Internet forum, bulletin board or message board is place where you can start discussion with manyphpbb other users. Forum messages are not removed like chat and any forum member can reply to your messages any time and you can also see them anytime.
There are many popular forum sites with thousands of member. Those forums are filled with lot of useful information. Some of the popular forum are Sitepoint, DigitalPoint etc.
If you are also looking to start your forum site then you need a forum software or script. Here I am listing 5 most popular forum scripts in PHP.
5 Most Popular Forum Scripts
1. vBulletin Undoubted vBulletin is the best forum software. With its years of experience and great support has made it the best forum software. vBulletin is paid forum script but it is worth to its value. You can find lot of vBulletin templates by third party and lot of support from vBulletin and other places. Most of the successful form use vBulletin.
vbulletin
2. Invision Power Board Another popular paid forum software. When ever vBulletin is compared it is compared to Invision Power Board. It also comes with lot of features, good support and great resources. There is self hosted and hosted version of IPB.
There is a free hosted version of IPB. You do not get script instant of that you can start your own forum on there domain.
ipb
3. phpBB If you are looking for free forum script then you may end your search at phpBB. phpBB is one of the most popular free forum script. There are plenty of phpBB lovers community which can provide you lot of help, resources, mod, templates etc.
phpbb
4. Simple Machines Forum (SMF) Another popular free forum script. SMF great feature is its integration with other popular script. It is also widely used forum script with lots of support and resources.
simple-machine
5. bbPress If you are known to WordPress then you must know bbPress by creator of WordPress. Backed by powerful development team and good support can make anyone to choose bbPress. If you are looking to integrate WordPress and forum software then these can be your first choice. It is a powerful forum script which must be conceder while choosing forum software.
bbpress
So those are the popular form scripts but the question is which one to choose. When you will check those scripts you will find they look similar to each other. All of them come with powerful admin interface. All are theme based so easy to change themes and lot of supports is there for all those script.
If you are planning to build professional forum with thousands of member and post then go for paid scripts like vBulletin or Invision Power Board.
If you are not thinking of a very big forum then go for free scripts. There is always option with paid forum software to upgrade from other scripts. So you dont have to worry if your members are increasing they will help you to upgrade your forum.
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