Good free forum to put on site.

CardinalJ

Hi folks,

Firstly I havn't a clue about webdesign but I'm looking to make a simple website with a forum on it.

Can anyone suggest a good free forum that can be put on a site?

I was told vBulletin was free but apparently not. Is phpbb any use from peoples experience?

Appreciate all advice and appologies if this has been asked countless times, the new search on boards is a bit all over the place.

Cheers.:)

RoyalMarine

phpBB and myBB are decent enough.

however, I much prefer vbulletin... its not that expensive either. last time i purchased a licence i think €150 ish a year.

CardinalJ

Yea I looked at the vB prices earlier and they're not too expensive, however given my minimal experience (none) in this kind of thing I might give the other two a go first and reduce expense. However I suppose the support offered with vB would be a bonus.

Can you insert adverts into the other two as well do you know?

Thanks for your help, anything else anyone can suggest would be appreciated as well.

Cheers

RoyalMarine

the first time i began using Vbulletin i had no idea what i was doing.

However, within a week i had a fully functioning and very well designed website running.

I was in a lucky position where i had a large userbase coming from a previous site, so we had 50,000 members sign up within the first month, and the site ran very smoothly.
It was easy to get support on the forums, and it was even easier to implement bonus features.
Ad's were easy to put up on the forum, both for registered and non registered users.

Ive only briefly used myBB and heard a lot of good about phpBB.

The_B_Man

I use phpBB3, and I find it very good. Lots of free community made plugins too!

Ad support doesnt come built in so you'll have to use a plugin.
"Advertisement Management" is the one I use. You just put in your code in the admin panel and it'll display it wherever you choose. You can also have multipe ads that'll cycle through it and appear more often if you set the priority higher.

stevenmu

If you're buying a standard hosting package, most of them have a control panel that will include common free packages, such as forums, blogs etc, and will enable you to set them up in a few clicks.