Best Message Forums? Free or Paid

[WebCrazy]

Not sure if this is the right place for this or not but I know I will want a message board on my website and was wondering which is the best to use? I notice this one is a vBullentin and looks nice, is this a free version or paid and is there a real difference between free and paid?

[harry]

vBullentin is most popular and widely used message board. Unfortunately it's not a FREE product. You will have to pay good amount to get it's license copy.
Well, if you are looking for FREE edition(Open Source forums) then you can consider phpbb, yabbforumm, SMF, mybb etc...
Personally i will advice you to consider PhpBB message board which is widely used.

[Catherine]

vBulletin is definitely the most feature rich and powerful forum application available. It has got all the features a discussion board needs and hence it's the best option, however, as it's a paid application, you need to purchase it's license. You can check it's licensing fee on it's official website and consider it if you can afford it.

[WebCrazy]

Thank you both for your advice. I like the vBullentin board and will check out the price but will also look into the phpbb you mentioned to see if 'free' might be worth it.

[Caboodle]

Well, if you are looking for FREE edition(Open Source forums) then you can consider phpbb, yabbforumm, SMF, mybb etc...

I didn't even know those were free. Interesting! I may want to try one of those, just to see how well a message board might do on my site.

[WeRollin]

I disagree with all of the above! I am an IPB fan at heart. Not sure what the pricing is like now but I'd guess it is somewhere close to vB as it always has been. I think the ACP is a lot easier to use, the layout is nicer, etc. Though the vB modding community is obviously huge.

[WebCrazy]

Hmmm, don't think I have heard of IPB but will look it up and check it out. I just want to make sure I'm getting one that I want. Is this board easy to use and set up from the Admin panel? Thanks for the info.

[HostSeeker]

To be honest, I'm a big fan of MyBB. It's free (open source) and it is really customizable. It has almost all the modifications that vBulletin has, and a really professional support forum. From the paid forum scripts, vBulletin is number one, followed closely by WOWbb and IPB.