MyBB vs. phpBB vs. SMF, which one is better for building a forum?

[Harry P]

Did you guys use one of these forum software? I am getting confused while choosing MyBB, phpBB and SMF. According to your personal opinion, which is better? why?

 

[LuxVM]

Did you guys use one of these forum software? I am getting confused while choosing MyBB, phpBB and SMF. According to your personal opinion, which is better? why?

Hello Harry,

While i have used most of these in the past, i find that MyBB in my opinion is better, but thats just me. However you need to install a few spam prevention modules as most of those forums get spam posts by bots/users. So you may want to research on some modules for whichever forum software you choose to prevent that.

Regards,
Adam

 

[Amanda]

Out of that list, I personally prefer either myBB or phpBB. Granted, I've never used them to "build" my own forum. I've only been members on them. I use ProBoards which hosts the forum for free, but also has several other options. Their Forums.net allows you to remove all of their branding, set your own privacy policy and all that jazz. You can also link your own domain with both the paid and free version for a fee per year. The free version has ads, but you can pay for ad-free. Generally, it's a small amount per month depending on the amount of traffic you get. Using the ad-free allows you to have your own advertisements for your members or revenue purposes displayed on the site.

Additionally, it's super easy to customize so long as you know HTML and CSS and there are many quality free themes available through their library if you're not familiar with Web jargon. Also, they make use of a plugin system that gives your forum more functionality. It's pretty neat.

 

[Philippe Gaucher]

I used PHPBB but I am seeing more people are using MyBB for their forum.
Go with which is trending and being used by more people, I think it will be a good choice.

 

[ikalf]

I was before on phpBB, but they had some security issues so I moved to smf, and stayed with them. It covers all the options I need, they have plenty mods and themes to install on.

 

[FerdieQO]

FerdieQO

If I am not wrong then smf is also a free forum cms which always gives some security issues

You should go with a paid forum software to get supported best.

 

[Gecko]

Out of these three forum platforms I like myBB the best. I like the looks and functions of the software and the admin CP much better than the other two. There are so many cool themes for myBB that really can give a forum a cool and unique look which I like.

My second choice would by phpBB and it used to be a distant second but I have seen some really cool looking and functioning phpBB forums lately that have started to close the gap between which of these forum softwares I like.

SMF is ok and there are some good ones that I have seen over the years but it's third out of the choices listed here IMO.

 

[reddyash]

Amongst the three open source forums I will always choose MyBB or PHPBB as both are really good and user friendly.

 

[JohnnyK]

MyBB is certainly my preferred choice for a forum, it's the best alternative to Newbies, it's very easy to use many cool free & premium cool themes/plugins and it's an open software and a good alternative to paid software.