Choosing the best forum software for you is critical to a new forum administrator about to start a community. While it may not be the key to your potential success, it can certainly help along the way. A forum or discussion board can be a very hard endeavor, but it can pay off in time with a large, loyal user database. But how do you choose the best software for you personally? Well, that’s when you must examine what you want and what your goals actually are.
Some things to consider:
What is my price range? How much am I willing to spend? What features are a necessity? Do I want forum modifications? Forum skins? There are several other questions you must consider, these are merely a few. With time you’ll get the answers, but it’s always best to plan.
In this article I’ll include a brief description and recommendation for the three leading forum software companies. From there on, it’s up to you to choose. Two are paid, one is free open source. Keep in mind you’re not simply limited to these three options. There are scores of forum software systems out there of all sorts to fit your needs. Just try to find the one best for you.
The first sort of forum software I’ll discussion is Vbulletin. This is my personal favorite, so I might be a little biased. Anyway, you have two options as far as VB goes. You can buy the owned or leased license. Leased is $80 but is only good for one year - after that you have to renew it. Owned is owned - you can run it for life, but must pay a fee to get updates, which are often not necessary. I strongly recommend the owned license. Vbulletin has so many features, a huge user support system and a large amount of hacks and modifications over at vbulletin (dot) org. As far as I can tell, Vbulletin has every desired feature that other boards has. I would highly recommend this. The official website for vbulletin can be found at www.vbulletin.com.
The alternative paid forum software is Invision Power Board, or IPB for short. Invision Board started out as a free software but began licensing it’s product out later. While it may be cheaper than Vbulletin, in my opinion it doesn’t have as many or as good features. Still, if you’re willing to pay money for the software but not quite enough for vbulletin, you may want to consider Invision Power Board. The official website for Invision Power Board can be found at www.invisionpower.com.
The last forum software I am going to briefly outline is PHPBB. This stands for PHP - bulletin board. PHPBB is overall a decent open source software. However, it has been known to have numerous security holes, which is something you should definitely consider before devoting to this software. It has the basic features and a limited administration backend, but good user support. Plus, it’s free. The official website for PHPBB is www.phpbb.com.
Now, realize there are many more alternatives for forum software… perhaps hundreds. I recommend you shop around, compare, and price. See what you think would be best to get you started. This article was made merely to point you in the right direction. Good luck.
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