Which Of These is The Best Forum Script?

[GlobalP]

I am looking to provide a forum for the authority site I have built up around a popular sport.

I use BlueHost for my hosting and they have a few simple scripts options for forums. Wondering what experience you guys have and which one you think is best.

Here are the options I have:

Vanilla Forums
PunBB
bbPress
phpBB
Simple Machines Forum

 

[Blue Tiger]

SMF is probably the best

 

[GlobalP]

SMF is proving to be very simple and awesome!

 

[new movies]

vbulletein

 

[boydie]

Which are free?

 

[ahiddenman]

SMF is good but its a spammers paradise so make sure you put up some spam countermeasures

 

[Zapdos]

Depends, 'best' can be many things.

Cost: SMF (its free and most mods are)
Functionality: vBulletin (lots of options and settings)
Admin usability: SMF (vbulletin had a really bad admin interface last I used it)
Security: vBulletin
Scaling: Tie. Both are used on absolutely massive sites, but vbulletin is more popular
Support: Biased to SMF. Never needed vbulletin support.
Premade mods: SMF
Moddability: SMF
Themes: vBulletin. Very nice premade themes.

Result: SMF (6) vBulletin (4)

If I had the money, I'd go with vBulletin. SMF is a great contender with it being free along with alot of the mods.


Those two are the only ones you should consider I think. The rest are either outdated, new or likely to have security issues.

 

[GlobalP]

Which are free?

all of the ones I listed as options.

 

[p4r4d0x]

1. SMF
2. VBulletin
3. IPB
4. MyBB

 

[new movies]

vbulletein is one time fee.
Though these are free
SMF
MyBB
phpbb

 

[SlimProxies]

MyBB would work. Simple and powerful

 

[jamunkala]

Use Mybb, it is light and has seo plugins available, so it is fast, light on cpu and good for seo. And long with just password protecting admin directory you can just download whole forum everyday as it creates very small backups.

Vbulletin is like Lion eats 7 kg daily and does nothing all day, all your money will go feeding its server resources usage and smf has very boring themes and spammers paradise.

I will not use any hosting company to install forums for me, i will do it manually so for the future i know most of the things about its installation and...

 

[Pipelin]

SMF or Mybb (free)
vbulletin or xenforo (paid)
Others are kinda outdated by me.

You can secure registration in smf with captcha and secret question Same for vbulletin and xenforo.

 

[coollaventyl]

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