vBulletin vs PhpBB

[smanderson16]

If PHPBB is free and as good as people are saying, why would someone pay the fees to use vBulletin? Support? Features? Ease of Setup?

VBulletin is expensive and I am not sure my client is going to pay those license fees unless I can make a good case for it?

[JPnyc]

I haven't used phpBB from the admin side that much, but from what little I recall the adminCP is FAR more primitive than vb's, allowing far less control. On the plus side it's probably easier to learn than vb's.

[LiLcRaZyFuZzY]

I wouldn't say phpBB is better but it certainly is a worthy (open source) alternative. JP has a point about the admin side, especially with huge user database.

phpBB is easily customisable, cost free, great community and support, pretty much offers what vBulletin offers. I didn't see any "quick reply" option, but it might exists as a "mod" (which is a really cool part of the admin side)

Only buy vB if you expect a huge number of users, otherwise phpBB can handle it well

[arag0rn]

Wht kinda hits can phpBB sustain?

[Spes]

Ive used both and the only reason you should choose for an expensive board like VB is when you want to control large numbers of posts and users. The admin side offers just much and much more.

[LiLcRaZyFuZzY]

Wht kinda hits can phpBB sustain?
a big punch and a semi-hard kick..nah, what do you mean?

[JPnyc]

LOL, I think he meant how much traffic.

[LiLcRaZyFuZzY]

Look at the phpbb.com support forum ( http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/ )
they have over 2 million posts, an average of 400 people online and almost 1 third of a million registered users

[Moridin]

vB no question about it. It has much more features and is safer. phpBB is a security risk >_>

[P1x44r]

I chose vB for my site mainly because of great and knowledgeable modding community at vb.org!

[pcthug]

vBulletin if you can afford it, otherwise phpBB. PhpBB contains many of the features of vBulletin only without the hefty price tag, generally speaking phpBB is more then sufficient - just remember to upgrade regularly to avoid bugs.

[NetNerd85]

I use to use phpBB all the time and still like the software but it is a huge bot haven. Of course you could fix it yourself but the developers should do that. Now I use SimpleMachines Forum or SMF - www.simplemachines.org it's a cool board with more features than phpBB has. You should try it out, of course it is free :)

I have yet to use vBulletin but I might one day...

[addicted]

I don't like either of them, I would recomend Punbb

[Katmassive]

i've used phpbb mainly because it was free but vB does give you more control and had way more features than phpbb of course can be modded but had compatibility issues with certain mods. i say for sites just starting out phpbb if your still developin and so fourth but once it starts to grow upgrade to vB as i will be doing soon.

[AcidicLeo]

the basic difference lies in cost....while phpBB is free vBulleting cost arnd $85 for one yr license fee....i used phpBB and on every aspect it failed to match vBulletin....be it Admin Panel, Looks or User Friendly...

but being free it equals everything...one of the major drawback is no quick reply box and the page thts displayed after posting a reply...although quick reply box is available through Mod but still....and nothing for tht page...

but must say phpBB is highly customizable and yet free

[Warpnow]

Phpbb has the advantage of having a VERY large and VERY knowledgable userbase.

There are HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of mods available for Phpbb, from Chat scripts, to Personal Blogs and even the quick reply people seek.

Phpbb is best accompanied with mkportal(www.mkportal.it) if you ask me. The best community script ever.

[CA-Taylor]

I still think VB owns PHPBB so does IPB.

[Heavy Metal]

I despise PHPBB, I got used to having IPB and stuff like that with AWSOME control and then I went to PHPBB, and it was like, *click* Well, thats all I can do. No control at all for me. Although, on the upside, I have heard that PHPBB has a better response team, as I recall, a major bug/exploit was reported by one of mine friends and within like 12 ours they had out a patch for it. I'm not sure about VB. But yeah, If your a simple user or dont expect many members, then I'd go with PHP. But if you expect alot of members, or you want more control over your board. VB it is.

[Warpnow]

IPB is for people who don't want to do much. Basically its for newbs ;)

Phpbb requires scripting knowledge to be great. You have to know php. Not to mention it saves you $180 or $160.

You say, "Well, that all I can do", but its not. Its just all you can do without taking the time and effort to actually do something ;)

Go to phpbb.com and check out their mods forum. There are -loads- of them you just have to take the time to install them.

Vbulletin is -very- nice, but I prefer to belong to an open source community where If I request a mod...someone might actually write it...and there are ALWAYS dozens of mod projects under way.

And I'd shoot myself before run IPB, only thing worse is Ikonboard.

