SMF Forum, Xenforo Or Vbulletin

[brettania9087]

What is the best Forum Software You have used and Why?

 

[Deleted member 752298]

Discourse for sure.

https://www.discourse.org/

 

[junglekingx]

From my experience Xenforo has been very good. I've never tried bulletin but Xenforo is good!

 

[Gramified]

I've not used any lately but vbulletin worked great back in the days. BHW is built on xenforo and is very functional. But you'll need a lot of paid plugins as and when you want to keep adding more functionality, unless you're willing to code the changes yourself.

 

[brettania9087]

Discourse for sure.

https://www.discourse.org/

Why?

 

[Deleted member 731332]

Vbulletin is garbage. In fact, BHW used to be on vbulletin. It’s now on xenforo. That should tell you what you need to know.

As far as paid software, it depends on what you need and your own web dev skills or lack thereof.

I’ve used both xenforo and IPB. I have two licenses each. I noticed you have left out IPB. Have a look at IPB as it has a lot more features than xenforo and the admin control panel is very powerful. Moderation tools are extensive.

If you just need a minimalistic forum, xenforo is more affordable than IPB, good looking UI and is a good choice also.

IPB or xenforo!

 

[kayz9x]

Xenforo fine

 

[rocknlight]

i used vbulletin but support is awful ,now moved to xenforo

 

[PHPInjected]

I prefer Vbulletin, if I’m being honest.

However, I have more experience with Xenforo and over the years, it’s grown on me.

 

[Gogol]

Discourse for sure. It is super fast, and open source (unlike it's competitors).Yeah, but modifying it can be a pain if you don't know how to (and it's not super easy to learn either).

 

[RandomPhantom]

Do not use vBulletin. Back in the day they were good but these days they suck! The forum-script suck and is messy, support sucks too.

I have used vBulletin, SMF, MyBB, PHPBB.

My choice would be MyBB (open source & free), but I also liked SMF.

 

[Developie]

I have found the Xenforo very good. I have tried Vbulletin but Xenforo is great

 

[saltsportsman]

I have used them all and to be honest vbulletin is the one I use on multiple sites. It's worth the money in my opinion.

 

[RandomPhantom]

Do NOT use vBulletin.

I've used vBulletin, SMF (Open Source), phpbBB (Open Source), and bbPress (Open Source).

My users (over 50k) likes SMF the best. I wouldn't recommend bbPress if you're running a high traffic forum.

People keep recommending vBulletin. My users didn't like it at all and the admin-interface is a fucking mess. Ask those who recommended that shit is they've ever been a owner/admin of a vbulletin forum. Most likely they will say no. Just because you've paid for something doesn't make it better.

Edit:
Also used MyBB (Open Source). I liked that one too.

SMF, MyBB. Those are my top choices.