phpBB vs vBulletin
 

I'm looking at using vBulletin as an internal community system but am being asked to compare it to phpBB. Does anyone have a side-by-side comparison of the two?

I would say vBulletin. Thousands of mods and themes which can be installed within 2 minutes, fast support - vBulletin of course.

Lol, phpBB doesn't even compare too vBulletin :)

Thanks

You're welcome.

You're on a vBulletin site, so you'll most likely get biased opinions. But that's how it is :p.

There are a few threads on our main website vBulletin.com comparing these 2, but for an unbiased opinion i suggest you visit some independent websites that discuss board software.

if anything if your looking at free i would compare Mybb to Vbulletin and with its soon release of its new version its looking to be the best and better than Vb =]

Here are some threads that may be helpful:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=649761
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...t=53516&page=5
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=276207
There are a load of threads about importing phpbb3 forum into vbulletin, so that may say something as well.

Vbulletin is better, but sometimes it depends on what mods are available. For example, the only time we've used phpBB is for a cartoon web site or an A.I. site because more mods were available.

However, even for the A.I. side, we are switching to vbulletin once a new mod is finished.

To be honest, it is always good to understand both. I've taken a lot of phpBB ideas and have always made requests to convert those ideas over to vbulletin. vBulletin is always the first choice.

Really, this question shouldn't even be asked. I've tried both - vBulletin FTW.

You get what you pay for.

babez

I?ve used phpBB for about 4 years, and am using vBulletin for almost a year or so.
I like vBulletin a lot, but I also like quite a few of the phpBB features (their template engine mostly)

It all depends a bit on what you?d like to do with your board, since there are quite a few explanations to give when talking about an ?internal community system?.

If you?re starting from scratch I would suggest to take a look at other forum software as well, like IPB, SMF, Drupal, not sure who they are but the guys who made http://www.colourlovers.com/, etc.

Like the name of this board already mentions, we are all vBulletin lovers over here, therefore it would be hard for us to write an unbiased review.

phpBB=easy to hack and run rampant

vBulletin=far more secure

Experience has shown this, from the perspective of being a site admin on a site whose phpBB got thoroughly hacked by a bunch of Russian hackers. They tried the same on my site after we brought a new site up with vBulletin, and they got smacked down HARD.

I've tried them both as well, and ran both for years.. vbulletin is defiantly the way to go ;)

I've run everything thing in mainstream and Vb by far is the best

----------------------------------

VBulletin all the way. They have the best support and service too.

Just an added note, I also purchased IPB (still have that license) and I was really disappointed, especially with their attitude about upgrading their software. They seemed more concerned about supporting their business-end products, and kept delaying their next version release.

Drupal gave me a headache. And to be honest, I just use phpBB for ideas of things to convert to vBulletin.

As for colourlovers.com, it's a nice site, but how does that relate to this thread? (Unless it's just a plug for your site. In which case, very nice...)

You can't even compare vBulletin to phpBB, simply because vBulletin kills it every possible way. Better security for vBulletin, better customisation for vBulletin, better mods and installation, better features and just about better everything. And that's compared to phpBB3, which still doesn't even have a quick reply feature! As for phpBB2 or the like... just avoid like anything.

I really can't be bothered to list the better features individually, but a few nice ones that vB has as better:

Quick reply (I couldn't go without this)

Easy mod installation with zero file edits most of the time compared to the phpBB file edits for everything.

More security/quicker security patches and such like.

Better at keeping spam out because the vB captcha actually works to any extent, and the question and answer verification kills spam dead most of the time. Or there's recaptcha if you want something different.

Finally, being able to edit the templates through the Admin CP and easily is great, the lack of customisation in phpBB compared to this is apalling (I hate many free pieces of software for the lack of this kind of interface).

I used phpbb for 5 years, installed tons of mods. I know almost all about phpbb.
I also used SMF for two years I am still using both of them and now use vbulletin.
what a waste of time. should have started with vbulletin from the very beginning but those are all free communities so do not want to spend much money on them

I have lost so many hairs in phpbb... but I've them back with vbulletin. get it? :)

I asked myself the same question time ago, and = vBulletin all the way!
I won't run nothing serious on phpBB, great effort tough, but still we have everything here :)

But to be fair, you are forgetting that phpBB has arguably more modding communities than vBulletin. I think Gaia-Online (often considered the world's largest forum) is a great example of just how many mods do exist for phpBB. Quick reply, obviously, exists for phpBB as do a number of other so-called exclusive vB features.

It may be free, but having complete access to the source code also gives it an advantage, to some extent.

Anyone that owns a vBulletin license has complete access to the source code as well. ;) I think you are trying to say that anyone can download and see the source.

Vbulletin has better hook system, vbulletin has better security.
phpbb has better template system, better default design, better admincp(more modern design)

Saying it has a "better" or "more modern" design is opinion, not fact, and shouldn't be considered when comparing the two boards. After all, what looks good to you may not look good to someone else.

if phpbb wasnt so frikin easy to hack, then i think it would be among some of the best forum software. but its go too many flaws and too many internal exploits. SMF and IPB are also some of the most secure board software out there.

