Jayson Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 What kind do you use? What do you feel are the best brands? Do you prefer paid or free? What are some advantages with paid and free? For those who pay, do you feel the price you pay initially and for upgrades is worth it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 I'll give Invision ist's due props, but I've always preferred Yabb forums. Well as an administrator I did. I used to run one "back in the day" but took my website down due to the fact that I just quit keeping up with it. I sold the domain a few years ago. It's changed hands several times. I don't even follow it anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 For a long time, I stuck with free forum software, with MyBB being my favourite. It just had a great selection of themes and plugins, both free and premium. But now I'm with XenForo and it really is amazing. Looks great, feels great, and is very easy to use, both as a member and an admin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin11 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Xenforo is a popular choice amongst all forum owners. I love Xenforo too, because it can also enable blog feature integration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empire Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Free are good, not stating that tthey are bad. Most cases I have seen major big sites on Fourms software like MyBB 🙂 I myself are intp fourms and I myself who runs a gaming website and I myself start with free SMF boards before being to IPB 😉 End of the day it's what people like and what people do use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayson Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 I can't see any major differences in any of them, free or paid. Well. paid software has got more stuff "out of the box". However, with free software like MyBB and phpBB mobile ready now - without modification, why pay for software? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egghead Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 I use wordpress for my blog and SMF for forum, both are open source software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin11 Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 I am planning to upgrade from owning a blog to owning my own community, it will take some time, I want to go with paid forum via Xenforo software. I'm building from the scratch without a programming skill, just drag and drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatman Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 When it comes to forum softwares, I would never suggest or support using free software especially when you have a big plan for your website or forum. There are cheaper paid versions of software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin11 Posted April 25, 2022 Share Posted April 25, 2022 It depends on your budget man, when you have tremendous budget, plan, you'll go using better forum software and installing the script suitable to your plan to make it very attractive in nature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatman Posted April 25, 2022 Share Posted April 25, 2022 15 hours ago, Justin11 said: It depends on your budget man, when you have tremendous budget, plan, you'll go using better forum software and installing the script suitable to your plan to make it very attractive in nature. This is actually why I'm completely against using anything free forum software or hosting services because it's not the right way to go about one's forum projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin11 Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 On 4/25/2022 at 6:35 PM, Heatman said: This is actually why I'm completely against using anything free forum software or hosting services because it's not the right way to go about one's forum projects. Yeap, no need for the free forum software you need a paid one to be a self hosted plan, such will make your forum more professional and appealing to your users and other visitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatman Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 11 hours ago, Justin11 said: Yeap, no need for the free forum software you need a paid one to be a self hosted plan, such will make your forum more professional and appealing to your users and other visitors. It's better to take time and do things right when it comes to setting up your new forum with the software, hosting and all because when it's screwed from the beginning, it's going to affect it for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin11 Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 9 hours ago, Heatman said: It's better to take time and do things right when it comes to setting up your new forum with the software, hosting and all because when it's screwed from the beginning, it's going to affect it for a long time. Sureah man, that's why you should do the needful at the beginning of your forum creation, go for quality and not quantity over forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clasher Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 I would pick paid domains as it gives me the liberty to choose the domain name that best suits my brand. If I want to develop my own forum now I would use Xenforo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...