Obviously there is some bias here but looking for honest thoughts on what people think are the pro's and con's of each.
I have used each and they all have their strengths and weaknesses.
The last thing I could find on this through a search was from 2012 and wanted to see any updates thoughts about what is out there now.
I run several MyBB and SMF boards. I like both for various reasons. I have/will never run a PHPBB board, I've never liked it at all so I can offer no input on that front (except apathy, but I have no shortage of that).
SMF's biggest downfall is the fact that all plugins (or rather, mods) are still just direct edits to core files, this can get very messy (particularly with upgrading). SMF also lacks a nice templating system, themes are a mess of PHP and HTML. I beleive both of these are changing with the new SMF version (ala MyBB 2 changing everything).
I very much like SMF's pacakage manager. It is possible to search their mod and theme database from within the admin panel and directly install mods that way. It makes it very easy for anyone to use.
I can't really compare the two in terms of performance as my MyBB forum is on a VPS that I pour effort in to optimising and my SMF one is on shared hosting, but SMF seems to perform fine given the difference.
MyBB is certainly my preferred choice for a forum.
Well in my opinion SMF Sucks cause there is a few plugins wich works on the new upgrade.
And no cool themes there software is very old and many people switch SMF To Mybb or paid software.
Phpbb is pretty cool but very hard to install mods you need to edit templates. Also there is Automod but it have a lot of error and sometime wont works at all. the themes is cool and its so hard to chnage forum logo.
Mybb is the best alternative to Newbies, is so easy to use many cool free & premium cool themes/plugins and its a open software a good alternative to paid software.
Acctually MyBB should be a paid software cause its so amazing cant belive its free!!
what are you guys saying?
Mybb does rock in the free world but cannot compare to paid ones. If you want really simple then consider paying.
In all honestly I much rather MyBB over paid forum software, that isn't just because I like free/open-source, but they just don't seem as nice.
vBulletin's admin panel is totally crap (At least it was last time I used it, probably 2-3 years ago, and I don't think there has been a major release since then).
ip.Board isn't bad, but its no longer the focus of the software, the platform is now more of a social things with things like per-user blogs, a store and the forum is just a single part of it.
XenForo is quite nice (and would probably be the only one that'd have a chance of getting me to leave MyBB), but it does generally suffer from the fact that nearly every single XF site I've used looks identical, most likely due to the fact they make it super simple to adjust the colours, so people do that and don't alter much else.
SMF I bought a site powered by SMF. It was a pretty active site so I felt that I should leave the software in place. I really wasn't a fan of it over all. Thought the admin cp was junk along with mods and themes. Needless to say that site was converted to MyBB within two months
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phpBB3 I've only installed it to import a software that wasn't supported by MyBB Merge System. Again I from what I see over all I didn't like it but I didn't give it a chance so I guess it's a poor review. The only thing I can say I like about phpBB3 from an user point of view is the theme is sweet compered to all the other free forums out there. Now once MyBB 1.8 comes out I think it that will change.
MyBB has been my friend for years. It's always been my go to software. There isn't anything bad I can say about it. The theme system is easy to use and customize, it's even better then vBulletin 3's IMO. The plugin system again I love it. I'm not a huge coder but I find it easy to make custom plugins when I need them.
I've run a mix of MyBB and vBulletin sites and I can say hands down MyBB can stand proudly next to vBulletin. Couldn't ask for more from a free software
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(2014-01-24, 02:11 PM)Cameron:D Wrote: [ -> ]vBulletin's admin panel is totally crap (At least it was last time I used it, probably 2-3 years ago, and I don't think there has been a major release since then).
vB5...
(2014-01-25, 02:59 AM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ] (2014-01-24, 02:11 PM)Cameron:D Wrote: [ -> ]vBulletin's admin panel is totally crap (At least it was last time I used it, probably 2-3 years ago, and I don't think there has been a major release since then).
vB5...
Oh, I wasn't aware that was released. It's been a while since I used a VB forum
vB5 is a crap IMHO too lol. We had a terrific discussion thread here...somewhere around September 2012 I think.
(2014-01-25, 09:04 AM)crazy4cs Wrote: [ -> ]vB5 is a crap IMHO too lol.
I know, but I just thought I would correct Cameron as he said there wasn't a major release in a few years.