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Starting Forums: Which should I use PHP Vbulletin, etc.

by accendo
19 replies
I am starting a new forums and was wondering what's the best script to use. Eventually, I want to bring in adsense and banners. I also would prefer free if possible. What do you guys use.
#forums #php #starting #vbulletin
  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    VBulletin is basically the industry standard. I'd go with that.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    Simple Machines is good too..
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  • Profile picture of the author renukoot
    Comparing the Forums - Vbulletin & MyBB are great.
    While Vbulletin is Paid, MyBB is Free Source Code.
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    • Profile picture of the author davezan
      Originally Posted by renukoot View Post

      MyBB are great.
      Another vote for MyBB here. Closest thing I've used to vBulletin in both form and
      function.
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  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    VB with the SEO plug is hard to beat
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  • Profile picture of the author LogoNerds
    VB also has really great mods to help battle spam where many of the other forum software/scripts fall short. Spam will be your #1 issue to deal with
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  • Profile picture of the author Deepak Media
    I recently established a forum a few months back using vbulletin and its awesome. It is well optimized for SE too. its worth the investment. Company keeps working on updates so it is quite secure as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author accendo
    Thanks everyone, I am currently debating between vBulletin and Simple Machines
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    • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
      Originally Posted by accendo View Post

      Thanks everyone, I am currently debating between vBulletin and Simple Machines
      Simple machines is a great freeware but it is really hard to control spam with it plus it really is hard to rank. VB is not seo ready either though .... there is a $35 plug in needed to make it rank-able.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMHunter
    Another vote for VBulletin. It is really a good script.
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  • Profile picture of the author ralphnsk
    My vote is for Vbulletin. I was able to configure it exactly the way I needed with free plugins from vbulletin.org.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slaughter
    Go for vB 3. 4 sucks!

    Check out my forum in my sig. It's the basic install with a few addons and a custom theme. You'll get a feel of what vB 3 is like.
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    • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
      Originally Posted by Slaughter View Post

      Go for vB 3. 4 sucks!

      Check out my forum in my sig. It's the basic install with a few addons and a custom theme. You'll get a feel of what vB 3 is like.
      I have the full VB 4 suite ... I find it rather great lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
    A little info on the most popular recommendations in this thread,
    to help you make your own decision:


    vBulletin is not free, $195 single forum, to $285 for suite

    vBulletin cannot be used with SQLite

    VBulletin & MyBB allow you to set moderators only
    with global and forum settings... SMF allows you
    to also set moderators for specific threads

    VBulletin is English & German, any translation
    SMF has 47 lanugages and can be tranlated

    SMF requires plugin for custom BBCode
    All can allow basic HTML

    MyBB requires plugin for WYSIWYG Editor
    MyBB requires plugin for Trash Can forum

    MyBB does not allow Data Archiving

    SMF can be exported in WAP(2), IMODE,
    vBulletin can be exported in Single Table CSV,
    Single & Multi-Table SQL
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  • Profile picture of the author Premier Plugins
    You could also take a look big-boards.com - Their list shows what type of software each ranked forum is using. You can get a good idea of what each type of forum software is capable of, if you research this list for a while.
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    • Profile picture of the author Slaughter
      Originally Posted by Troy_Phillips View Post

      I have the full VB 4 suite ... I find it rather great lol.
      Yeah.. That was my personal opinion.. It has a whole new level of "suck-ness". I still use 3.8.x since it's the best series of all vB versions.. Again, just my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Baker
    If you want a forum that you can customize to your hearts content, then you want to go with either IPB (Invision Power Board) or vB (vBulletin). They are the 2 industry standards and have the most customizability with literally thousands of modifications to choose from.

    I personally prefer IPB as the Admin Control Panel is more user friendly then vB. From what I remember, you are able to take them both for a test drive for a few days to see if you like it or not, so I suggest doing that.
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  • Profile picture of the author r2r
    Xenforo is awesome. Check it out here
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    • Profile picture of the author vij
      Xenforo FTW - best memory management, better architecture, modern and refreshing!
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