Selecting A Forum App

[Pittinose]

IP.Board can handle big traffic. Neowin use it: http://www.neowin.net/forum/

[Luke Morton]

Maybe we should be asking why SitePoint uses vBulletin over free software?!

[beeXtreem]

I'd really recommend trying the demo of IP.Board. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's not like all the others.

http://www.invisionpower.com/products/board/

This actually has all the features I require, along side the blog,downloads and gallery (with fewer features), but its all grossly expensive. to add to that, I don't know how reliable they are, especially with support. I once purchased dolphin, and i must say that for a commercial application, Dolphins support is non-existent. Its solely a community thing.

non-the-less, its great, but expensive.

[beeXtreem]

This actually has all the features I require, along side the blog,downloads and gallery (with fewer features), but its all grossly expensive. to add to that, I don't know how reliable they are, especially with support. I once purchased dolphin, and i must say that for a commercial application, Dolphins support is non-existent. Its solely a community thing.

non-the-less, its great, but expensive.

Just ran the test account, the gallery and downloads are not what I am looking for eventually. but the blog is. all the same too expensive.

[ULTiMATE]

I've always been under the impression that most forum scripts will have those things as addons anyway, even the free ones. I know for a fact that phpBB will have those as I've had them running on boards years ago.

If you're looking for heavy modification then vBulletin is your best bet. The modding community there is second to none.

[ryanhellyer]

Maybe we should be asking why SitePoint uses vBulletin over free software?!

SitePoint has been around for a long time. Back when the forum started (or they transitioned to vBulletin) there would have been no good freebie alternatives. The gap between paid and free forum softwares has shrunk considerably over the past six years. If they were starting from scratch now they may not have chosen vBulletin again (I have no idea).

[DionDev]

Hello,
Please, I'm thinking of setting up a kind of a forum for a client, but I'd like to know whether to go with a paid forum app such as vBulletin, or free such as phpbb. what I'd like to know is the benefits of vBulletin over phpbb, what can be done with vBulletin that can't be done or can't easily be done with phpbb.

I'm already comfortable with phpbb, but would like to know why I would go for vBulletin.

Thanks.

If you've got the money, vbulletin hands down.