(Forums)YaBB, phpBB or SMF?

[ledeanio]

Hello,

Theres a good choice of forums to set up in cPanel. Does anyone have a favourite?

I like phpBB, but this is susceptable to php attacks and needs upgrading every month.

I like YaBB also as this looks good, but there aren't as many skins as phpBB.

I've not have chance to evaluate SMF yet.

Which one would you/ do you use and why?

I still haven't decided which one to use yet as there are good and bad points for each one.

[eUKhost.com]

I would recommend phpbb and to install phpbb one should choose the option available in phpbb. phpbb releases new version every other month and to prevent any security problems one should install and upgrade it from fantastico

Templates and style restoration needs to be managed properly during upgrades but thats the only thing you need to do to enjoy this free forum software

We had phpbb before vbulletin and Robert had setup very nice theme for it. You can see some screenshot in google's cache as some old threads can be found from google

[ozaidum]

I use phpBB so I recommend using it. For me phpBB is a good forum software. They're user-friendly, have a lot of modules that you can download on the net and you can customize them. But I think customizing a forum's theme is a bit hard for me.

You can also use SMF but I'm kinda bored using it.

[Eidolon]

I would recommend IkonForums www. ikonforums.com, which is set for release very soon from the former Ikonboard developers. There again I'm biased.

[ledeanio]

Hi,

I've finally gone with YaBB. My experience of YaBB was that the setup of the forum was more complex than most, but there are more features on there for board management etc.

It looks different than most boards (which are phpBB) and the design/Template change was easier to do than phpBB.

In terms of speed, it seems ok.

The reason I chose YaBB was that I had a collegue who has been using it for a while, so that gave me confidence to try it. Now the forum is quite busy (busier than the last forum - which was phpBB) and everyone is happy with it. The only issue was the initial config. Next time I will know what I'm doing and it should be setup much quicker.

LD

[rich]

Yea right,,i think the choice of YaBB is not bad infact your collegue has also used it through which you must be knowing the pro's and con's of it so its fine and as long as you are getting visitor's who are keeping the forums busy and you happy i think you have made a good choice. Anyways ATB with the forums

[izzetm]

I use myBB.Because it is easy and free.

[Macdale]

I would recommend to go with phpBB or vBulletin. Both are good and efficient. phpBB offers many unique features and easy to install, upgrade and manage same as vBulletin. The best way to decide it yourself is by comparing the features. You can have a look at the features of both phpBB and vBulletin.

http://www.phpbb.com/about/features/

https://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=features

[DPS Computing]

I've used them all and out of the three mentioned by the OP I would go with phpBB.

Although, as Macdale has said, if you are willing to spend a bit of money then vBulletin is excellent .

[stapolinhost]

My personal choice is SMF.. easy to customise, and lots of security mods available for it as well as tons of free add-on mods.