent for a free forum, never used it though.
 
Thuleman said:
For a free forum Simple Machines is probably better than phpBB if you don't plan to spend a lot of time monkeying with code.
Click to expand...

This. Try something better like SMF or Vanilla before you settle on phpBB. If you do decide to go with phpBB, make sure you pay close attention to your install and update it regularly. phpBB's popularity makes it a common target for script kiddies.
 
I own a Xenforo license and I run a board on IP.Board. I can tell you that while I really want Xenforo to succeed it's simply not ready for production. The 3rd party mods are few and far between in comparison to IP.Board and at this point IP.Board has implemented basically all features that made Xenforo cutting edge years ago.

vBulletin shouldn't even be in the running.
 
Thuleman said:
I own a Xenforo license and I run a board on IP.Board. I can tell you that while I really want Xenforo to succeed it's simply not ready for production. The 3rd party mods are few and far between in comparison to IP.Board and at this point IP.Board has implemented basically all features that made Xenforo cutting edge years ago.

vBulletin shouldn't even be in the running.
Click to expand...

I agree, but it depends on your needs. If you don't need something as robust as IP.Board then XenForo will suffice. For a simple forum, it's perfect. Easy to style, secure, and the admin controls are very straightforward.
 
phpBB and IP.Board

phpBB is, IMO, the best free one out there. It is easy to use, has a great community, and plenty of mods already out there for you.

I have always proffered IP.B's structure of vB.
 
Thuleman said:
If you want to go with a paid forum then IP.Board is far superior to vBulletin. vBulletin is a bloated buggy mess, and if you go back to version 4 (which you can't buy anymore other than from another v4 user) then you are stuck with old technology (that's what hardforum is using), which doesn't have any of the modern ajax and ui features (notifications, likes, yadda yadda yadda).

For a free forum Simple Machines is probably better than phpBB if you don't plan to spend a lot of time monkeying with code.
Click to expand...

You made my day. I've been away from websites/hosting for like 2 years. But when I was into it my vote was always IPB or SMF
 
phpBB or SMF. vB is a nice product but it's also very expensive. I don't believe in paying for software when there are alternatives that are free. Even if it's for a business. Businesses want to make money, not spend money.

I actually started working on one a long time ago, got busy with other projects and never finished it. It was more or less fully functional, it just was missing lot of features like polls and read notifications and stuff like that. If I try to revisit it, the code hurts my head. I did not indent my code or use OOP back then. :eek:
 
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