Hi,
I've been given the task of researching the best forum software for my company's website and ultimatley implementing and maintaining it. I've looked at a number of reviews and phpBB seems to be a good free option and vBulletin as the best pay option, at the moment I think we want to go with the free option unless there are really good reasons why the paid option is better. Our site is developed with .NET and I'd need to be able to give a theme to the board so it looks like the rest of our site and it would need to be pretty easy to install as I'll be learning this while I go along. Other than the ones I mentioned, what forum software is worth my looking at? Is there one that would complement a .net environment?
Any information and advice would be really useful.
Alex

Try Yet Another Forum - it's written in ASP .NET (and it's free), so it would probably be a good option for you.

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The Oldiesmann
SMF Webmaster
SMF+Gallery2 Integration Project - RC1 now available!

Vbulletin and PHPbb are both written in php, which would mean you'd need to check support for them, they are both templated so putting in a template that looked like your site wouldn't be too much work for you, As your using .net, maybe go with what Oldiesmann suggested, i don't use windows servers for websites so would be unsure on that front.

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Cool, thanks for the advice guys, I'll have a look.

Try phpBB, MyBB, SMF, etc. They're all good in their own ways; Also simply setting up Xampp will allow you to easily run these applications using PHP, MySQL, & Apache

If you want a free one use MyBB. Its really nice I run one forum with it and I like it and if you dont mind buying one get vBulletin (I run a forum with vB too), which is really really nice

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Will Stumpf - TalkNikon
Submit your sites -> Quality Link Directory

I am so in love with vBulletin, I'd be hard pressed to recommend any other message board software, free or proprietary. A license is worth every penny in my estimation. You can play around with a demo vBulletin by going here: vBulletin.com
Or have you already tried it? If you do decide to go with vBull, and you need any assistance setting up the database, uploading the files, etc. I'd be happy to assist you -gratis.

I'll leave it to someone like Oldiesman to provide any information on the technical desirabilities of vBull. But the php is scripted like a symphony. The plasticity of forum design possibilities is also a plus.

Best of luck!


B.

Personally, I recommend vBulletin (commercial grade software). It's not only packed with features, but it has a fantastic user interface, and is extremely customizable (in other words, you can do just about anything with it). vBulletin is also very secure, and very reliable.

If you would rather go with a free piece of forum software, then I would recommend MyBB, which also has a nice interface, and a great set of features.

Before making a decision, however, be sure to check out the software demo system here at AF.

Chris

I think you articulated the fundamental desirabilities of vBull with exceptional eloquence. Yes, the user interface is awesome!


B.

Thanks, Brandr!

Chris