Currently looking at installing a new board and not sure
which one to use. Narrowed down to two choices.

phpBB2 or vbulletin.

phpBB2 is free and vbulletin is $85.00

Both are php, mysql and template based.

What makes the vbulletin board worth the $85.00 compared to $0.00 for phpBB2. What are your thoughts?

Phil

As I understand it, the dollars you spend are for top notch support.


Lats...

Also vBulletin has tons of features like PMing, user groups, etc. This board is powered by it (duh :rolleyes: ). Also the vBulletin forums themselves are very busy, and vBulletin 3 is expected to come out Q2.

RC-3 (http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8182) of phpBB was just released today.

I'm a bit biased on the phpBB site :D.

I would suggest that you come up with a list of features that you want your board to have. Then determine if the board has that feature. It might be a little simplistic, but the one that fits your needs is the one that you should use.

Frank

I think that once the phpBB folks get phpBB2 released and bug-free, it might be a contender. But right now, there really is no comparrison. Free forums are great, but when you pay for a forum, you are paying for a solid product, and like lats said the support to go along with it.

The phpBB team is great, and I think phpBB2 is fantastic. However, I would not run it in it's current state on a live site.

-Dan

Damn!
Frank posted while I was writing. I had not made my daily visit to the phpBB2 forums yet. Time to go upgrade my dev board :D

-Dan

Originally posted by filburt1
Also vBulletin has tons of features like PMing, user groups, etc.
It should also be noted that these features do exist in phpBB2 as well. The only real big advantages feature wise are on the admin side vb.

-Dan

True. I don't know about phpBB, but as for admin'ing the board, vB makes use of templates, replacements, and style sets, which make it easy to get the look you want in the forum. The vBulletin default is ugly after a while ;)

I've been using phpbb2 for almost a month and have had no problem with it. It's a great forum, but I've never used Vbulletin, so I don't know what to say.

I think overall, phpBB is almost -- but not quite -- as good as vBulletin. At the end of the day phpBB will probably be fine, but if you have the money to spend, vBulletin is a good investment as it has the edge.

well it depends on the money........if are happy to fork out the 85.00 then go vbulletin for sure.........if you are starting out and money is an issue then phpbb2 it is...........

Hi,
did you have a look at ikonboard3.0.
I think its not bad.. :homer:

With VB you know that the script will get updates, a support, a growing community, this not happen with free boards like PHPBB, or Ikonboard.
If I'm not bad, Matt, one of IB programmer leaved the project, same happened with XMB, what ensure you that this wont happen with phpbb?

Few things..

vBulletin isn't as good as phpBB, because it takes more resources to run it, and the template system isn't as good. If you want something lighter on the server, and overall faster, I'd go with phpBB. It's also MUCH more customisable.

The reason you'd pay for vBulletin, is for support. I personally have not had any trouble finding help with the guys at phpBB, but this is always your own call.

Lastly, phpBB is open source. This means, if it's abandoned by the authors, it can be picked up by somebody else, and believe me there is a large community for phpBB to last a long time.

As per the not running phpBB on a live site; that's debateable. I know there are sites out there running upwards of 100,000 posts with phpBB handling it. It's very efficient at what it does, and for the price you pay, you can't go wrong.

For me, the deciding factor will be the support, and thus far I can't complain with phpBB's support on the boards.

Originally posted by Jedito
With VB you know that the script will get updates, a support, a growing community, this not happen with free boards like PHPBB, or Ikonboard.
If I'm not bad, Matt, one of IB programmer leaved the project, same happened with XMB, what ensure you that this wont happen with phpbb?

Your example of XMB isn't really all that valid as it is still in development. As it is open source, if one group of developers decided to give it up, others can take over. Version 1.6 is just around the corner, and is looking good!

Yes, I know, if I'm not bad, the project is call Aurora (or something like that).
But I saw a lot of free project that was closed because the programmers don't have the time, or dont get fun anymore doing it.
XMB was only an example of that kind of things happen.

I'm trying to decide the same thing and I'm leaning towards phpBB2 for reasons already stated in previous threads. One thing of concern tho is the portability between these boards. How easy is it to change from phpBB2 to vB or any other board for that matter? Is the importing of data straight forward? If it is then it really doesn't matter which board is chosen.

