Say your a linux host, with php, mysql, cgi ect.

A customer sends you an email asking what forum is the best as far as:

1. Quickness
2. User Friendly
3. Cool features
4. Doesn't hog the system resources (I know I know, they wouldn't ask this hehe, but just play along :stickout )

Which would you suggest? Which would you want your customer to use, and/or which would you think would make them happy?

you're looking at it :D

Best forum : vBulletin.com (http://www.vbulletin.com)
If your customer want a free one, then PhpBB (http://www.phpbb.com) is great

yup vBulletin is definitely the best and you are at ease without security bug flaws.. as to phpBB one of my clients was running an earlier version and got his phpBB hacked.. so it's best to go with vB :)

if you are not after bells and whistles like pm, smilies etc etc
phorum.org forum is much much faster as vbb takes quite a time to move with its heavy graphics and little longer codes
( the difference is appreciated on 28 K connections)


the new phpbb is better -and new Ikonboard with Mysql yet to be released will be lot more "cool" than anything else

I have to agree with the rest. If you have the money, go with vbul. If you go Open Source, then it's phpBB.

Frank

HANDS DOWN...VBulletin

vBulletin is definately good. but if money is an issue, i would go for phpBB or burning board. (www.woltlab.de)

Originally posted by WoodShedd
vBulletin is definately good. but if money is an issue, i would go for phpBB or burning board. (www.woltlab.de)
I'm with you, my friend. vB is "good", but I think that there are some features that Woltlab (burning board) has that vB doesn't. And I think that within a year or less Woltlab's Burning Board will be way better than vB and that's my opinion.
That's why I'm constantly keeping a close eye on Woltlab's Burning Board.

I've tried phpBB, XMB, and OpenBB. So far phpBB (current 1.4.2 version) has very limited features and poor Admin. I like OpenBB Admin the best, you can customize the whole forum with ease using their template in Admin panel. XMB is a excellent also, but not really customizable, and coming 1.5 version will have more features like poll and stuff. Overall, I'd go with XMB, OpenBB is still in beta version that has few bugs, and forget about phpBB for at least until version 2.0.

Originally posted by Nam
I've tried phpBB, XMB, and OpenBB. So far phpBB (current 1.4.2 version) has very limited features and poor Admin. I like OpenBB Admin the best, you can customize the whole forum with ease using their template in Admin panel. XMB is a excellent also, but not really customizable, and coming 1.5 version will have more features like poll and stuff. Overall, I'd go with XMB, OpenBB is still in beta version that has few bugs, and forget about phpBB for at least until version 2.0.
My friend, phpBB version 2.0 will be out in another year. I've been waiting for their release and so far no answer / response. That's why I went with Woltlab's Burning Board. It's the closes you could get to a vB look-alike that now I'd noticed that it's way better and will be better than vB in the near future.
And lastly, Woltlab's Burning Board is FREE forever.:cool:

The phpBB v2.0 beta has been out for several weeks. Yes, I agree that there is no release date for 2.0, but I have not heard that it's next year either.

Frank

Originally posted by eva2000
yup vBulletin is definitely the best and you are at ease without security bug flaws.. as to phpBB one of my clients was running an earlier version and got his phpBB hacked.. so it's best to go with vB :)
Sorry for intruding in your post, but, the key word in your post is "earlier version." For what I do know is that earlier versions of phpbb has a major security hole and therefore a newer updated version is needed for your client.

http://www.ikonboard.com

free, stable, secure, extreme big community, that is improving this forum with hacks & styles.

ikonboard 2.xx was very good at all, but ikonboard 3 is just amazing. all the features of vBulletin 2 + some more ... :) and it is free and will be free.

some very nice features: easy creation of styles (even an vBulletin2 style was allready done :D), nice member panel and it is very fast. It is beta 6 right now, end of october the final will be released and it is allready now very fast. the final will support mod_gzip, so the speed will me improved even more.

download iB3 and check it out, bevore you are going to spend $$$ ;)

i have been using the board over at hescripts.com for a few weeks now.. its neat :)

VBulletin.com has my vote.

Burning Board has my vote.. All of 5 minutes to install, and worked flawlessly first time. There's some quirky translations as english isn't the guys first language but I hear someone just sent him a template with the text ironed out a bit. :)

VB is still probably the most solid, but there's just something about Burning Board that (to me), gives it an edge over VB when I look at it, kick the tires, and poke the buttons.

Greg Moore

as the burning board author says himself, this board is extremely server intensive!