Creating a Forum?

There are lots of free and paid forum software.

VBulletin is like number one for paid ones. For free ones, you can try

phpBB, MyBB, SimpleMachines, ..

You can see more titles on

Comparison of Internet forum software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Just go to the bottom of the page and check "See Also" section.

You will need a forum software like MyBB,SMF,Vbulletin to manage your forum.

I use SMF in my forum,and it is also free.

If you wanted it self hosted, you need to use a script like vBulletin (paid) or SMF (free)

Purchase vBulletin, the most powerful forum software available.
Home of SMF: Free PHP and MySQL forum software

If you want it freely hosted (so that you don't need to worry about paying for bandwidth etc) a good one is Invision Free.

InvisionFree (Free message board hosting)

A free one means you don't need to pay for hosting, domain, running costs... but it also means that it will be more difficult to make money from it / sell it should you want to down the line.

If you're starting out and want to cut costs, look at something self hosted but free like SMF.

My Favorite one where they host it is WebSiteToolBox.com

they have a paid version (under $7 a month) and a free version (ad supported)

I've never had any trouble with either version.

George Wright

If you have a web hosting account it should provide a couple of free forum scripts (eg phpBB and SMF) which can be installed automatically.

SMF, i love it.

Simple Machines 2.0 is now coming out, and it looks a very mature, free forum software. I believe it also has subscriptions built in, so you can charge for access if it is precious information.

vbulletin is the most popular

Hello

I have tried a lot of the above and I have great success with SMF it works so well and it seems to rank well in the SE's also has a lot of great plugins which really enhence the experience for your users.

Remember forums are a tough thing to get rolling they take a lot of work in th start and then they start getting busy you need to keep them moderated and answer a lot of emails however it does pay off in teh end.

I started a forum 2 years back and its going great I get an average of 94 new posts every day (but for teh last few months its been 150) and over 5k average a day in page views.

However I have had 4 companies try and take me to court a number of death threats... however my forum has been mentioned on TV on national radio and when I was directly involved in teh niche I used to get people telling me how great this site was without theme even realising it was mine....lol

however you cant keep everybody happy and you need to listen to what your members want and dont get above yourself.

Also when it starts gettin busy you can promote to the members selling them al sorts of stuff and if I ever need couple extra cash I just PM them with a special offer and I always get the extra.

Good luck

Danny

Good luck

I use vBulletin because i see more features here. I know the owner of Forum Logic who has modifyed the phpbb to great extent and made it like vB.

So its good i think. Guys like SMF and phpBB pay good

Vbulletin cost 180 bucks... :p

If your host has cPanel and Fantastico you can easily test several free forums to find which fits you best.
Simple Machines might be good choice. Just google for SMF.
Works great.

I would definitely give MyBB my highest recommendation.
It's very easy to setup & manage, has tons of options and plugins.

This is the script I have selected for my own forum. It also has very nice looking themes.

vBulletin is ferrari of forums and that includes complexity but also an ability to scale and manage super-huge communities online. There is not more powerful online forum software in existence.

Free ones are good if you want to build a forum as add-on to your main business model.

Gleb

use your host and find forum software with fantastico.