What Forum Should I Use?
There are numerous forum scripts out there, each providing their own different level of functionality. It can be a pain trying to decide what one is right for you. In this article, I’ll attempt to summarize some of the most popular forum scripts (that are, for the most part PHP and MySQL based), along with the process of selecting one that is best fit for you and your needs.
What is a forum?
A forum, from dictionary.com’s third definition of the word, is “An assembly, meeting place, television program, etc., for the discussion of questions of public interest.” Forums have become extremely popular add ons to sites because they can allow visitors to discuss issues that may or may not be talked about on the existing site. It also encourages users to stick around, which is always beneficial when seeing how long users spent on your site. Sometimes, entire sites and portals are even built around a simple forum, so a use of a forum can greatly extend outside just a place to “chat”.
The Scripts
There are hundreds of forum scripts we could look at, but for all intents and purposes, I’ll be looking at some of the most popular options, with the first being the well know Vbulletin. Others I’ll be mentioning include Vanilla, Simple Machines, PunBB, phpBB, bbPress, Invision Power Board, and miniBB.
| Script Name | License Type | Skins? | Plugins? | Support? | Code Base |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Vbulletin
|
Paid
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes (Incl.)
|
PHP / MySQL
|
|
Vanilla
|
Free
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
C.F.
|
PHP / MySQL
|
|
Simple Machines
|
Free
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
C.F. + Paid
|
PHP / MySQL
|
|
PunBB
|
Free
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
C.F.
|
PHP / MySQL
|
|
phpBB
|
Free
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
C.F. + IRC
|
PHP / MySQL
|
|
bbPress
|
Free
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
C.F.
|
PHP / MySQL
|
|
Invision Board
|
Paid
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes (Incl.)
|
PHP / MySQL
|
|
miniBB
|
Free
|
Yes
|
< 30
|
C.F. + Paid
|
PHP / MySQL
|
As you can see, the base categories that help the script grow and expand - theme support and plugin support - are found in all of the forum scripts we will be mentioning today. But, that does not mean all scripts are created equally.
My Experience
I have found myself using just about all of these scripts at some point in my past. The only script listed above that I have not used is Simple Machines Forum. Out of all of them, my most recent favorite is Vanilla, for its different looking interface and non-bloatware package. I have had extensive experience with Vbulletin, Invision Board, and phpBB in the past, but I have not used IB and phpBB in the past few years, which puts me behind in their newest features, so I can not really comment on the systems. Meanwhile, if you can and are looking to go the paid route for your forum, Vbulletin is the definitive choice. A huge amount of themes already exist for VB (both free and paid), and some of the hacks available add quite the wide range of additional features to your community. Vbulletin licenses come in two versions: leased ($85.00) and owned ($160.00). Both include support options via email and community forum, and phone support is also available for both licenses at an additional fee. Vbulletin can also run full featured portals almost effortlessly, such as the music portal Absolutepunk.net. Here is a quick rundown at some key points for each forum system as I remember or have had experience with.
- Vbulletin - Easy to skin, colors can be edited right from the admin cp, admin control panel contains options for just about everything, lots and lots of hacks, tons of themes already available, great community behind it.
- Invision Board - IBF used to be my favorite until they went from free to paid. When they made the switch, I believe they lost a lot of users. I liked them so much before because they offered a lot of the same features as Vbulletin, with an extensive admin panel as well. But since they took taken paid route, Vbulletin is the better option in my opinion. (If you’re going to pay, why pay for the imitation?)
- Vanilla - My favorite of late. Topic focused, different “default” interface, add ons that activate in one click almost all of the time, a few themes / styles currently available, very lightweight and simple.
- bbPress - Great integration with Wordpress (obviously), tag based, simple and clean. Still, one of the main reasons I have yet to use bbPress yet for an extended period of time is because it seems a bit underdeveloped still (still relatively new). Seems like a good solution for a simple support forum.
- phpBB - The last time I used phpBB, version 2 was being released. At the moment of writing, version 3 is nearing completion, and what I’ve seen from the test board, it is looking pretty damn nice. I am definitely giving this a try as soon as 3.0 final is released.
