Choosing your forum software now days can make and break your forum because so many people are getting picky on the WWW. I personlly have my favorites so thats mainly waht I'm going to be basing this thread off of so if you dont agree with what's being said just ignore because this is all a oppinon.
It has been a proven through several researches that having a certain forum software can make your forum more active or even less active... With so many forum softwares to choose from it's getting harder and harder to choose from..
Here is what I would follow when choosing a forum software:These are just a couple of things I can think of right now I will be adding more as more come to mind but I hope that for you now guys can use this tutorial to get you started..
- What do you want to do with your forum?
Knowing what you are wanting to do with your forum is very improtant when choosing a forum software because some forum softwares have more features than others. Having planned what kind of features you want to have done with your forum should play wa big role in what forum softawre you choose!- Knowing your budget
Here is a little chart for you know how much you should be planning on spending:
VB-$100+
ZenForo~$100+
PhpBB~Free (some plugins are paid)
MyBB~Free (some plugins are paid)
I really like all of the forum software that are out there but if I had to choose some to recommend it to people it would be between VB, ZenForo, PhpBB, and last but not least MyBB. All of them are fantasic forum softwares some just cost a lot more than others... Which one you choose should also depend off what you want to do with your forum because some softwares dont have that plugin you are looking for..- Whats my competior using?
Being able to show that you are better than any of your compeitor sites is a big deal.. Knowing that they are using something like MyBB maybe you should give Zenforo a try to show that you are serious and you aren't going to play games with free softwares.. But than again maybe the free software may be a better choice in the long run.. For example maybe they are running VB and the members are wanting a plugin VB doesn't offer well find a software that does to compete with them..