[Bleed]

Vbulletin is deffinitely worth the money. I've used/use phpbb for my lower end forums, but vbulletin outdoes them all. It all really depends on the need of the community and how much you're willing to invest.

[george_fcn]

Phbb it's the best forum.But why you don't try IPB (invision power board)?

[tGDA]

hey buddz, this conversation was between me and some friends about sometime ago, and here's what i've gotta say;
about vBulletin: you pay money for some [i agree it's too far good] already customized board, and now all u have to do is to add some more stuff here and there and customize it more for you, walking over time you might need to do sth for yourself in it.. alter some code or something, in this case that wouldn't be that easy, cuz you may not be authorized to, even if you were somehow.. people over there may change the licience anytime [i think that they say that they can do so on their licence, am i right?]
while on phpBB you're living with people of 'openSource', that people from all overthe world working with so various oses and facing too many problems are contributing, and that means a forum that is prepared to stand against so many things that it may face,

talking about security, when you bring the original package of phpBB, it's really secure as vBulletin -if not more- but when apllying mods from intrustable sources, that may cuz you a problem
cuz everything developed for vBulletin passes thru these people's hands, so it won't decrease the forum security,
but talking about phpBB things change, because it's opensource, everyone may make mods for it, when you get these mods thru their site, it's secure more than vB's, cuz it's monitored by group of very good coders from around the world, when they doubt that there's any security risk they fix it in somehours and the mod is updated with that patch with too many way to tell u how to fix it if u got that problem
that's when u bring the mod of their mod database, but ther's some bad coders who just wanna screw that off, they can't do so with vB, so they do it with these openSource free forums, they create -and most of time steal- some code stuff and show it off as a mod, telling u how to apply it to ur forum, so you take the code with ur hand and put it urself where they tell you, and believe me i saw some of these, there's some code lines token from the original mod source, with some lines that creates a security hole, and now, it's really turns out to be that bb is less secure than vB, but still here it's ur fault if you got ur scripts from such sources

and about number of users, if u are talking about some speed it quering data, phpBB is far capable of manipulating and dealing with too many kinds of database engines, got some users? use MySQL server, running a world wide website with some millions of users? just use more advanced db engine, such as oracle, and phpBB can handle it all for you
and if u find that ur cp of phpBB is not fully featured, just go and bring it some, as you said it's HIGHLY customizeable, there's more than one solution for the quick reply issue, you go, choose one, and apply it to ur forum, and the people over there ae too friendly, whenever u ask any question -however simple or complicated- you get some people to answer, from normal experienced users overthere to adminz and supportteam
if u want, u can get your phpBB just like vBulletin with some mods, paying half that fee for me and my friends we'll make that for you [!!!], going further; there's something called easyMod, by phpBB, that an automatic mod that will add a new bar to your administratorPanel that let u install any compatible mod with a click, it reads the instrctions that you read when you install a mod, analyses it, and do the rest of the job

in the end there's something would turn everythin upside down... vBulletin is being updated every little while, while phpBB has got only minor updates since a really longtime, you know why? cuz their next major version is being worked on!!! i've go the beta2 of their site, and.. it's really amazing unbelievable, now the user cpanel would customize the forum for evey user with soooo many options, i really want you to get the beta version available now, and explore it urself, it's really a revolution! --it's called: phpBB 3.0 "Olympus"




oh my God, i've written tooo much in here, i hope that i've clarifyed my idea well, now i want you to talk after all that lecture :| :D

[george_fcn]

You have right...Your post was great;)
What it's the site where i cand see last beta of phbb?

[why2k]

I use PHPX its great its got the forum and a propper page editor, there is basic chat, great support forum, very flexible, the skinns are so easy to modify, ITS FREE!!! and the comunity that is using it is great!

have a look at www.phpx.org

Its good stuff. :cool:

[stacywacy]

You have right...Your post was great;)
What it's the site where i cand see last beta of phbb?

http://www.phpbb.com/development/

You won't get support for it if you use it in a live environment or add mods to it. And, if you do use it in a live enviornment you won't be able to upgrade to the released version once they release it.

I've only used phpbb for my forum software and phpbb 3.0 is really a step up from past versions.
.

[george_fcn]

Thanks a lot;)

[Hellow]

I prefer PhpBB. It is a nice software and free. Also it's open source so integrate it into your site and do really cool things. It has an active forum where the development staff remain quite active to help you with bugs you may encounter.
Demo : free forums (http://www.**********.com)

[thewebhostingdi]

Hi,

PHPBB is free available and open source while VBulletin need to purchase license for each installation. PHPBB Plugins are available easily and can be modified too.

But over PHPBB and VBulletin I like IPB as it has many great in built features.