Looks like I'll be integrating a forum into my site. I have no problem buying vbulletin, but I am not really sure why I should... is it really worth it when there are so many good free ones? What do you use, and why do you like it? What forum offers the best/easiest integration with amember, or are they all the same in that respect? Pitch away... I need good advice on which one to go with.
I've always used vBulletin. It's probably the best. It DEFINITELY was the best 2005-2008 era... not sure if any other forums have been able to catch up since then. Extensive plugin community is always nice.
I also use vBulletin, but have seen/heard a lot of good things about PHPBB and IP Board as well. I have a question regarding forums as well. Does anyone know of forum software that allows users to submit new threads and/or reply to threads directly from email?
PHPBB3 works well- havent heard of an email based system- but perhaps you can use a mailing list system that creates an archive? David
I have all forum software. I don't think that vBulletin is nearly as good as it used to be. vBulletin 4 forum only is good but very expensive and there are a diminishing number of add-ons. If you're looking for additional functionality, I'd say that Invision Power Board provides a much better commercial product and at a lower price, for example, the gallery, downloads and other modules are much more advanced than vBulletin. Also to look at is Xenforo, which is pretty awesome for a beta release. Take a look at that one and you can decide if you like the way it works. It's quite different than the others. If you're looking free, phpbb is good and does the job. MYBB is a good barer bones package. I personally prefer the paid ones.