phpBB2 or IPB?

[Stephen Bawa]

David,

I've had a nose around the IPB site, and thought I'd ask you what made you choose them over free alternatives such as phpBB2.

[James]

Steve, I may be mistaken, but I think there is a free version of IPB. I'm sure that's what David used.

[David]

IPB (http://www.invisionboard.com/) is currently free (they call it an unlimited trial) but it is not Open Source. phpBB2 (http://www.phpbb.com/) is a good bulletin board, based on the same technology, PHP and MySQL. It is free and it is also Open Source. I actually run a board using phpBB at CADTutorForum.net (http://www.CADTutorForum.net) and I've never had a problem with it. However, the features and functions that IPB offer are far superior to phpBB. My feeling is that (over the medium to long term) IPB will cease to be free and like VBulletin (http://www.vbulletin.com/) and Ultimate Bulletin Board (http://www.ubbcentral.com/) will become a commercial product. I'm not too worried about that because currently, I really like this board and it does just what we want. Also, now that the data is in a database using one of the major bulletin boards, it will be relatively easy to migrate to phpBB (or any other major board) if necessary. All the major bulletin boards provide utilities that you can use for this purpose.

I suppose that (morally) I should have gone with an open source board but I've been waiting for the much trumpeted phpBB 2.2 now for over a year and I'm not entirely sure that it will be better than the current version of IPB when it arrives. One of the best things about phpBB is the massive support base. It is very popular and the user forums are open to the public. With IPB you have to pay for access to the support forums. So, if you're a beginner with bulletin boards, I would recommend phpBB purely on the basis of the support.