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You want to build a forum but you don’t know which software to use? Cry no further! There are some of the finest forum scripts that can give you all that you desire in community forum and much more. Some are paid while some are free but any one you choose, be sure you’re going away with one of the finest forum software on the internet that is well maintained.

Internet-Forum-Software

You can read the previous article on How to build Internet Forum.

You already know the value of having internet forum that’s why you’re here but in case you’re yet to know, Internet forum is the best means of building community of people with similar interest on any topic. You can make unlimited income from a forum if well established and properly managed. Below are some of the finest software you can deploy to have your own forum. They are listed in no particular order.

1. phpBB (Free) – This is a free flat-forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or can power your entire website. With an extensive database of user-created modifications and styles database containing hundreds of style and image packages to customize your board, you can create a very unique forum in minutes.

No other bulletin board software offers a greater complement of features, while maintaining efficiency and ease of use. Best of all, phpBB is completely free. We welcome you to test it for yourself today. If you have any questions please visit our Community Forum where our staff and members of the community will be happy to assist you with anything from configuring the software to modifying the code for individual needs.

2. IP.Board ($175) – P.Board is the leading solution for creating an engaging discussion forum on the web. supports categories, forums and sub-forums in whatever hierarchy makes sense for your community. Each category and forum has individual permissions and settings, allowing you to precisely determine who can access what, and what they can do with it. There’s also Redirect Forums, which appear in your forum listing as normal, but link to a URL you define – great for directing users to documentation or other important pages.

3. Vanilla Forum (Free) – Vanilla allows you to create a customized community that rewards positive participation, automatically curates content and lets members drive moderation.

Vanilla provides hosted and open source community forum software that powers discussion forums on 664,709 sites. Built for flexibility and integration, [According to the makers] Vanilla is the best, most powerful community solution in the world.

4. vBulletin ($249) – vBulletin is no doubt the most popular Forum software on earth used by some of the finest and biggest forums and other websites. It is complete in every aspect and well maintained. The only constraint is probably the cost of purchasing the license.  A new license goes for $249.00 while the upgrade is $209.00. The mobile suite is currently at $399.00 and the upgrade is $359.00

5. SMF (Free) – Simple Machine Forum almost equals vBulletin in many ways. It is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes. Its powerful custom made template engine puts you in full control of the layout of your message board and with our unique SSI – or Server Side Includes – function you can let your forum and your website interact with each other.

SMF is written in the popular language PHP and uses a MySQL database. It is designed to provide you with all the features you need from a bulletin board while having an absolute minimal impact on the resources of the server. SMF is the next generation of forum software – and best of all it is and will always remain completely free!

6. XenForo ($140) – XenForo was founded and build by group of people who formerly worked at vBulletin. New but quality in every aspect and coming from people who are already familiar with industry standard, you can expect nothing but a robust forum software that adhere to modern web standard including the HTML5. Human-readable URLs, semantic HTML with embedded microdata, and many more SEO features are present in the very core of the system.

7. MyBB (Free) – MyBB is a free open source form software that allows you to build a clean community forum in no time. A lot of thought has gone into the MyBB interface to make it easy to use. MyBB uses a standard discussion board structure, so your visitors will feel familiar with the way MyBB works. Your visitors can use the MyBB user control panel to change the way they view discussions. They can also easily start and reply to discussions and markup their posts. The forum administrators and moderators can use MyBB’s inline editing and moderation features to control discussion and keep the forum tidy.

8. BBPress (Free) – Created by the same people who behind WordPress (Automattic) BBPress is one of the simplest and lightest forum software around and integrates smoothly with WordPress. Like WordPress, it is also free and has thousands of in house and volunteer developers working day and night to maintain it, you sure to be in safe hands. However, it too simple to some people liking.

9. PunBB (Free) – PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU General Public License. Its primary goals are to be faster, smaller and less graphically intensive as compared to other discussion boards. PunBB has fewer features than many other discussion boards, but is generally faster and outputs smaller, semantically correct XHTML-compliant pages.

10. YaBB (Free) – This simple forum script (Yet Another Bulletin Board) YaBB software is customizable to fit your needs and design taste. Everything from the look to the operation can be easily changed. It is easy to setup and administer, has built-in security, censor controls, and spam eliminators. Security includes encrypted usernames and passwords, no follow links, banning tools, and auto-blocking/banning tools. This system is the world’s first and most popular open-source Perl forum software! All you need to do to get started is download YaBB from this site for FREE and install it on your existing website! You can control every aspect of your forum

Have question or suggestions, drop us a comment below

This are the same software that powers some of the best forums in the world

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10 Comments

  • gracedot August 11, 2013

    Look at this forum site forumcitizens.com

    What is the software used for this forum? Is it free software?

  • Darlinton Omeh August 11, 2013

    Yes, it's is build on open source, a free software called Simple Machines Forum Software

  • gracedot August 11, 2013

    Thanks for your reply sir, i really appreciate it.

    But, if you're to advice someone who is keen to make a move on having a forum site. Which exactly free software would u advice such person to go for, as in the free ones… Do you think a free forum site would make it up to look like Nairaland? I'm planning to have a forum site that will contained all features, but i want the forum to be free adverts zone at first maybe for the next a year or two. So, if you're to advice such person, which software will you advice? Paid software,or one of the Free software, and which one is the best sir?

    My last question is: Which hosting company you think its the best to host a new forum site with free forum software or paid software?

    Thank you sir.

  • Darlinton Omeh August 11, 2013

    If you want to go for free open source forum software, go for: PHPBB or SMF

    If you want to go for paid, choose vBulletin it is the best forum software on the internet but cost some money.

    Nairaland runs on SMF which a free forum software

    There are many hosts out there that is good, it depends on what works for you. What makes a host thick sometimes is the package you choose. Arvixe, Liquidweb, Rackspace – they are all good

  • gracedot August 11, 2013

    Ok, thank you sir. God bless

  • hotshot August 19, 2013

    Hi would you mind sharing which blog platform you're using? I'm going to start my own blog
    in the near future but I'm having a difficult time selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I'm
    looking for something completely unique. P.S Apologies for being off-topic
    but I had to ask!

  • Gurwinder Singh Bhinder August 20, 2013

    This is really a great help for me. I have been planning to create own forum and this information will give me boost.

  • Darlinton Omeh August 20, 2013

    That's nice Singh – hope to see your forum very soo

  • best blogs August 30, 2013

    This article will help the internet users for setting up new
    web site or even a weblog from start to end.

  • Anonymous March 24, 2014

    Wow! Nice insight to creating a forum but which is best for a person with little or no knowledge of web design?

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