- punBB - punBB is very lightweight, but still has a nice collection of themes and plugins already available. It can be modded very nicely, and fit into almost any site design you currently have. The admin panel is very simple and doesn’t provide much, which could be a downfall to some people who need an extensive admin panel to find their way around.
- MiniBB - MiniBB is essentially the same as punbb, but even more lightweight. I made the mistake of running our forums off of minibb, and I’ve been disappointed with the results. Minibb has very few extensions, and the best ones require you to pay for them (such as private messaging). If you are stuck between punbb and minibb, please go with punbb, as it is a much better choice.
Free of Paid?
A common question you have to ask yourself before choosing a forum for your site is whether to go the free or paid route. Of the forums listed above, both Vbulletin and Invision Board are paid, while all the others are free. My main suggestion: look at the forum you plan to open before just jumping ship and getting a paid version. If you plan on having a large board or basing your entire site off of a forum script, Vbulletin is the right option for you. It does two things: shows people you are serious about your forum or portal and willing to spend some money on it, and guarantees you’ll have support, so you won’t have to worry about problems popping up that take weeks to get figured out. The other paid option, Invision Board, may also be something to look into, but Vbulletin, for about the same price, has a much bigger user base that may be able to help you or have that perfect hack / add-on you may be looking for already released.
When do you use the free route? In almost any other situation, choosing a free forum script will meet and succeed your demands just fine. If you plan on opening a small community for your product or service (application, hosting, etc), or if you just want to have a lightweight community just to give that extra “connected” feeling to your visitors, a free solution will work fine. There is no need to spend money on licensing if your forum isn’t going to play a major role on your site.
The results of a Mintpages poll, conducted over 2 and 1/2 weeks, shows the results.
Other things to consider before choosing your forum script
Always look into plugins and hacks you may be requiring in the future before taking the time installing a forum script. Imagine your forum at the beginning when it is small, and further down the road when it is larger. What additional features might you want to have? Almost all forum scripts have hack / plugin directories that will list add ons that have been released and even ones that are still under development. It is important to try to plan ahead, and not just think about what’s needed “now” which might not be anything if you are just opening up a forum for the first time.
Another things to keep in mind is your server and what it can handle. Extremely large user databases can put a lot of pressure on a weak server if you have thousands of members active a day doing the usual forum related activities of posting, searching, etc. Make sure you are on a server that can meet the need of your forum and user base.
What is your favorite?
Now it is your turn. What is you favorite script? What ones have you had totally horrible experiences with, and what ones have been lifesavers to you? I want to hear what you think of the choices above, or maybe fill me in on one I should have mentioned. Let it all out in the comments.
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Great post… I’d love to see a similar comparison of shopping carts.
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Simple Forum(for WordPress) - much better than bbPress
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Hey : )
I would obviously prefer vbulletin - great support and addons and a very helping community @ vbulletin.org
However, the vbulletin community is turning more into a commercial-only type product. there are great coders and modders out there who are sharing the love, but some are turning to the darker side of the force :eeks:
I love bbPress though. As you mentioned, it IS a little under developed. The guys over @ Automattic are having to deal with a lot of things I believe, thats why not much into it maybe. But stil - even at this stage, it feels very good. Clean and simple.
And after all - its really up to you, and what your requirements and capabilities are.
For starters, nothing is as good as vB
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When I need a very simple forum, I go with PunBB, otherwise MyBB is my forum of choice.
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AJ, I already told you this. Go with SMF (Simple Machines Forum). It’s fast, it’s robust, it’s secure, and (just as important as the security), the themes are easily skinnable and you don’t have to worry about touching the underlying logic (database queries or script processes for example) since the theme just contains the HTML and CSS output.
The administration area is also a breeze to use, well organized, and you can also update the forum package in as little as five minutes with the automatic update feature in SMF 1.1.3
Registration is also very intuitive, and the CAPTCHA system SMF uses will block spammers better than any of the other forums I’ve seen or used. When combined with account activation, you’ll practically guarantee that your forums will be spammer free (unless a spammer manually registers an account, activates it and then starts flooding the forum, but the only real cure for that is administrative approval, and that goes for any forum package you use, even vBulletin).
