BlabandBlurt
Familiar Face
I've always been partial to Vbulletin board, but its getting expensive and wondering what other forum software you like? What are some good free ones? Do you like the free boards better then the ones you have to pay for?
Best Forum Software in YOUR opinion?
- Thread starter BlabandBlurt
- Start date
I would choose xenforo.
its a modern, limitless forum software for the 21st centurary forum owner and end user, it has core features that enhance the daily life of both users and owners in a simple and non-confusing way. They dont try to sell you a cms solution (if you want to call it that) that is heavily overpriced at almost double the cost of the basic license.
Ipb is my second choice with features simaler to xenforo's , nice support but i dont like the idea of having to pay for some basic modifications and the available skins arnt too great and most are simaler to the default but with a color change etc;
Then it would be Mybb , an opensource vbulletin 3.x look-a-like that has an extensive list of free modifications and styles. I see alot of nice smooth looking skins for mybb that make it look smoother and better looking than vbulletin itself, my faveorite free software.
Then it would be Phpbb, its free and has an extensive libary of free modifications and styles but its not so easy to install those modifications with most of the work having to be coded in manualy. Which is very time consuming and one extra semicolon could break your entire board which isnt good.
Vbulletin and smf make joint last place, smf is ugly and looks really boring to me and has no appeal. With vbulletin being paid you would expect better support and a better product, sadly since internet brands took over it has been a complete shambles of an operation. With many security risks and a failed 4.0 version which is worse than its predessecor they expect people to shell out a whopping $180 on a basic license and even worse almost $500 on a cms system that is nothing compared to open-source cms platforms such as joomla, when vbulletins lead developer finaly decided to jump vbulletins sinking ship and offer a lifeboat to people needing the future of forum software now Internet Brands decided to create a lawsuit and accuse xenforo's developers of stealing vbulletin code, but why would they want to do that? XenForo is everything vbulletin will never be, vbulletin is long in the past and XF is creating the future.
I have license's for Xf, Ipb and Vb. I choose Xenforo as my top forum software.
its a modern, limitless forum software for the 21st centurary forum owner and end user, it has core features that enhance the daily life of both users and owners in a simple and non-confusing way. They dont try to sell you a cms solution (if you want to call it that) that is heavily overpriced at almost double the cost of the basic license.
Ipb is my second choice with features simaler to xenforo's , nice support but i dont like the idea of having to pay for some basic modifications and the available skins arnt too great and most are simaler to the default but with a color change etc;
Then it would be Mybb , an opensource vbulletin 3.x look-a-like that has an extensive list of free modifications and styles. I see alot of nice smooth looking skins for mybb that make it look smoother and better looking than vbulletin itself, my faveorite free software.
Then it would be Phpbb, its free and has an extensive libary of free modifications and styles but its not so easy to install those modifications with most of the work having to be coded in manualy. Which is very time consuming and one extra semicolon could break your entire board which isnt good.
Vbulletin and smf make joint last place, smf is ugly and looks really boring to me and has no appeal. With vbulletin being paid you would expect better support and a better product, sadly since internet brands took over it has been a complete shambles of an operation. With many security risks and a failed 4.0 version which is worse than its predessecor they expect people to shell out a whopping $180 on a basic license and even worse almost $500 on a cms system that is nothing compared to open-source cms platforms such as joomla, when vbulletins lead developer finaly decided to jump vbulletins sinking ship and offer a lifeboat to people needing the future of forum software now Internet Brands decided to create a lawsuit and accuse xenforo's developers of stealing vbulletin code, but why would they want to do that? XenForo is everything vbulletin will never be, vbulletin is long in the past and XF is creating the future.
I have license's for Xf, Ipb and Vb. I choose Xenforo as my top forum software.
BlabandBlurt
Familiar Face
Thanks for your review... The price of Xf is a really good price and I wouldn't mind paying that 🙂
el canadiano
Paragon
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=42455
You're covered. I'm a XenForo type myself. It's everything vBulletin 4 should have been, and then some.
You're covered. I'm a XenForo type myself. It's everything vBulletin 4 should have been, and then some.
I chose Xenforo as it was the newest on the market and already had great reviews. It stood out from other scripts, and was futuristic to me in a way, kinda like a social networking bulletin board in a way with all these facebook type features. I knew it would make adminbb stand out from its competitors which it did. Thats why I chose it. Seeing AdminBB in action other forums have gone with xenforo. Like another admin forum above 😛
Give it a try.
Give it a try.
In my opinion mybb is evolving very nicely and is better looking than vb when styles are concernd. And the fact it is free but has most of the usability of vbulletin is another factor that brought it higher in my list. But its my personal expiriance with vbulletin that left it at the bottom, Vb3.x Versions are good but they are approaching end of life and arnt going to be supported anymore, i was going off the forums latest releases when wrighting that. Vb4 was a shambles but the style importer in 4.1.3 beta seems intresting im not even going to attempt to test it out because we all know what vbulletins beta's are like.
There is awesome designs for all forum softwares but im frequently comming across truley outstanding Mybb themes, i dont know what it is.. there is something about mybb that is getting style makers inspired and getting creative.
I ran an Invision demo the other day, I was fairly surprised that its ACP resembled MyBB so much.
I'm not accusing either one of copying each other, but you never know >_>
But based on how MyBB's ACP was designed, it's extremely fluid to work with & very organized.
With that, IPB's definitely the same.
What I don't like about IPB is how much less user-friendly it felt.
To each their own opinion. MyBB's simplistic, and that can go a long way depending on your user audience.
If it was a high-tech type forum, then you most certainly want more of modern/techy feel to it, something more like IPB or XF.
But if it's more towards kids & a general audience, you may win more over with something like MyBB.
I'm not accusing either one of copying each other, but you never know >_>
But based on how MyBB's ACP was designed, it's extremely fluid to work with & very organized.
With that, IPB's definitely the same.
What I don't like about IPB is how much less user-friendly it felt.
To each their own opinion. MyBB's simplistic, and that can go a long way depending on your user audience.
If it was a high-tech type forum, then you most certainly want more of modern/techy feel to it, something more like IPB or XF.
But if it's more towards kids & a general audience, you may win more over with something like MyBB.
BlabandBlurt
Familiar Face
I really enjoyed using mybb when I did use it, but the only thing I didn't like about it, was when I want a free forum and all the good modifications you have to pay to use. If I'm going free, I guess I expect the modifications to also be free.
Since my time on vb has expired, I had to switch to phpBB since I did not own my license, the vb I was on was given to me by a dear friend anyway. So I didn't buy it. I am looking to buy a new forum software later down the road, right now I'm enjoying the getting to know how on phpBB, doesn't seem to bad.
I am looking at IPB and XF I know that after you get most everything for IPB you'll be spending just about as much for a VB owned license with the SEO. So the price is what I'm concerned about. So I am really kinda liking the XF just need to look more into it.
Thanks for all the feed back.
Since my time on vb has expired, I had to switch to phpBB since I did not own my license, the vb I was on was given to me by a dear friend anyway. So I didn't buy it. I am looking to buy a new forum software later down the road, right now I'm enjoying the getting to know how on phpBB, doesn't seem to bad.
I am looking at IPB and XF I know that after you get most everything for IPB you'll be spending just about as much for a VB owned license with the SEO. So the price is what I'm concerned about. So I am really kinda liking the XF just need to look more into it.
Thanks for all the feed back.
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