I've used phpbb3 and i would have to say that vBulletin comes in ftw.

Its really a matter of functionality, and great interface, and vBulletin scores 10 on all of these and much much more.

As said before, you get what you pay for. simple and clean.

Here is a side by side comparison of vbulletin and phpbb.

This is a scientific comparison with every detail between the 2 forums compared.


VBulletin:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2008/07/18.jpg



PHPBB
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2008/07/19.jpg


Do you have any more questions I can help you with??? I think that pretty much sums it up.

:)

I don't think phpbb(3) is that bad ^^

It should be something like this : (If you know these cars then you will understand the difference)

vBulletin :
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/

Phpbb3
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2008/07/17.jpg

Vbulletin is my first choice, but don't think phpbb is any bad.... best of all its free :)
The only problem is that its for advanced users, It takes a lot of time to even install a small mod as compared to few clicks here and there in vb!

Again, I disagree. Mods in general are for more advanced users. Considering that Jelsoft offers professional installation services, it shows that not everyone will have an easy time with vBulletin.

I can respect that statement.

Ok then, how about this? The internet is like a warzone, with constant attacks and security issues. If you are going to defend your website against hackers, which one would you rather use?

VBulletin:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2008/07/15.jpg

PHPBB:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2008/07/16.jpg


I think those are fair comparisons.

don't confuse good common sense business practice as making something not easy. It only makes sense to increase revenue to offer such a service during purchasing.

If phpBB3 were commercial, they'd offer the same service as both setups and installs are the same (create database, create user, assign permissions, click next button 15 times)

The whole point is that vBulletin is the Best! Capish?

Well, here's the deal: I have played with half dozen of these forum products, the free ones and vBulletin. phpBB is available everywhere, but it is feature poor. Try, for example, to get a true Contact form mod for phpBB 3. Maybe there's one now, but vBulletin includes that as part of the standard install.

I tried SMF, and I like it's features, but the interface is poor. For example, by default signatures appear in a smaller typeface, even though one's customized signature is an important part of community involvement. For the new SMF version under development now, I tried a Contact form add-on, but it only works on the default theme, and that's true with most of their "packages," or mods. You have to hack them to make them work for most other themes, even the extra ones that come with the default installation. They have a good installation setup, however, but some poor decisions about the design were made early on.

MyBB is a free vBulletin knock-off, with a good feature set. But my brief involvement as a beta tester in their upcoming 1.4 version showed an incredible degree of incompetence and a lack of maturity on the part of its young development team (lead programmer is 15). I actually had a decent-sized MyBB forum, and underwent a little pain migrating to vBulletin, because of bugs in MyBB.

That forum can be accessed at http://forum.theparacast.com, if you want to try it out for size, particularly if you find the subject matter of interest. It has 12 mods, a decent number of template alterations (minor) to customize the look and feel to my obsessive/compulsive standards. I don't know a lick of PHP, but did 95% of this myself with little difficulty, and asked some mod developers for advice and code for the rest. Feel free to see how things function from a member's standpoint, and try free forum software, too, if you must on test boards and then decide.

I'll never go back to free, at least for this sort of thing. If you depend on a forum as a part of your business activities, the price of a vBulletin license isn't terribly high in the scheme of things. Nor are the annual renewals. Here in the U.S., a couple of tanks of gas gets you a vBulletin license.

Peace,
Gene

At the end of the day, this discussion could go on all day -- it still won't prove anything. There will always be critics -- that's a fact. Some will say this discussion if from a biased pov, others' will disagree. It's up to the person to decide which forum software they choose -- just check the features list, and try the demos and see which you find more user-friendly and more comfortable.

This forum is also not exactly the best place to ask this kind of question without expecting a biased response. The only people against vBulletin here would pretty much be trolls attacking it to annoy people since the fans of other software would be at that's forum's support community...

When I saw one of their lead developers arguing AGAINST a paid subscription modification, I was wondering what the problem was.

One of the programmers or members made the suggestion of including a "Paid Subscriptions" section - like what VB has. The reply back from one of the lead developers was reasons why "not" to have such a function.

I thought to myself, why would anyone not want a way to make money?? Oh well, I guess they think everything should be free. When I saw the replies, I knew myBB was not commercial grade forum software, nor will it ever be with that kind of attitude of the developers.

This is all that has to be said, I'm very happy with Vbulletin and wouldn't switch back :)

Right you are. But after moving from vBulletin and back again (don't ask), I have found a really great community here. I've been using over a dozen mods on my various forums, and I'm pleased that the authors have been happy to work with me to resolve problems and, sometimes, even add a few tweaks to fulfill my obsessive/compulsive needs. :)

That's really a very important commodity. The purchase price of vBulletin isn't high in the scheme of things, but all the free stuff available makes it a lot more useful.

Peace,
Gene

I am not bias at all when it comes to forum software. I hate PHPbb with a passion. I hated cutting and pasting code into files and then trying to troubleshoot it with limited tools.

That's a bias my friend. But you seem to have a valid reason.

Peace,
Gene

XD @ "not being biased" and yet still endlessly trashing phpBB.