IPB or VB?

They have: 4 posts

Joined: May 2006

Well I have decided to buy forum software for my website.

In your opinion, which forum software is better? IPB, or VB?

-Rusty

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

Vb... Imho

He has: 698 posts

Joined: Jul 2005

I've only used IPB as an admin, so I can say that it is great on both ends, but I've heard a lot more better reviews about VB. Wink

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

I'd go with vB because the biggest forums on the net use it. I would say it's the industry standard. Smiling

They have: 34 posts

Joined: May 2006

I choose IPB. Smiling

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

I haven't looked into IPB that much but I've used it on a few other forums and I like it better than vB in a lot of ways. I guess it depends on what you can do behind the scenes. I do think that IPB looks and feels more modern than vB.

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,956 posts

Joined: Jun 2002

Seems to be a case of what you need it for. IPB is better in terms of looks and the code it produces, but vB's add-ons (or hacks) system is second to none. It allows you to add hacks without the worry of what you're going to do when you have to upgrade the product.

vB is the defacto standard, although it isn't standards compliant (neither is IPB, but is the lesser of the two evils). I haven't really used IPB but playing with their live demo ( http://www.invisionpower.com/ip.dynamic/products/board/demoaccount.html ) their Admin CP seems better organised. The vB demo is available at: http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

Otherwise both boards seem very similar!

a Padded Cell our articles site!

etech-peter's picture

They have: 129 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

Go for vBulletin, it has more features than IPB and there is not much difference between yearly license fees of vBulletin and IPB.

They have: 9 posts

Joined: May 2006

i dont know but i use phpbb

WebMaster94's picture

He has: 37 posts

Joined: May 2006

Sorry, but I don't use either of those, but from what I've heard vBulletin is pretty good.

They have: 4 posts

Joined: May 2006

What about for modifiying?

I'm moderatly php/mysql literate, and when I used to run a IPB 1.3.1 forum. I remember it was very easy to mod, and I wrote several of my own mods for it. In your experience, which board is easier/better to mod, IPB 2.x.x or vB 3.x.x?

Thanks for your replies;)
-Rusty

He has: 57 posts

Joined: Apr 2005

IPB and vB are both good. They have different features. As someone else mentioned, vB is like the industry standard.

Before you buy something though, I would suggest tht you also look into the free bulletin boards. Just to list a few that seem to be good:
http://simplemachines.org/
http://www.xmbforum.com/ - Never used this one
http://newsboard.unclassified.de/

You might also look at http://opensourcecms.com/. It has demos of all of the open source software. PhpBB 3.0 is also on its way, so keep an eye out.

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Sep 2009

I choose IPB, I use it on 3 of my sites. I have admined large Vbulletin forums before but honestly I just decided to go with IPB as a personal choice and really enjoy the new version.
Demo : (link removed)

They have: 25 posts

Joined: Sep 2009

VB is very popular.

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