Best Forum Software – vBulletin VS phpBB

I’m sure you came across many discussions debating whether vBulletin or phpBB is better. vBulletin is the best paid forum software, and phpBB is the best free forum software. Today, I will show you the pros and cons of both forum softwares.

The largest difference between the two softwares is that phpBB is free, and vBulletin costs $195.00 for the current version, plus $175.00 for each upgrade. However, there must be reasons for such a difference in price, here are the pros and cons for each forum software:

vBulletin

Pros:

-Better administrative features

-More search engine friendly

-Spam blocker

-Better editor

Cons:

-Limited customization

-Expensive

phpBB

Pros:

-Free

-Lots of themes and mods for download

-Open-source

Cons:

-Not very SEO friendly

-Lots of spam

-Limited administrative features

So far, it sounds like vBulletin is a better forum software than phpBB. vBulletin is SEO friendly, vBulletin has less spam, and vBulletin is much easy to moderate using its administrative features. However, unlike phpBB, vBulletin isn’t open-source. In other words, you cannot freely edit the codes that make up the forum in vBulletin. However, in phpBB, you can freely edit the codes to your liking. You can search engine optimize phpBB by add meta tags and by adding internal links between threads. You can also write an anti-spam function or download a mod that does it for you. However, the administrative features of phpBB still cannot compare to vBulletin, even after modifying phpBB.

Which forum software is better? It depends on your coding skills. Since phpBB is (hence its name) PHP-based, phpBB is for you if you have a sufficient knowledge of phpBB. However, if you do not know PHP, you should go with vBulletin. 

출처 :  http://linksku.com/1/best-forum-software-vbulletin-phpbb/