Most boards have people develop converters from most of the other boards. They can usually convert users, and posts. Some convert more, some destroy everything. It's really best to test out the boards for a while before comitting to any, because you never know if you will be able to successfully convert your users/posts if you decide to.

-Dan

Rubish!
As per the not running phpBB on a live site; that's debateable. I know there are sites out there running upwards of 100,000 posts with phpBB handling it. It's very efficient at what it does, and for the price you pay, you can't go wrong.
There are vBulletin forums with more than 900 concurent users!

There are vBulletin forums with more than 3 million posts!
It's also MUCH more customisable.Thats wrong, vBulletin is extremely customizable, everything is managed via a online template system, no uploading like with phpBB
Lastly, phpBB is open source. This means, if it's abandoned by the authors, it can be picked up by somebody else, and believe me there is a large community for phpBB to last a long time.Well vBulletin is never in trouble of this

For me, the deciding factor will be the support, and thus far I can't complain with phpBB's support on the boardsvBulletins support is second to none! You ask a question and normally within 10 minutes you have a reply!
vBulletin isn't as good as phpBB, because it takes more resources to run it, and the template system isn't as goodMy vBulletin makes 17 MySQL queries which isn't to many.

I also enjoy using vBulletin and am glad that Chris stood up for them. I almost replied about the custoimization, because there is absolutely nothing that you cannot customize - you have the ability to customize everything with vBulletin through a great and very detailed template system. There is also a nice community and lots of mods available for vBulletin. Compared to the cost of hosting a forum, the initial cost is not that significant a factor.

Just wanted to say thanks for all of the replies and information provided.

The outcome was-

From the replies, I got the impression that customer service and support is the main difference between the two boards. At the end of the day I don't mind spending the $85.00 pa to buy vbulletin but, I didn't want to spend it unnecessarily.

Installed phpBB, which really is a good board but, and to cut a long story short, I needed to customize the script to use site flags for different sites and it was getting beyond my capabilities.

So, bought vbulletin which seems to have easily customizable templates that will serve the purpose and also I did email jelsoft a couple of times with pre purchase questions that were answered in a prompt and helpful manner, which did help to make up my mind. vBulletin is now installed.


Thanks again

Phil

You may want to upgrade that $85 Leased License to the $160 Owned License. You have 30 days to do so for the difference in cost, after that you would need to pay the full $160.

The Leased License expires in one year. That means in one year you have to either pay another $85 for another year or stop using it completely. (Or buy it then for $160 of course.)

If you are planning on being around for more than two years, the Owned License makes more sense.


On the other hand, your cost for under two years favors the Leased License:

$85 + $85 = $170 for two years with updates

$160 + $30 = $190 for two years with updates (plus you still own the product at the end)

Thanks for the advice Lurker.

After playing with VBulletin for the day, I will definately be upgrading to the owned licence.

VBulletin is well worth the expense.

Hmmm! I was going to say "as they say, you get what you pay for", but in the case of Vbulletin you get more than you pay for but, in all fareness, you do get more than you pay for with phpBB too.



Phil

Originally posted by cantremember
in all fareness, you do get more than you pay for with phpBB too.Ha ha, good quote. :)

They have a phpbb2 two which is muck more customizable

http://phpbb.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8183

Originally posted by Going Postal
They have a phpbb2 two which is muck more customizable

http://phpbb.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8183
:confused:
Isn't that what this thread was about? Read from the beginning. That URL is already posted in this thread.

-Dan

Chris, I do want to point out a few things...

First, the concurrent users is a *SQL database job, not the job of the script. phpBB2, for what you pay (nothing), you do get a lot, support is good, templates are easily customisable, and it's a damn fast board, faster than vBulletin I'd venture to say.

vBulletin does have the advantage of a dedicated company supporting it, clean interface, and more 'reliable' support. phpBB has a strong community, which isn't nearly as large as vBulletin's but is good enough to reply to you within a few minutes of a problem.

phpBB2's template system is able to be put into your favorite editor, like Dreamweaver and such, making customization VERY easy. Also, the templating system is much less CPU intensive (at least this is the claim) than any other system's.

I just personally feel, that paying $160 is not worth it for a forum that in my mind is better, and by most people's standards, is damn close to anything commercial.

I think both are very nice. phpBB is the best free forum software I have seen around. :stickout