SMF also comes preinstalled with a lot of features you have to “mod” (read: hack) other forum packages in order to use (phpBB being the largest offender). The only things SMF lacks in the default installation that I wish it had were a user control panel where thread subscriptions could be monitored (though it does have a “read unread replies” page) and the Ajax-style quick reply feature found in vBulletin, though I do love how it will inform you of any replies that were made to the thread you are posting in before you post, asking if you want to read the replies before posting your own (this can be turned off at the user level, making it very useful for individual users who may or may not want the feature).
Seriously, if you go with another forum package, go with SMF. I did, and I have never looked back, not even once. And no, I’m not one of the developers. I’m just a regular user of the script.
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AJ- A good post comparing the options. I have worked with vBulletin and IB in the past, and found both to be good solutions for the paid world. But, I’d be curious to try some of the free offerings.
Also, there are two errors in your post that you should correct.
In the “Scripts” section, you write:
“There are hundreds of forum scripts we could look at, but for all intensive purposes”. The phrase is “intents and purposes”, not “intensive purposes”.
In the “Free or paid” section you write:
“and Vitamin is right up there”. It’s not Vitamin. You mean Vanilla.
Take some time to proofread your stuff next time AJ. We’ll wait.
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Sorry Jared - thanks for pointing those out, they’ve been corrected. Too early in the morning to be writing. I read it over too, just clearly missed them :S
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I find it rude that you only include PHP forums. There are some people who can’t run PHP and this thread is no use to them! Personally, my favorite forum of all is E-Blah (not listed) which is a PERL-based forum that includes most of the features of PHPBB and many more, plus the developer (Justin) helps with just about anything, and responds within 6 hours, usually.
I’m also aware there’s a bunch of ASP-based forum systems that are amazing, though I haven’t had the need to use them myself.
Next time, please try out more systems before doing a comparison.
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I’m sorry Tyler. It can’t review something I’ve never used.. :-/
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As the author of miniBB, I’m glad at least that miniBB is listed amongst other board scripts
Bad PR also works.
You wrote: “Minibb has very few extensions, and the best ones require you to pay for them” - this is true. miniBB is developed by very few persons including me, and that means it contains a high-end quality code. Free programs developed by hundreds of other users usually become piece of garbage finally, since everybody has its own style of programming. [ Removed for violation of our Commenting Policy ]. Free programs are also often overwritten from scratch, which brings neverending bugs, new mistakes and so on. At miniBB we care about the stable and secure program; and of course if you want the quality, something is needed to pay.
If you collect the cost of vBulletin and/or other paid forum software, and the cost of all premium miniBB addons, you will discover that miniBB offers the lowest price amongst others. So what we are issuing at miniBB.net, is a combination of open source (which gives extra stable and proven code) and paid solutions (which brings me and us a desire to support it; if there would be no profit, we would kill this project 2 years ago already). I think none from the mentioned projects offers such a business plan.
So, I think the “common question you have to ask yourself before choosing a forum for your site is whether to go the free or paid route” - this question is answered easily
If you plan to get no profits from your forums, get a non-profitable software. Otherwise, invest a bit. The economical law is easy.
Additionally, I would say that here are not mentioned the main advantages of miniBB: layout and membership database synchronization with the current website.
Right now for your forums you have chosen punBB and they are EASILY recognizable. It is the same like you would order a free business card with the extra advertisement on its back. Working on miniBB you could achieve that it’s layout is completely changed regarding main site’s layout. That’s why the most prolific forums based on miniBB are not looking ’standard’.
As for the membership synchronization, as far as I know, only Vanilla currently offers such thing. But their concept is much different from other boards; personally I don’t like their draft neither layout neither large database structure.
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@Paul - I understand the need to offer paid plugin solutions; you and your developers are dedicating your time to release a script for free, so you deserve to get something back. And, the premium plugins are nothing too expensive. Only problem is, when compared to other free solutions that offer these things out of the box, it makes it look like minibb doesn’t quite stack up. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t. If people are looking for a very low-end, simplified solution, minibb is fine. That is initially what I thought, but I realized that even some key features I thought I wouldn’t really need for my forums are ones I did need.
Up until today, I was using minibb, and right now I have SMF installed. I’m still deciding whether or not to go from SMF to phpbb 3, or leave it as it is, and then I have to go through and restyle everything. If you had seen my Minibb install, it matched the site almost perfectly. Any forum script can be customized to look “different”.
