Big 3: Vbulletin Vs. Invision Power Board Vs. Phpbb

CarlU

Sep 21 2006, 11:23 AM

The 3 main competitors in the forum software battle.

VBULLETIN: commercially sold, probably the most well known and popular forum system.
INVISION POWER BOARD: used to be free, now commercially sold, very popular forum system.
PHPBB: free and very popular forum system.

What is your pick and why?

personally, I used to be an Invision Power Board fan but have switched to phpbb.
I really like it's range of skins and most of all it's free!

jlhaslip

Sep 21 2006, 12:46 PM

Wait until the new one hits the Release Stage.

http://www.trap17.com/forums/phpbb-3-0-bet...are-t41292.html

hype

Sep 21 2006, 03:35 PM

Alright, to choose the right board for your needs, you just have to follow some guidelines...

vBulletin: Its a very professional board and its the best for business forum if you're running a business that are attracting lots of buying customer..

Invision Power Board: Its a very good paid boards that are not professional looking enough than vBulletin but are the most flexible board with the number of modification and hacks available for it..

phpBB: The only free board that can match up to the standard of the paid ones.. However, the Olympus version of the board is still in beta and the old version still has lots of security issues...

wappy

Sep 21 2006, 10:11 PM

i haven't tried vbulletin yet but i prefer ipb to phpbb its much much better, phpbb2 is ok when the file attachment and a host of other mod's are installed but invision boards are so much more sleek and nice to use, with many more nice little touches. I also installed the beta2 version of phpbb3 which i admit is a great improvement, but i can't be using an unstable beta as my main forum. I look forward to the release of phpbb final.

rldowling03

Sep 22 2006, 11:36 AM

I used to be a PHPBB man for several years as it is the only free one that was decent but once I learnt more about Bulletin Board systems I started to use the Invision Power Board free one (1.3) and got used to it and liked it very much and now it's what I use for my sites forums.

I personally like Vbulletin the best but they dont have a free version of their forum and im not willing ot pay $100+ for it just now, so I will stick to IPB 1.3 UNTIL my google check comes for $100 then I will most probably buy a VBulletin board but I not made up my mind if I want that, or proffesional hosting for a year!!!

ProtoMan

Sep 22 2006, 11:46 AM

I go for Invision Power Board , it is secure and easy to use , and the Warn level looks interesting (oop , sorry for saying that

) , but I think Simple Machines will beat all of them , it is the easiest to install and use out of them all

rldowling03

Sep 22 2006, 11:52 AM

I tried Simple Machines Forum but it didn't really suit me.. I tried it for about a month before I got rid of it.

I did like it though the fact that you can install mods and upgrade it all automatically through your cpanel. I think if more forums did this, they would be almost perfect

AeonLan

Sep 22 2006, 06:04 PM

yeah, SMF from simplemachines.org rocks. But stability was not that good at SMF. I have to be careful just to update the SMF Board.

About the topic, I would chose the free one due to the undeniable fact that it is free!

Saint_Michael

Sep 22 2006, 06:11 PM

All three are great they have their strong points which are obvious and their week points which are still as obvious. It just a matter of preference on what board oyu want and willing ot pay a ton of cash for, minus the free one.

contor

Sep 22 2006, 06:21 PM

Vbulletin always, if you know how to use it perfectlty , is my favorite, a free opcion is simple machines, which have a lot of opcion better than phpbb

Latest Entries

Kurosaki Ichigo

Oct 8 2006, 10:59 AM

I choose V-Bulletin . Its really a good forum. You have total control and there are lots more feutures. If there is anyone who has it. Could they send it to me ?

poke386

Sep 23 2006, 05:07 PM

ive seen many forums of which i liked phpBB2 the best, IPB isnt bad either. I dunno much about vBulliten since i cant spare 85$ for it unless i download a illegal version, which isnt a very nice thing to do

CrazyRob

Sep 23 2006, 02:36 PM

IPB 2.2 will support AJAX features and many other features come to that. For a full list of what the new IPB will support go here http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=226814 i also personaly think that when 2.2 is released it will beat vBulliten.

hype

Sep 23 2006, 12:57 PM

vBulletin is actually the leading forum software up to date... Just imagine it, when a user comes into your forum and see the professional layout and the organisation of the vBulletin skin, they will get the hang of it and sign up...

And as darran has said, vBulletin has almost all the important mods and hacks that are usually needed in a forum board, which althought IPB has it, vBulletin does it better! vBulletin are always up to date to the lastest and most welcome technology and to my knowledge its the first forum software that comes out with the AJAX features which makes it so popular that IPB follow suit, which may be out at IPB 2.2 or something, I couldn't remember...

CrazyRob

Sep 23 2006, 12:29 PM

Well i never really looked into vBulliten as i just didnt really appreal to me also it was to expensive for me at one time. I currently use invision board as i find its better suited to my current needs. PHPBB 3.0 will be very good when it is finally released, i have the beta on my pc and i also use it on a few of my partner sites as i didnt want to buy another IPB Licence. I would say that currently PHPBB 3.0 and IPB 2.1.7 are even in many ways but this will change when IPB 2.2 is released as there will be many new features.

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