Best forum software?

[Charger]

I know it often comes down to personal preference and people can be biased and loyal to the software they personally use, but anyhow, what software do you use on your site and how would you rate it compared to others you have used?

I like IPB, I've used it since it was free and continued with it with several paid licenses. Feature wise it is apparently on a par with vBulletin and both of those are ahead of the other board types. So, my vote is for IPB. Although I do like the user interface of vb.

[MadKad]

It has to be VB for me, yes I know it costs but the amount of mods there are and if a bug comes up you can get it sorted quick as you have paid for it, also moding is really really easy I would never go back to any other forum software my self, and there are lots of other programs that intergrade with vb.

I did use phpBB2 but it was really cr*p in my eyes as there are bugs after bugs as soon as you install it there bugs, I just started to hate phpBB2 the moment I tried it.

[Chilipeppers]

It's gotta be between ipb and vb. I haven't used phpbb but I hear you have to mod it to death to get it to compete with other boards for features and I expect that is a right pain when it comes to upgrading to a newer version.

[FilleFolle]

What is that, David? Anyway, I have been to several forums and although I still see a lot of them using phpBB, vBulletin is more user friendly and has more features.

[pcoptimized]

From what I've researched over the months, the common answer among most threads I've ever searched on this topic is vBulletin. I don't use vBulletin, but probably will someday. I haven't read a bad thing about them. It is true most of the time, we get what we pay for.

[modric]

I use SMF. It has enough features for me, maybe not a lot mods though. It's free and you can get it installed on a free hosting or you can install it anywhere with Fantastico. It has a classic serious look and it is not so vurnelable for hacking, I guess. Example. Features.

I've came accross "vBulletin advanced" often lately. Anyone knows - is this an upgrade or a standalone edition? It looks like this. The particular example forum is loading pretty slowly on my computer, I don't know is it a "heavy" script or is it a hosting...

[shyampc]

I have come through several advertisements offering free website forums. It was understood that the major drawback is that the providers of such services place ads on it. It is quite natural that they are providing the service free, and so will be doing something to earn from it.
I wish to know the following;

Will these free providers stop the service and wind up the whole forums that they provided? what will we do if we had a forum with good traffic and members?

Are there any such incidents anyone can point out?

[dforthster]

IPB is good but i dunno how to change the skin not like phpBB so easy just put the template then select as ur default not like IPB too many things to do...and when done got error...now i am using fusion can also be use as ur forum

[neta]

VBulletin is the best for me . and also many feature

and plugin,skin

[dotcompals]

VBulletin is the best IMO.