{"id":1092,"date":"2015-05-31T01:12:29","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T08:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/?p=1092"},"modified":"2025-08-07T14:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:48:21","slug":"which-forum-software-is-the-best-phpbb-vs-vbulletin-vs-smf-vs-ultimatewb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/1092\/which-forum-software-is-the-best-phpbb-vs-vbulletin-vs-smf-vs-ultimatewb\/","title":{"rendered":"Which forum software is the best? phpBB vs vBulletin vs SMF vs UltimateWB"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"UltimateWB<\/a>
UltimateWB forums are built on the UltimateWB built-in Forum app.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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\"chats-forum\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Why Add a Forum to Your Website?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may want a forum section on your website to be the highlight of what you offer to users – a place to chat and share.  Or perhaps your website message boards are just one of the many features you want to offer to provide a rich social networking experience to your members and web visitors.  Either way you will benefit greatly from using forum software with the features you need built-in, that is user friendly, and allows for easy management, with low spam issues.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Single Sign-On Integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Single sign on – where your members just have to sign up \/ login once to use all your apps on your website is the way to go – who would want to sign up or login multiple times on the same website?!  All of this is why we created the features packed custom forum app in UltimateWB Full, introduced in version UWB Full 3.5.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"paths1\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Comparing Popular Forum Software Options<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The three most popular forum software on the market today are: phpBB, vBulletin, and SMF. \u00a0We compare these three message board scripts to the new UltimateWB 3.5 forum app on the Forum Software Comparison Chart<\/a>. \u00a0UltimateWB’s forum software beats all three in features – all built-in. \u00a0That means easy upgrading and integration, and less headaches and hassle too. \u00a0And not only do you get the forum app, but you get the whole suite of social networking, e-commerce, styles, content, and seo apps built-in. \u00a0No extra charges for this app or that app, it’s all in one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What About Price?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PhpBB and SMF message boards software are free to download, but besides requiring you to download third party plugins for more features (introducing possible security risks too), they have been known to be susceptible to more spamming issues, and be harder to manage.  We have experienced it firsthand on our own website, besides client websites.  We started out on the UltimateWB website with the phpBB forum script, but it proved to attract a lot of spam and be very hard to manage.  So we removed it and opted to use the page comments sections (using the UWB Full built-in Comments App) until our custom forum app was ready.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built-In Security and Easy Management<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You can check out our new support forums under the Resources tab<\/a>. \u00a0We \u00a0made sure to include lots of security and spam controls on the UltimateWB Forum app, such as even putting settings on how many posts by a member \/ visitor (if allowed) must be approved before automatically activating their posts. \u00a0You can set different activation processes for members and visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time is valuable.  We also made it very easy to manage topics and posts directly on your forums, as well as from your website admin panel, with batch functions available.  You can also take advantage of moderators to ease the management load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How vBulletin Compares<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now, vBulletin forum software, called “VBulletin 5 Connect”  – that is actually the same price tag as UltimateWB Full software, at $249.  But again, like phpBB and SMF forum software, you will need to download third party plugins to match all of the built-in UltimateWB forum features.  Not to mention with vBulletin you don’t get all the other apps you get built-in with UltimateWB Full.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Start Your Own Forum Today<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Check out out Support Forums<\/a>, and start your own forum today! \u00a0Compare Forum Software<\/a>, phpBB vs vBulletin vs SMF vs UltimateWB. \u00a0We also have other comparison charts available there, for social networking software too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: What are the Top 10 Best Forum Software?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why UltimateWB Offers the Best Forum Software for Your Website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready to design & build your own website? Learn more about UltimateWB<\/a>! We also offer web design packages<\/a> if you would like your website designed and built for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got a techy\/website question? Whether it\u2019s about UltimateWB or another website builder, web hosting, or other aspects of websites, just send in your question in the \u201cAsk David!\u201d form<\/a>. We will email you when the answer is posted on the UltimateWB \u201cAsk David!\u201d section.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Add a Forum to Your Website? You may want a forum section on your website to be the highlight of what you offer to users – a place to chat and share.  Or perhaps your website message boards are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,199],"tags":[757,756,755,749,751,752,758,753,754],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-website-builder-software-comparison","category-social-networking","tag-compare-forum-software","tag-forum-script","tag-forum-software","tag-message-boards","tag-phpbb","tag-smf","tag-software-comparison","tag-vbulletin","tag-vbulletin-5-connect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7255,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/7255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}