What brands of forum/blog software do you prefer?

[Jayson]

Why do you make that choice? How about in regards to free or paid stuff? For instance, what is your favorite free forum/blog software? What is your favorite considering a paid criteria? There can be more than one answer!

 

[DudeThatsErin]

I prefer IP.Board or MyBB, personally, but it seems more people nowadays use Xenforo.

 

[Jayson]

I prefer IP.Board or MyBB, personally, but it seems more people nowadays use Xenforo.

Why?

 

[Lord Saru]

I am not sure why but I only use phpBB for my forums. I understand that softwares like Xenforo are extremely useful and really wonderful but my general strategy is to use it only when I have a mature community.

That, I think helps me to make better investment choices.

 

[Ash]

MyBB has always been my personal favourite because of the great choice of plugins and themes it has for free. But after purchasing XenForo recently for my new project, it has to be the best forum software out there for me. It's easy to use, looks great and has some great features out of the box

 

[Jayson]

I prefer to use XenForo - only cause that's what I'm used to. Honestly, though, I could use free brands - cause with enough DIY adaptation, they can work just as well.

Well, a major downside to paid forums - is that you can save a huge amount of money, and get the same quality with just some DIY stuff as well as mobile optimized themes. Well, imagine if you could do some DIY work yourself and only pay 30 USD for a theme vs yearly updates costing 50 dollars or more.

Other Paid Services:

I can't see the advantage with XenForo - though many have noted that Vbulliten was terrible. Iv'e seen some of this myself, but I don't know if it's the software or bad owners.

 

[Hungry Ego]

I used to be a vBulletin guy when they were in their prime (3.8.x) phase, but then xenforo came around and it is now my software of choice.
Probably because it is made by the same key team that ditched Vb when it was bought out by another company, and a group of devs went solo to make Xf...

who knows though...

 

[PGen98]

I've run the gamut with forum software in my time, starting way back when I first discovered a forum using Madrona Park/UBB in the late 90s, then I followed that for a bit until vBulletin started up, though didn't purchase my own until 2001 or so when the 2.0 branch was out and stable. I still kept a close eye on UBB in those days, as well, keeping my "UBB.Classic," as it became known" license for a good while. I also spent a lot of time tinkering with the free side of things, software such as iKonBoard during its' heyday, phpBB in its' 1.4 days, early IPB, WBB when it was essentially just a freeware rip-off of vB (and still have a license for that to this day), OpenBB before it fell apart, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Today if I'm going to rely on a freeware product I tend to look at FUD, Flarum or MyBB, but honestly if I'm going to take a project seriously I like paid software, and that tends to be XenForo or WBB.

 

[_B_]

In terms of free software, MyBB is probably my favourite and the one I use for my current site. It’s absolutely amazing for something that’s free and you can turn it into something great. I’ve also tried out phpBB and SMF.
However, I really love Xenforo. I’ve been a member on other forums for years now and I’ve just really liked how good Xenforo is. It’s built mobile friendly feature is really great and simple and modern layout.
I would use Xenforo on my site but don’t have the money and I’ll be honest for now, the costs outweigh the benefits. But who knows, I might in the future. However I’m really content with MyBB.

 

[Jayson]

I would use Xenforo on my site but don’t have the money and I’ll be honest for now, the costs outweigh the benefits.

A person could save by not getting the updates. I mean, someone could skip a couple of upgrades without real damage to a site probably.