What's the best PHP Forum

It all depends on your personal preference. I, for example, prefer vbulletin over most other php forums. Why, may you ask? ..because it's well written! Not only is it very secure, it packs a lot of features that save lots of time. I suggest you read up on their hook system which allows you to insert code in almost any needed place without actually editting a php file, so if you ever planned on upgrading the core software, you would not loose any additions, plugs or modifications done to the forum. That is the way of the future. that was the selling point for me.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of solutions out there, and there's no real way to officially rank each one, so do your homework and take advantage of the demos a lot of companies offer.

Hello,

I fully agree with the suggestions of "reject" to do your homework, evaluate the options present in market and then decide yourself rather than deciding on someone else's suggestion.

Everyone has different requirements and that is why eveybody goes for their own choice of forum software. If you are looking for a simple and free option then give a try to http://www.minibb.net

Good Luck,

Ajay Chadha

Personally out of all I think Invision Power Board 1.3.1 is the best however IPBv2 is good.

phpBB - I personally don't recommend it, it's not very flexible on the admin side.

vBulletin - Very good forum software but if you want your forum to look good don't use it. Out of every vBulletin forum i've seen I haven't seen one which looks as good as any IPB forum or phpBB at that matter.

IPB 1.3.x - I love it and continue to use it, but you can't obtain it legally any longer, and out of the box it's in desperate need of security patching. You've got to get your hands dirty with this one.

IPB 2.x - A little heavy for my tastes, comparable with VBulletin. Unlike VBulletin yearly licensing, once a year's licensing with Invision expires, you do not need to "cease and desist", but you'll be cut off from updates. They're both quality products though.

IPB 1.3.x - I love it and continue to use it, but you can't obtain it legally any longer, and out of the box it's in desperate need of security patching. You've got to get your hands dirty with this one.

IPB 2.x - A little heavy for my tastes, comparable with VBulletin. Unlike VBulletin yearly licensing, once a year's licensing with Invision expires, you do not need to "cease and desist", but you'll be cut off from updates. They're both quality products though.

i don't think there are any real security flaws in ipb 1.3 however there are some patches you'd need to apply in it such as the moderating team link, profile pages.

mostly because of MySQL updates 4.0 to 4.1.x

I would highly recommend vBulletin if you're looking for high quality software, security, and stability. I believe it's $135 for a paid license? Check www.vbulletin.com . The software is unbelieveably well thought out and easy to modify with their hooks/products systems, so it's a great candidate for modding.

If you're looking for free or open source:

I would probably go with something simple like www.punbb.org or something flexible (and very different) like Vanilla (http://www.getvanilla.com).
phpBB 2.x was a mess, but phpBB 3.0 is about to be released and is looking *much* better and more secure than any previous version, if you can wait a few months or so - www.phpbb.com is the url.