Free forum or paid?

[hostinfuse]

Hello,
i am thinking of adding community forums in my hosting services as another way of communicating and getting help from us.

first of all is it recommended to do that?
if yes, then should i get a paid for free forum script?

Regards

 

[VirtuBox]

Hello,
i am thinking of adding community forums in my hosting services as another way of communicating and getting help from us.

first of all is it recommended to do that?
if yes, then should i get a paid for free forum script?

Regards

For a hosting community forum, I recommend you Discourse, it's a user friendly and modern forum platform.
NodeBB is also a good alternative

 

[LJSHost]

Always been a fan of MyBB myself, simple yet effective.

 

[BuzzNoc]

if u go free phpbb turned out very good for me never had an issue

paid vb 4.2.x love it!

 

[Life Sayings]

Hello,
i am thinking of adding community forums in my hosting services as another way of communicating and getting help from us.

first of all is it recommended to do that?
if yes, then should i get a paid for free forum script?

Regards

If you want to create a hosting community to support your clients or users then I would suggest trying free forum software first.
Mybb, phpbb, bbPress are good ones to start.

When you have a decent members and posts, you can move to paid forum cms if wanted. This will save your money when starting a forum.

 

[casualhost]

For free I kinda love MyBB

 

[KelvinSmith]

Go for the free version as it will be more than enough for your needs. Once you see an influx of good traffic coming then maybe it's time for a paid solution.

 

[jyy]

Free forum software is great, but be sure you know how to fight spam well. If you can't, then you should go with a paid solution with a spam-fighting reputation. Well, for a hint, one way to stop spam on these free forum solutions is by asking quesitons or asking people to write things backward. However, though, if you're writing questions, then they need to be difficult because spambots are getting smarter. Does anyone have any news of spambots figuring out the whole backward thing?

Oh, by the way, spambots go after paid stuff too, but they seem to take longer in most instances. However, an unprotected free forum solution might get ripped apart in a few days. That seems to often be the case.

 

[joegirl]

Free firzt

I would say try a free platform at first. When your community has grown in numbers, then you can think of using a paid service. Paid scripts have more functionality than free.

 

[Harry P]

Harry P

Why don't you use a paid forum software at first, it will not have problems when you move to a paid forum from a free forum because they can have differences on url structure, data and addons...etc..when you will need more time and money for the migration.

 

[overcast]

I think it depends on your budget. Some people can start with free script forum if they are on low and tight budget. And if you increase your budget then paid script can be purchased. IPB board is the best one in the market. But then there is also VBForum and XENForo. These three forum script are the paid and good script. However in case of the free script like SimpleMachines Forum, Vanilla and MyBB are good enough to start with. I suggest if you are on low budget, start with Vanilla or SMF.

 

[vinaya]

There are many open source forum scripts that are as good as the paid scripts. For example MyBB is not just one of the most used free forum script, it is also most used forum scripts (paid or free).
I don't think it will be a wise decision to spend money on a script when it could be acquired for free. You can use the money you are spending on forum script for the purpose of marketing.

 

[CaygriWEB]

I'm thinking the same things few days ago..but do you think it's very helpfull?

The client use it?

Forum CMS in the last years loose a lot of appeal because Fb and social.

Mybb is good, but now I like a lot Vanilla and is free and the community is very active!

 

[jyy]

I cannot see a real difference among free forum software. However, though, if you're a newbie, then you might prefer SMF (Simple Machines) because it has built-in uploaders for themes. mods, and maybe banners. Also, you might prefer MyBB and SMF because the mod for SEO friendly URLs is free with those packages. In addition, the future MyBB 2.0 will have SEO friendly URLs built-in, with no need for a mod.

Anyway, in regards to premium forum software, you can take your pick among Burning Boards, the cheapest one, XenForo, slightly more expensive, IBP, and vBulletin. They all have various things about them which endear them to their fanboys.

 

[bomb2060]

I vote for Xenforo. Haven't used it for long but for sure it has a good user experience. I like the fact that my members got used to it faster than other CMS. But the look and feel of this forum's customization has made me like Vbulletin even more. I would wish to have a forum that has the look and feel of this forum. It has a very interesting way of displaying the adverts. And a very good real estate for advertisements. Plus it's very colourful.

 

[shilpa]

Yes, you should definitely include these things as they are productive to your business. Moreover, it promotes interactivity and communication among the members and the staffs. And as you have also written, that this way people can seek help from you, then you should do it. It shows how lively and full-fleged a website is, because the more the users interact the more your websites grows.

If you're looking for forum scripts then first you need to use free versions, see how they work, and understand how effective they are. If you think you need more, then you could opt for proprietary scripts or even trial versions and then purchase them if you feel they're good.

 

[Soulwatcher]

I think it all depends on your budget. If you have the money I would go with a paid forum script. Because 90%+ of the people out there looking for a website knows the difference between free forums and paid forum scripts. And the first thing they are going to think of if you have a free forum script is that your some fly by night.

 

[jyy]

There are some people who insist on premium, but it's sort of like people who want the best cars, tennis shoes, and clothes. In other words, there is an unreasonable prejudice against free stuff that is just as good. I mean, I've seen some out of this world designs for phpBB and MyBB. Also, I've seen that these platforms are highly enjoyable, often as much as the premium stuff - so "Is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence?". That's the question.

 

[HostBastic]

Some people like the free option cause they also obtain the source code, which offers the possiblity to create a completely custom project. Not the mention that the community support and shares are quite abudnant. SMF Is a good example of a free forum CMS. There are also some premium CMS's like vBulletin which are solid and secure. Its more of a personal preference and budet situation.
My suggestion would be to take a platform you are familiar with and make it user friendly and decent looking.

 

[MooMooHost]

Vanilla Forums and light and easy, I like it a lot !

 

[manmad]

You don't really have to go for a paid one, forums aren't that alive nowadays either, so you can easily go for a free one and make it look aesthetic, without investing anything, well except for some time.