Forum software comparison: phpBB vs vBulletin vs SMF vs bbPress vs IPB

Quite often we all find we need some way of creating a community or communicating with clients in a user friendly way. For this, some of us, will choose forum/bulletin board systems. In this article we will discuss some of the major forum content management systems alongside their pro’s and con’s.

phpBB

Official Site: http://www.phpbb.com/
Official Plugins: http://www.phpbb.com/mods/
Official Templates: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/

First up is phpBB. Currently running on stable version 3.0.5, phpBB offers a whole variety of features that some other boards do not.

As a whole most of the forum packages will offer various user/profile management utilities such as user creation, deletion, profile editing etc. phpBB has an extensive range of additional management functions such as a highly customisable permissions creator, additional security for the end users initial registration (i.e. minimum and maximum password length, maximum username length etc) and user ban management.

One thing that stood out for me when looking through the documentation was the fact that phpBB does not only run with a MySQL backend, but also MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Firebird and SQLite. Something which offers great flexibility and a much broader scope of usage in comparison to other open source CMS. A full list of the feature can be found here.

This particular forum has been around for some time now and has gathered a fairly religious following of developers who have hacked together some fantastic additional scripts and packages. One of particular interest is phpBB SEO. This is a free solution to aid with SEO on all of your pages. These particular individuals lay claim to over six million pages that have been affected by this mod.

SMF

Official Site: http://www.simplemachines.org/
Official Plugins: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/
Official Templates: http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/

SMF (Simple Machines Forum) has always been renowned for its ease of use, simplistic control panel and widespread GUI template creation. The only downside to this package that ive come across is its lack of developer support over some of the bigger names such as phpBB.

The forums do have SEO mods available via the SMF mods website however, in comparison to other developer sites this does not seem to be such a diverse collection. It has to be noted though, a lot of fan sites have set up their own repositories of information, hacks and mods, which don’t go through the official website. A simple Google search should bring these up in mass.

Visually this package is easy to manage, but it somehow felt like a ‘learner kit’ to me. I am a “get your hands dirty” kind of person and as such I feel uncomfortable that this forum is so powerful for such a basic looking. It has a package manager to download and install your updates and various functions to prune log files and users. It’s a ridiculously easy way to administer your forum board.

bbPress

Official Site: http://bbpress.org/
Official Plugins: http://bbpress.org/plugins/
Unofficial Templates: http://bbshowcase.org/forums/view/available-themes

From the makers of WordPress comes bbPress. The previous statement sums up quality of the product as WordPress has made a massive dent in the blogging scene. bbPress prides itself on being:

“Focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed. We’re keeping things as small and light as possible while still allowing for great add on features through our extensive plugin system.”

Well that’s just fantastic… extensive plugins and add-ons, lightweight and fast. In today’s market we need to take into account that speed is also a vital aspect of choosing a suitable CMS, and so far bbPress is the only one to advertise its speed.

bbPress is currently on version 1.0.2 (released in July 2009) and great interest has been shown by developers world wide. Although a relatively new CMS, it is showing signs of growing into a contender with an active and supportive community.

VBulletin

Cost: Prices vary click here for details
Official Site: http://www.vbulletin.com
Official Plugins: See manual
Official Templates: See manual

VBulletin has been around for a while now (pre 2002) and the developers have not slacked since. VBulletin is used widely as a forum solution, however there is a licence cost involved.

Its administration panel is one of the most in depth I have seen though. Very nicely laid out, logical navigation menu with plenty of data on the screen, presented in a readable, visually friendly format.

Due to the fact that it is licensed there isn’t a truly vast following of developers as there is in the open source community. That being said, VBulletin does offer an extremely detailed and powerful administration panel. This, I could imagine, would make managing large forums a lot easier.

In regards to SEO mods, the package (from what I can tell) comes with little SEO functionality and additional work may need to be done. Unfortunately finding open-source/free solutions to this is difficult and its highly likely you will be spending money on another license for an effective SEO utility.

IPB

Cost: Self-hosted licence $149.99
Official Site: http://www.invisionpower.com/
Official Plugins: Available through administration menu
Official Templates: Available through administration menu
Unofficial Templates: http://www.ipbforumskins.com/

Now although the cost may put you off, you have to know a bit more about the product. We have done this in reverse to maintain the article format, however, heres the sales pitch.

Invision Powers forum product is part of a larger machine. Whilst it still works on its own to a high degree of quality, it integrates easily with there other products such as IP.Blog, IP.Gallery & IP.Downloads.

The product does come with a towering after care package in comparison to others also. This is inclusive of design, administration and modification assistance. For further information, refer to the Invision website.

Much like VBulletin, its administration panel is logically laid out. Its very easy to find what you are looking for fast. You can experience this yourself using the demo.

Now as with all previous forum board packages, SEO always seems to rear its head as being an issue, and just like VBulletin, the majority of that packages cost cash. I have found a slightly different DIY SEO solution for IPB care of a gentleman named Patrick Shaw. A free information site so you can… well… do it yourself.

Conclusion

Although free site packages are nice due to low/no cost to implement, you do get what you pay for when buying licenses for higher end packages. Not only for the product itself but for the aftercare that comes with it, the safety knowing that there is always someone who WILL resolve your issue and not depending on the general public to aid you in your time of need.

Saying that, it may be more beneficial for you to go down the open source route, that is, if you can see no potential ROI from purchasing any licenses. If you feel you just need a quick, nippy and lightweight package maybe you should be going with bbPress.

Once again its one of those choices which will differ so as such I cannot and will not attempt to influence you towards a product you do not need.