Internet forum, bulletin board or message board is place where you can start discussion with many
other users. Forum messages are not removed like chat and any forum member can reply to your messages any time and you can also see them anytime.
There are many popular forum sites with thousands of member. Those forums are filled with lot of useful information. Some of the popular forum are Sitepoint, DigitalPoint etc.
If you are also looking to start your forum site then you need a forum software or script. Here I am listing 5 most popular forum scripts in PHP.
5 Most Popular Forum Scripts
1. vBulletin – Undoubted vBulletin is the best forum software. With its years of experience and great support has made it the best forum software. vBulletin is paid forum script but it is worth to its value. You can find lot of vBulletin templates by third party and lot of support from vBulletin and other places. Most of the successful form use vBulletin.
2. Invision Power Board – Another popular paid forum software. When ever vBulletin is compared it is compared to Invision Power Board. It also comes with lot of features, good support and great resources. There is self hosted and hosted version of IPB.
There is a free hosted version of IPB. You do not get script instant of that you can start your own forum on there domain.
3. phpBB – If you are looking for free forum script then you may end your search at phpBB. phpBB is one of the most popular free forum script. There are plenty of phpBB lover’s community which can provide you lot of help, resources, mod, templates etc.
4. Simple Machines Forum (SMF) – Another popular free forum script. SMF great feature is its integration with other popular script. It is also widely used forum script with lots of support and resources.
5. bbPress – If you are known to WordPress then you must know bbPress by creator of WordPress. Backed by powerful development team and good support can make anyone to choose bbPress. If you are looking to integrate WordPress and forum software then these can be your first choice. It is a powerful forum script which must be conceder while choosing forum software.
So those are the popular form scripts but the question is which one to choose. When you will check those scripts you will find they look similar to each other. All of them come with powerful admin interface. All are theme based so easy to change themes and lot of supports is there for all those script.
If you are planning to build professional forum with thousands of member and post then go for paid scripts like vBulletin or Invision Power Board.
If you are not thinking of a very big forum then go for free scripts. There is always option with paid forum software to upgrade from other scripts. So you don’t have to worry if your members are increasing they will help you to upgrade your forum.
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MyBB also deserves a mention, great coding and fast loading forum script. One thing is its too hacker friendly.
phpbb is the best!
which the forum that is most free spam ???
Mybb is also a Good forum..
and so much sites using that
Do any of these offer social media plugin?
Have you tried checking Vanilla Forums?
I think vBulletin is reasonable & user friendly for your visitors as well as for you according to admin.
Great work…
vBulletin is available for Free ?
No vBulletin is paid software.
great list. phpBB is my favourite!
In my opinion MyBB is the best forum software, closely followed by PhpBB. Both are pretty great for both the user and admin.
bbpress is very basic and ugly.
I think myBB should there too. It’s lot more popular than bbpress, that’s for sure.
Overal, which is the best?
Hi Tony,
It depends on your requirement and how much you can spend. If you are willing to pay then vBulleten is best else phpBB can be a good choice.
Hi Ravi,
I recently installed Simple Machines Forum (SMF) script on my subdomain for forum & I really love. Its easy to manage.
Thanks for your recommendation!
I like SMF (Simple Machines Forum). Because it has many more plug-ins better customization (like WordPress). But one think I’m afraid, All these Free Forum scripts are not that much hacker and Spam proof.
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mybb is also one of the top forum software. i am searching for any new and advanced ajax based forum software if any.
i like smf forum.
Any idea how is the AEF (Advanced Electron Forum)..
Very nice scripts,
i was searching for this from whole day !!
vbulletin good but expensive. i prefer bbpress
very good Forum list… I like ip bord…
Ravi, this is really a great list of best forum scripts. I am using currently phpbb but i was not aware of smf, now I will try this SMF in my next forum site for sure. Thanks a ton for sharing this great information..
Wow, great collection…. Thanks for providing those….. I wish for more collections ……