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I’m surprised you didn’t include MyBB in your comparison, it would’ve been perfect.
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I’ve been with SMF for years now. If you want a free high quality forum with great support I’d test drive them. Right now they are developing 2.0 which will rival paid forum software. Definitely a great way to go. I heart SMF.
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OpenBB and PHPbb are good names.And i have also tried them for my old websites my current website uses no forums but m hosting it on another server than one using right now with vanilla.i heard some good lines abt it.
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2aj: miniBB was started with the exact thought - to create a forums system which contains only what is really needed. Trust me, I’ve studied vBulletin’s and phpBB’s code before and I would never start my own software spending half of life developing it, if I would find something fitting my wishes… I definitely would like to implement the system which uses almost zero resources but does everything I need. That is about miniBB.
miniBB is not a low-end solution. It is not simplified at all. If you could compile everything together (that’s what could be seen on minibbtest.virtualis.lv for example) you would see there is almost every “complicated” feature available.
But it’s a conceptual software and we never proposed it is created for the masses. The concept can’t be for everybody. It has its own goal, and it has its own purpose. If you don’t understand what it’s about, we don’t force you to do so. But we’re glad there are people who understand.
It could be like comparing bycicle and truck… when you use bycicle, you are moving much faster between the city streets full of cars and stoppers, you are improving your own health and letting other people breathe fresh air. When you move on the truck, you spend hours until getting into the right street, parking, paying for the stopping in, and produce a lot of carbon dioxide.
But the only actual difference between the truck and the bycicle in this case is YOUR PURPOSE. If you feel you need the track - you’re welcome. It won’t cost you cheaper then a bycicle anyway
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I have been running Vanilla on my website for about a year now (converted from SMF, which had been converted from phpBB which had been converted from UBB)
. It’s been a fun journey and I must say that Vanilla has been the most successful at increasing user interaction. I have even edited the default skin to make it even more simplistic. While the community for Vanilla tends to fluctuate, for the most part if you want it, someone in the group can point you in the right direction.
To be honest, if I was a designer, or anyone of devlounge criteria, I can’t imagine choosing any other forum.. unless you like the whole “y2k” look and feel
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aj: I am a bit surprised that you do not mention nextbbs?
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Having worked online for almost 10 years and working as a SEO part-time I would never start a forum using an “exhausted” software like vbulletin, phpbb, SimpleMachines or similar “big boys.” Duplicate content issue - first reason. Then - their “seo mods” are very poor and miss the most important elements (for example, simple noindex for pages you don’t want and don’t really need to be indexed for a number of reasons). Not to mention their heavy scripting and database structure. If you look at, for example, http://www.polishforums.com (hosted on a shared server) you’ll notice a bicycle can outperform any other vehicle available out there ;).
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Thanks for the comments guys. I understand I missed some of them, but like I said, I was aiming for some of the “bigger” guns.
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Nice article. I think bbpress has potential of becoming one of the top forum scripts. I have yet to try Vanilla. Personally, i’m not impressed with vbulletin and invision board. I was about to try miniBB but i guess it’s just not for me.
PAUL @ MINIBB WROTE: “I saw A LOT of chinese / indian students which produce such awful code that I preferrably won’t release/use…”
Paul, i think there’s a bit of racial discrimination here.
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I didn’t even notice Paul’s comment - thanks for pointing that out.
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I think that PHPBB3 is the best.
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I can’t believe nobody even mentioned phorum, the cleanest, powerful and more flexible forum ever
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I am using YaBB at the moment and found it to be very difficult to skin. My favorite one would have to be IPB because of the many features and addons. VBulletin I think doesn’t offer as much as IPB.
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I prefer punBB. I used phpBB for the longest time. It did what it did, then completely screwed up. I gave up on it and went in search of a replacement. The best I saw that was simple but flexible was punBB. I’ve taken a vanilla punBB and made it very highly modified to my liking. I love it.
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So dear readers forum! What in your view should be present man? What qualities have? What should be able to do?
Interested in your opinion?
P.S. Please administrator http://www.devlounge.net. If the thread is not to be in category this, I ask you to move my thread to the correct category.