MyBB Community Forums

Hello, I want to create a forum for personal uses (so, no for profit, just a hobby) and I have been doing some research on forum creation tools.

I have seen vBulletin is the standard for big projects, but it is not free. Instead, myBB, phpbb and smf are free forum creation tools. I have been googling quite a lot, but I cannot make up my mind, since:

1. Opinions are very wide, and it looks like many people say the tool they are using is the best, irrespective of intrinsic qualities
2. Some posts are old, so possible inconvenients of a tool may be non-existing with a new version of the software

My question is:

for which kind of user do you think myBB is best? (in comparison to phpbb3 and smf)

I want simplicity, easy of management, and have enough options such that I do not feel in a few months I am lacking some characteristics. And a tool that is widely used, such that it does not cease to exist in a few years.

Thank you!

You're at the Official MyBB Community forums - welcome by the way - just about the only thing you're going to hear from us is that MyBB is right for you.

Maybe it would be best for you to install all the scripts that you are considering and have a play around with all of them. Since they're all free, all you're 'wasting' is your time.


Best of luck in whatever you choose to do.

(2009-04-02, 11:44 AM)Ryan Loos Wrote: [ -> ]You're at the Official MyBB Community forums - welcome by the way - just about the only thing you're going to hear from us is that MyBB is right for you.

Maybe it would be best for you to install all the scripts that you are considering and have a play around with all of them. Since they're all free, all you're 'wasting' is your time.


Best of luck in whatever you choose to do.

Thank you for the welcome!

Maybe there can be fair statements, like: mybb is best for you if (...); phpbb is best for you if (...); smf is best for you if (...). This is what I have been unable to find.

Ah yes. I see.

Unfortunately I am only really familiar with MyBB, and a little tiny bit with phpBB. Almost none with SMF.
So I'm afraid I would be fairly biased.

Hopefully someone else can help you out though. =]

I have used all three of the mentioned forum software and for the beginner that just wants out of the box, runs first time, I think that SMF is best. That being said, if you later decide that you want to add features and/or custom mods to your forum, MyBB is great and the support staff here is second to none. As far as phpbb goes, I used to use phpbb 2.x and ran into so many problems trying to upgrade to phpbb 3.x, that I just trash canned the whole phpbb forum.

~Rich