Looking to buy forum software

[Flatmate]

Hello I want to create a forum for my website, the budget for this isn't massive so i'm looking for good forum software at good value

I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction

 

[SFD]

phpBB is very popular and free I think.

 

[BusinessIdeas]

My forum was created with smf, its free and very easy to install: http://www.simplemachines.org/

Regards Gina

 

[cycloneuk]

vbulletin is one of the very best and a large majority of forums run on it.

 

[profitxchange]

If you wnat to consider comercial forums look at bbv2 and wow. I use the former and it is very versatile and one gets real support from the team.

 

[Kev Jaques]

Woltlabs WBB is also very good!

 

[ttmw]

vbulletin is what i'd recommend, theres plenty of support for it, its more secure than the others, and its what most forum users will be accustom to. I recently opened a forum and looked into the matter an awful lot and decided it was well worth the price. Everything works well how it should.

Although some others are free, they suposedly have big security faults and poor upgrades and suport.

hope it helps!

 

[ken_uk]

phppbb gets my vote for the price.

 

For free forum software I always recommend MyBB, similar to vBulletin & Invision.

 

[derek_mcgilvray]

SMF (simplemachines.org) is what I would recommend. I use it on my websites and find it to be extremely user friendly, admin friendly and flexible.

The only other one I've ever used on my websites is phpbb, which was just about as good. However, the smf community can provide quicker support.

 

[That Guy]

Free Versions:
http://www.mybboard.net/ or http://www.phpbb.com/ or http://www.simplemachines.org/

Paid Versions:
http://www.vbulletin.com/ or http://www.invisionpower.com/


Hope this helps

 

[BusinessIdeas]

My forum was created with smf. If you want to have a look and see if this is the kind of thing you need, go to www.businessideasandopportunities.co.uk and have a look round. I just use the default template, but there are lots of others around and mods etc. To be honest this was my first forum and I have not tried vbulletin or the others so I have no idea if you will want to pay for them or prefer this free one - Gina

 

[peterstagg]

phpBB and Simple Machines are some of the best I have seen. I use Simple machines now on a forum.

Either would do the job quite well.

 

[domainguy]

I would advise having a think about it before putting a forum on your site. What are you looking to get out of it? They take a lot of administering even with mod's installed and offer little reward imho.

 

[Flatmate]

I thought the forum would be a good way of driving people back to the website

 

[frockery]

Another vote for vBulletin from me. It is user friendly (even for a novice like me), relatively inexpensive and has an SEO add on available (at extra cost). I use a lot of forums and find vB reassuringly familiar.

Good luck with your project.

Regards,
Alison

 

[cmcp]

Highly recommended by developers, http://www.phorum.org

 

[daleb81]

I thought the forum would be a good way of driving people back to the website

Your spot on. One of the key aspects to effective web marketing is to develop recurring visitors. I've checked our your site - great work on the design and best of luck with getting things up and running. Your fighting some established competition - and need to look to build up a competitive advantage.

I've been involved in several web start ups. Feel free to drop me a line if you want to chat or have any questions.

Dale

 

[masonuk]

No-one has mentioned PunBB. What is your opinion on this one?

 

[new2bus]

Well this forum is vBulletin 3.7.0 I believe so you know how it works, but it is not free.

 

[streetslocal]

v bulletin is by far the best on the market and if your in it for the long term and want to make a forum work long term use v bulletin.

 

[greenbox]

another vote for phpBB , its free and very good

 

[davek17]

Forums are a great idea. get your customers to talk to each other and sell for you, whilst you concentrate on delivering great service! Its also a great way to maintain good marketing dialogue by sharing of knowledge.

I think vBulletin is the best, its only about £100 for a license so its pretty good value for money. I think this forum uses it too and everyone has probably used it before.

You didn't say what platform you were installing it on? I use Windows and there are vBulletin versions for all sorts of Windows and Linux installations.

I also see Phpbb a lot.

Does anyone know what the best bulletin board is for Windows Servers?

 

[davek17]

Forums are a great idea. get your customers to talk to each other and sell for you, whilst you concentrate on delivering great service! Its also a great way to maintain good marketing dialogue by sharing of knowledge.

I think vBulletin is the best, its only about £100 for a license so its pretty good value for money. I think this forum uses it too and everyone has probably used it before.

You didn't say what platform you were installing it on? I use Windows and there are vBulletin versions for all sorts of Windows and Linux installations.

I also see Phpbb a lot.

Does anyone know what the best bulletin board is for Windows Servers?

 

[hostedweb]

Hi,

We offer PHPBB, seems to be very popular. One of the main things to check is security when installing forum software. As long as PHPBB is kept current you should not have any issues.

Also, if you don’t mind spending some money VBulletin is another alternative.

 

[adriennep]

We installed the latest version of phpbb which after a few weeks of use no longer allows admin or any users to log in.

Just take a look at the phpbb support site to find 13 pages of incredibly unhappy customers and unhelpful support for the problem.

We have now had to close the forum down (this evening) and are going to try smf.

 

[cmcp]

Did you have it setup correctly?

Can't see any 13 page thread on the support forum.

 

[adriennep]

It's my partner who deals with all the programming and he says it was definitely installed properly. Last night he uninstalled it completely and re-installed it and had the same problem. He says if you search for something along the lines of 'problems login in' you will find the other users with the same problem.

It looks like its just the latest version that has this problem.

He didn't really like smf and this afternoon discovered Joomla and has decided to go for that.

 

[That Guy]

Joomla is a CMS system not forum? If you go to their forums even they are using phpBB - http://forum.joomla.org/

Tell him to look at MyBB - http://www.mybboard.net/

MyBB Mods and Plugins - http://mods.mybboard.net/mods

MyBB Themes - http://mods.mybboard.net/themes

All of the above is FREE

 

[adriennep]

Thanks - I'll pass that on to him.