: Alternative to vBulletin Possible Duplicate: What Forum Software should I use? I'm currently using vBulletin along with a bunch of plugins like vBSEO, shoutbox and others for a sports

@Karen161

check out ForumMatrix to compare forums. It will let you search numerous features and compare the results against each other.

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@Gretchen104

You could set up a wordpress site with a bbpress forum. They're very good at trying to simplify the upgrade process.

I've predominatly used phpBB but I don't think this has much over vBulletin.

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@Holmes151

I would recommend Vanilla Forums. Simple, easy to use and not all the bloat that comes with vBulletin and it's open source.

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@Angie530

My company, Ninja Post, is a hosted forum solution that integrates with your URL (e.g., "forum.yoursite.com"). Ninja Post uses OpenId (Google/Yahoo), oAuth (Twitter), and Facebook Connect for user registrations. In addition, threads update in real time, like a chat so there's no need to constantly refresh the page to check for new posts.

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@Mendez628

I've used vBulleting since Fall of 2000 on a number of sites as large as a few hundred thousand members. I still used it today. I'm not bragging, just giving you some background.

While my suggestion is not a hosted solution, I highly, highly recommend XenForo. It was created by most of the original developers of vBulletin. They left vBulletin due to disagreements after Internet Brands acquired them.

I'm not using it yet, but am closely watching its core and module development. It's everything that was good about vBulletin without as much of the bad. I don't know if you are running vB4 or have tried to used their mobile suite, but they are releasing products with major bugs now and have had at least one major security gaffe. I won't touch vB4 with a ten foot pole.

The UI is impressive. You'll notice it just by navigating around their community forum. The theme system makes it much easier to modify the look of the forum. It is much more social out of the box with news feeds, trophies, and a like system. It offers sign on with Facebook, possibly OpenID, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, etc. in the future or with a mod. I imagine the upgrade process has been improved as well.

Someone has already solved the very important issue of switching over from a vBSEO site to XenForo and redirecting all the old URLs: xenforo.com/community/threads/redirects-for-vbseod-urls.5098/
Let me know if you have any other questions!

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