Currently what i have in mind for a forum would be:

1. BurningBoard
2. Invision Power Board
3. vBulletin
4. Phpbb

Anyone can offer a good suggestion on which is the best choice to pick on? Money is not the main concern here, more concern on their functionality, securities as well as the usability (ease of use). Please advise me or suggest other forum software that you think would be better than those 4 above. Thanks. :D

I have had some years dealing with phpBB and I find them to be really good. The cheaper alternative yest but very user friendly and easy to understand.

Have not had much interaction with the others besides vBulletin. It is also user friendly but I found it harder to navigate through than that of phpBB. Security wise I think vBulletin would be more secure. Though take in mind that any forum can be hacked.

Hello,

You could see some live examples and to make your choice. My vote is for vBulletin.

Regards

For Paid, vBulletin
For Free, SMF is awesome.

My vote for phpBB - it gives you more freedom I believe.

But you should evaluate all options. Have you tried any demos, explored all features that you need, how easy it is to upgrade, how easy it is to make a theme, add an extension etc.

Good luck!

vBulletin by far!

Its the most secure and feature packed board. I've seen numerous phpBB boards getting hacked, even the newer versions.

If you're looking for free forum software, I'd definitely recommend phpBB. If you're looking to pay for the software, I'd recommend vBulletin.

I'd be extremely hesitant to avoid the unpaid software, really, it's as good if not better than most paid software. There's a few that I've preferred in the past like SMF, Vanilla and punBB.

For paid, burning board is all right and vbulletin is 'okay'. I use the latter but only because I'm far too lazy to begin to wrap my three remaining braincells around the horror story that is Vanilla's templating system.

Invision power board all the way.
But I also like smf.

If you are willing to pay, I will recommend vB.
If you want something that is open source yet powerful and stable, I will definitely recommend SMF. ;)

I have been a fan of PHPBB for a while, and find it to be a great open source alternative to the paid forum offerings.

Recently I've gotten into vBulletin and probably won't go back as I find it easier for visitors to use and they are more comfortable with the vb experience.

Paid... VB
Free... SMF

Vbulletin for paid software definately..
and phpbb3 for free (ivenever been hacked with phpbb3 yet i have with smf)

I have tested IPB demo and i like that very mutch. More than my vB(i´am going to sell my vB owned licens here on WHT). In vB i have installed 15 mods and in IPB i going to install 2-3 unofficiel mods on the forum software.

Free, SMF
Paid, vBulletin

vBulletin is one of the most secure boards, and mods are quite easy to install. Most features that you have to mod other boards for are standard. The only downside is the Admin CP which IMO is nothing compared to phpBB3's.

I am a big big fan of phpbb. It rocks

MyBB is my all time favorite and it's much more flexible and safer as PHPBB. Although the latter has grown into something quite nice in the last release, MyBB is still my favorite.

I love phpbb3 now!