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PHPBB vs. VBulletin: Which Do You Prefer?

By Kyle Eslick on October 31st, 2008 | Filed Under Forums
Tag(s): , , ,

Today is Halloween here in the United States, so I figured to celebrate the holiday, I would switch from the usual content post and instead solicit input from the WordPress Hacks readership.   I enjoy doing this from time to time to see what kind of discussion we can get going and the comment often end up offering a wealth of knowledge. 

The question for today is for our readers who either run their own forums or enjoy visiting and commenting on forums.   Which forum software do you prefer?  Do you prefer PHPBB forums or VBulletin forums?  

I’ve always loved forums because an active forum allows you to interact with a large number of people and get help quicker than commenting on a post or even doing a Google search (sometimes).  I actually have experience being an administrator and a user of both forum types.    Here is my experience with both types:

PHPBB Forums

PHPBB Pros

  • FREE. 
  • Easy to setup.
  • Easy for just about anyone to use. 

PHPBB Cons

  • Options are limited.
  • Not very SEO friendly (as of version 3.0).

VBulletin Forums

VBulletin Pros

  • Generally better looking.
  • More features. 
  • Plugins/Addons available.
  • More SEO friendly than PHPBB

VBulletin Cons

  • Costs $100-$180.00 per license. 
  • Constant Maintenance/Updates required.
  • Targeted by Spammers.

Both forum types have skins available for free and for sale, so I didn’t mention that above.  It is also important to mention that you can easily convert your PHPBB forum into a VBulletin forum (I’ve read this, haven’t personally tried it).

In summary, as a user, I’ve always felt that to be considered a serious forum, you need to be using VBulletin.  It just looks more professional, has more options, etc.   From an administrator’s standpoint, however, I’ve enjoyed running PHPBB forums more.   VBulletin forums seem to attract a ton of spammy posts and sometimes moderating posts and banning users can be overwhelming (in my experience) and I feel like I have to update the software every few weeks.  It also seems to almost have to many options! 

So that is my experience with both PHPBB and VBulletin.   I would love to hear about your experiences and preferences between the two.  Have any pros or cons to add to the list?  You can write from the perspective of running either type of forum or from the user perspective (reading/posting) on either type of forum.  If you haven’t used either, you are welcome to share your experiences with BBPress.

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There Are 13 Responses So Far. »

  1. 1 EmmaB
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 3:15 am

    I like phpBB because it is free and there are mods to make it SEO friendly. But I personally prefer myBB because it is free and very similar to vBulletin.

  2. 2 Garrison
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 4:19 am

    Neither!

    I prefer Vanilla.

    Have a play around with it at: http://getvanilla.com

    Tons of great add-ons (plugins), lively community and some great has been produced using this forum script.

    To see it in action: http://www.extravigator.com

  3. 3 One Stop Game News
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 5:06 am

    I myself enjoy VBulletin. I have been using it for 2+ years so I know how to work with it. I tried dabbing into PHPBB but I realized why when I can use VB. Sad I know.

  4. 4 Jeffro2pt0
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 5:12 am

    Although Vbulletins price tag is becoming more and more of a turnoff for me, I still love the way it uses Ajax where I can pretty much do forum administration without actually going into the admin panel to do it. Plus, it has quick reply and most of the features I need out of the box.

  5. 5 anak medan
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 6:42 am

    its depends on your pocket…the both of software is good for me…

    Not very SEO friendly (as of version 3.0).

    there are PHPBB seo for knwo… and yeah, i thing its simmilar that vbulletin without vbseo is still the same…

    Targeted by Spammers.

    I thing its depends how you can manage them.. I have blacklisted email + ip adress that have using by spammer.

    thats all… and honestly… Vbulletin is strong … But phpbb can do the same thing to you… ;)

    Regards.

  6. 6 Goob
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 10:15 am

    Invision Power Board all the way for me :D

  7. 7 Monika
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    many years ago I had my first *website* a star trek forum -
    with one of the first vbulletin..

    the star trek forum is down but vbulletin is “my” software ;)

  8. 8 Henry H.
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    Same as Goob, I prefer Invision Power Board. If your aren’t aware of it, you can test the demo of both of them. Because of that I was sold when I used SMF. I have also used a bit phpbb3 but Invision Power Board is the best choice for me.

  9. 9 MRQ.
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    Agree with Henry & Goob - IPB is one of the easiest to use and IPB3 is shaping up to give Vb a run for it’s money at last!!

  10. 10 Wayne Luke
    Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm

    First off, I want to say that I work for Jelsoft and have done so for the last 8 years. So I should be considered biased.

    However I want to point out that newer versions of vBulletin can tie into the Akismet and Typepad Anti-spam systems in order to control this on the forums. Akisment is standard in 3.7.0 and higher while Typepad was added in 3.8.0 (in beta now).

  11. 11 Jeffro2pt0
    Saturday, November 1st, 2008 at 4:04 am

    Now that is a cool feature for Vbulletin to have. Fighting forum spam with Akismet.

  12. 12 John Hoff - eVentureBiz
    Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 11:52 am

    I run the phpBB board on our website, mainly because it comes included in our hosting plans, however I have to admit sometimes it’s a little difficult to work with when it comes to add ons.

    I don’t have much experience with vB but it does seem to look a little cleaner and easier to work with from what I’ve noticed.

    The nice thing about phpBB is there are legions of people out there improving it with add-ons like they do with WordPress plugins.

    I like Vanilla also.

    @ Goob or Henry H. - could you provide an example or two of a Invision Power Board. I’m not too familiar with that one. Thanks.

  13. 13 Ewen
    Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    What about Simple Machine SMF - http://www.simplemachines.org



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