vBulletin or phpbb?

[FearSonic]

I'm looking for a forum to use on my school's site and I've come down between vbulletin or phpbb. Any reasons why I should choose one over the other?

[ttt]

basically, it comes down to free vs license fee. imo, they both are more or less the same..

[akosh]

they both are more or less the same..

Not true at all. If you can afford it, go with vBulletin.

[Suresh]

Well I have used both in the past, and currently, so here is my take


phpbb (Pros)
- Easy to set up. Can have a board up and running in 5 minutes if you know the mysql info
- Easy to attach mods. Flash mods,
- Easy to find themes. PHPBB has the most amount of themes on the net over any other forum software
- Free

phpbb (Cons)
- Hard to troubleshoot SQL errors if you have any
- The backup/restore function is buggy. I have used many versions on this issue.
- Sometimes hard to upgrade to newer versions if you have mods installed. The mods dont always upgrade
- If you have corrupted mods, you will need to clean up the code manually


vbb (pros)
- Can import from virtually any other db system
- Takes about 10 minutes to set up
- a 100 more administrative options than any other forum. You have the freedom to do pretty much wahtever you want
- Heavily secure compared to invision and phpbb
- You can tree structure forums into groups (main forum, sub forums, etc )

vbb (cons)
- Costs about $200 plus support annually depending on what you want
- Support can be somewhat slow
- Less themes online, comparitively speaking.


Invision? Invisiion is inbetween. It has more features, but it is also buggy

Either way, word of advice. If you ever incorporate a forum, always make sure you have free space on the site....If you're getting close to the cap, then clear stuff.
The last thing you want to do is clear out php code because your forum stopped functioning due to sql issues and space

[Jokez Guy]

PHPBB is pretty easy to find free templates, and mods and vbulletin its a bit hard, but overall vbulletin i think its amazing, used both of them before :)

[poppa]

Maybe have a look at Invision Board (http://www.invisionboard.com/)

[LegiT]

Invision boards however tend to be exploited and hacked more often.

[Headhunter]

Most successful boards I've seen use vBulletin, though ultimateBB used to have a presence.

[ZeroAquaduct]

I never ran my own forum before, but I used both as a user. I think phpBB is just as good as vBulletin (from a user's point of view). phpBB is free, so that's a big bonus.

[Suresh]

Who cares about the user ultimately. If you've used one board, you can easily get accustomed to the other.

we're talking about administrative effort and security.
If you choose to install invision, you might as well leave all your ports open anyway.

[Shiifty]

Invision board is no longer free, and the free versions are easily exploited.

Have you looked at Simple Machines (http://simplemachines.org)? Very nice and streamlined. Based on the old yabb but has been rewritten and is very nice.

Users will adapt at whatever you use. Start off with something free, then upgrade to vb if you need to in the future.

[DaFonz]

Invisionboard blows goats...it's buggy and its insecure. Additionally, I can't stand the way the company does things.. when they first came out, they were releasing free versions that would "always be free no matter what".. of course, now they are charging almost as much as vbulletin.

phpBB is good free software, butthe administrative area blows goats. It's very basic and it also doesn't have the best reputation for security though much of hte blame can be put on users who don't update often.

vBulletin is worth every single penny IMO. Amazing administrative backend and 3.5 that's coming out with AJAX is sweet. The support is *very* good as well. The only con is that it's a little bit of a hog, so if you have a large site, you going to need the hardware.

[DirtyLude]

I would suggest starting out with phpBB and moving up to vBulletin, only if you feel the need to later. vBulliten is overkill for a small forum. I'm guessing you don't have much of a budget for a school website and the vBulletin $85.00 USD annual license fee.

[akosh]

...the vBulletin $85.00 USD annual license fee.

You don't have to do that.


The owned vBulletin Forum license allows you to run the software on your site indefinitely. Along with this license, you will receive one year of free updates. Beyond the first year, you will have to pay a nominal fee, currently $30, to obtain updates for an additional year.

This license includes free email and forum support.



You pay $160 US and can use it for as long as you want. You pay $30 US each year if you want the ability to update.

[Headhunter]

You pay $160 US and can use it for as long as you want. You pay $30 US each year if you want the ability to update.
Do they release enough updates per year to get $30 US of value? I'm going to launch a site in the next month or two, not sure if I can justify the vBulletin cost if the updates are slim...

[z3r0]

vBulletin is a better software in my opinion, BUT, if you have no nomey to spare/risk, you would have no problem using phpBB.

You should also look at Simple Machies Forum (SMF): http://www.simplemachines.org

For more information on running a forum and choosing software: http://www.theadminzone.com (contains GREAT articles and a very helpful forum)

Hope I helped! :cheesygri

[mtlr]

vbb (cons)
- Costs about $200 plus support annually depending on what you want
- Support can be somewhat slow



A VB license is $160USD with one year of updates. After that its $30 a year to access the latest version, but its optional. Whenever a security exploit is found, they always tell you how to patch it for free. Support tickets are very fast during the week but can be slow on the weekends. I usualy post in the forums for help and often get an answer in minutes. I have been using VB since 2002.

[mtlr]

I never ran my own forum before, but I used both as a user. I think phpBB is just as good as vBulletin (from a user's point of view). phpBB is free, so that's a big bonus.

PHP cant be compared to VB as they are not in the same league. VB has so many more options and is more secure than PHPBB. A goof comparison would be VB and IPB.

[mtlr]

Do they release enough updates per year to get $30 US of value? I'm going to launch a site in the next month or two, not sure if I can justify the vBulletin cost if the updates are slim...

Security patches are free even if your access to the download area has expired. The latest stable version of VB is 3.0.8 and Im running a patched 3.0.7 as my access to the DL area has expired. Once VB 3.5 is released, I will renew it to be able to download it. You can try the admin demo at vbulletin.com

[mtlr]

For more information on running a forum and choosing software: http://www.theadminzone.com (contains GREAT articles and a very helpful forum)

Hope I helped! :cheesygri

This is great forum and you will find a lot of info on phpbb, IPB and VB.

[computersshopper]

vbulletin is better, it's more professional and well organized.