vBulletin or IPB? - UK Web Hosting | Dedicated Server Windows and Linux VPS Forum

**Ben** · #1 (**permalink**) 01-06-2007, 17:35

I am planning my domain registration service and I have decided that I'll be wanting a forum for the website hosting as well so sales and support queries can be posted within the forum. I am about to do demos of both vBulletin and IPB but I would like anyones recommendations on both. Which one do you think is best? Thanks.

**flesso** · #2 (**permalink**) 01-06-2007, 17:58

My 2 cents has to go to vBulletin. It's the industry choice for forums, the program is mainly for medium to large businesses. From what I know, IPB has some issues with anonymous posters and spammers. I have had a good mess around with my own installation of vBulletin and find it very nice in all ways, the admin interface and mod interface are both separate which makes life much easier, especially if you like to keep the 2 separate and have multiple moderators.

**WelshTom** · #3 (**permalink**) 01-06-2007, 18:21

Niether :P

phpBB3 all the way.

Reasons:

* It's free
* It's open source - everyone should support open source
* Because it's free there is more modifications
* It's cleaner, faster and more powerful than IPB and VB

**flesso** · #4 (**permalink**) 01-06-2007, 18:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas

Niether :P

phpBB3 all the way.

Reasons:

* It's free
* It's open source - everyone should support open source
* Because it's free there is more modifications
* It's cleaner, faster and more powerful than IPB and VB

Thomas, please tell me a large website hosting which uses PHPBB 3.

**WelshTom** · #5 (**permalink**) 01-06-2007, 18:26

Royal College of Nursing with hundreds of thousands of members who are planning on using phpBB 3 in the near future.

phpBB itself :P

And anyway, it doesn't matter if it isn't being used by large companies. It's good to be unique, and what's the point of paying when you can have a more powerful board for free?

You could spend the money more wisely like on marketing rather than wasting it on expensive software which to be honest isn't needed.

**Ben** · #6 (**permalink**) 01-06-2007, 18:26

I still have loads of time to choose what bulletin-board I should use. vBulletin is really good feature-wise but both IPB & vBulletin have frequent security issues. Thomas has linked me to phpBB's v3 RC1 forum and its really good I like the design. I might be going with phpBB but I may change my mind so any recommendations is appreciated.

Thanks for all your recommendations so far!

I'm test driving every BB at moment

**paul** · #7 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 05:57

phpBB3 seems more spider built and hence it would be more search engine friendly than earlier version and I believe this should be more secured than PhpBB2.

**Ben** · #8 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 07:33

Thanks for your recommendations there Paul. I have had a look at some of the admincp features of phpBB3 and it had so many more features you could possibly need.

**Eidolon** · #9 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 11:49

I think it's a case of if you want a lot of advanced features and are going to use stuff that is only available in the paid software then by all means use VBulletin or IPB. Otherwise it's far more cost effective to use one of the many free softwares.

A comparision can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...forum_software though slightly annoyingly they've split the article into 3 categories (ASP, PHP, Other).

**flesso** · #10 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 11:55

Eidolon, thanks for that. It seems to give a good comparison against the paid and the free ones. After that, I think I'm going to stick with vBulletin because it ticks all the boxes.

**Ben** · #11 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 11:56

Thanks for that, Eidolon I think I may choose phpBB and at any time I need to upgrade to a paid forum software I'll choose from there.

**Hallief3** · #12 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 14:30

I'd liked phpbb when i started, however they still have not produced a final phpbb3 that is stable or not in RC stage. Feel free to correct me if they have produced it.

**Ben** · #13 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 16:42

They haven't released a final product of phpBB but phpBB3 RC1 is released but I still don't recommend using it until a stable release is available. You can visit this topic for more info: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewt...601320256680ba

**rocklee0891** · #14 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 17:20

IPB would be safer I believe. But vb more customizable. Or so I've heard.

**DPS Computing** · #15 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 20:44

No questions asked. No gray areas. vBullitin all the way

.

**Olie** · #16 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 21:05

vBulletin, rarely had a problem and if I did submitted a support ticket and had an answer from a developed within 2 hours.

**flesso** · #17 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 21:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olie

vBulletin, rarely had a problem and if I did submitted a support ticket and had an answer from a developed within 2 hours.

That's the good thing with the paid versions, that you can actually get official support and makes it much easier the fact that they use a ticketing system.

**DPS Computing** · #18 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 21:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by flesso

That's the good thing with the paid versions, that you can actually get official support and makes it much easier the fact that they use a ticketing system.

Yes, it is very like web hosting in that respect. If you pay for it you get the support.

However with vBullitin don't you have to pay for the license to use it and then pay extra for the support? (or at least the phone support?).

**Ben** · #19 (**permalink**) 02-06-2007, 21:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by DPS Computing

Yes, it is very like web hosting in that respect. If you pay for it you get the support.

However with vBullitin don't you have to pay for the license to use it and then pay extra for the support? (or at least the phone support?).

I think you get e-mail support but to get phone support you have to pay for a phone support contract (basically, an extra monthly payment).

**rocklee0891** · #20 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 02:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben

I think you get e-mail support but to get phone support you have to pay for a phone support contract (basically, an extra monthly payment).

Yeah, they all have free email, and forum (naturally) but phone's different, they have different packages, in which you pay more, get more months of phone support.