[NTLDR]

As far as the vB2 versions of vBindex and vbHome (lite) are concered the main difference is with the code (PHP) and the templates, they both have pretty much the same functions, like news, latest threads etc.

vbHome (lite) has two columns, vBindex has three;
vbHome (lite) has valid XHTML templates, vBindex doesn't;
vbHome (lite)'s source follows the same rules vB3 has, vBindex is layed out the way I find best;
vbHome (lite) requires the copyright is left in place, vBindex doesn't;
vbHome (lite) comes with a backend file for RSS IIRC, vBindex doesn't.

At the end of the day try them both and go for the one that best fits your need, they don't take long too install after all.

vBindex 3 is a significant improvement over 2.1 including many more options, fully XHTML 1.0 valid and is much more user friendly then the vB2 equivilents.