Showdown - phpBB vs SMF
As a part of Wendy Piersall’s (eMomsAtHome) To Do List Research Project I am comparing phpBB2 to SMF and determining which would make a better forum (#14 on Wendy’s list.).
I’ll get right to the point and say that choosing between these two open source programs is like asking someone “Which is better - blue or red?” Really. This is not a choice that has a wrong answer. They are both excellent and have great support sites, lots of themes available and are easy to use. Either one is a good choice. They are very similar to use.
You won’t regret either choice - just the time you spend over analyzing the choice. (I can say that since I am the outgoing President of my local OverAnalyzers Anonymous. LOL)
My advice is to pick one quickly and then get started building your forum. If necessary flip a coin or choose a theme you like first and go with that. Spend your time on your forum and not choosing between two great pieces of software.
SMF
You can learn more about SMF here. The list of SMF features is available here.
phpBB
For phpBB go here for more information. Peek at the features here.
One thing that could help you decide is that phpBB just released its newest version (3.0) in May. It is still in an unstable format. But the new features are already available.SMF has its new version (2.0) coming in October.
If you’re an early adapter you might like to jump in on phpBB 3.0 right now. If you like the tried and true, go with SMF now and after your learning curve has leveled out you can upgrade to their new version.
I found smf much easier to customise, particularly if you want to develop your own look to fit in with your site and not just use one of the available templates (although there are heaps of these). I was able to make my forum: http://www.skiblacklivegreen.com/forum/ look like it belonged to my site: http://www.skiblacklivegreen.com
I used phpBB for a while for a forum that I run; my husband researched both SMF and phpBB, and we chose phpBB for our needs at the time. Later we found MyBBoard (http://www.mybboard.com), and we like that much better than either phpBB or SMF. It’s got more options if you want something like vBulletin, but don’t want to pay for vBulletin yet.
I think they all serve different purposes, but I wanted to suggest MyBBoard, since it wasn’t mentioned originally. We’ve been with them for a while, and are extremely satisfied.
Hey Kim,
Thanks for writing this; I was the original requester of this item and I appreciate you taking the time to write this!