Best Forum Software

If you looking to start a web forum on your site to give it a more community look, than here is the list of 5 Best Forum Softwares -

1. Vbulletin - Used by 100's of thousands of websites, VB is undoubtedly _the_ best forum software available in the market. The only problem is, its NOT cheap. 1 year license costs $100, permanent license costs $180 and some custom mods created by users costs little more too. You can try a admin demo of vBulletin here though http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

2. PhpBB - PhpBB is the second most popular forum software after vB and its Free. Its been used by thousands of websites on net hence its tested well and has good support too. Though in the past it was targeted by hackers but now it has become more secure and you can safely use it.

3. SMF (Simple Machines Forum) - SMF is alot newer than PhpBB but has come a long way since its inception in 2005. SMF looks some great themes and huge user base which phpBB has but its considered to be alot safe (may be because it's new and secure code). They seems to be having decent support as well.

4. IPB (Invision Power Board) - Another old horse in forum softwares though it is NOT free and cost $149. I am not very sure why someone want to go with IPB with this cost if vB is their for $180, but still it may be just me. Their are many sites and forums running on IPB. The good thing is, they provide 6 month support for Free unlike vBulletin which charges money for support. You can explore the site and software with demo to understand it more. It does have some good list of addons to make it more feature rich.

5. MyBB - My Bulletin Board is another php/mysql based Popular and Free forum software. I think this will be the 3rd Most popular free forum software after phpBB and SMF.

Other than these, their are Plenty of other php/Mysql based Free forum softwares available like FudForum, Vanilla and PunBB