phpBB or Vanilla forums

Abhi

If we are to consider only a free forum software that will run fine on shared hosting, which one will you recommend ? Currently, we have phpBB and Vanilla forums in mind. I don't fancy MyBB with a responsive theme.

To be honest, we know that both phpBB and Vanilla forums have their own issues but there is not much choice when it comes to free forum software these days.

I need this for someone I know and will start a regional language forum. 😇

Jason

Abhi Vanilla will be good i believe. Maybe give ElkArte a try and see how it goes. I still fancy MyBB though. 😃

Abhi

I would like to stay with main stream software for the moment

Jason Vanilla will be good i believe.

Can you give some idea about why you like it ?

Jason I still fancy MyBB though

At the moment we will have to invest in a premium responsive theme to use MyBB. That is the only thing stopping me at the moment.

Jason

Abhi It gives the experience similar to Flarum and it gives a traditional forum layout too

i haven’t used it but from browsing some forum made me to say this.

Yes responsive theme is missing in MyBB

Abhi

Jason Yes responsive theme is missing in MyBB

Is there any free one that is good ?

Jason

Abhi i think there is one or two. I have a custom MyBB theme and love to sell but my author restricts it. Let me check again with him

Abhi

Jason love to sell but my author restricts it. Let me check again with him

That is ok. It is not for me. So not taking favours this time 🙃

MyBB core is old. It might not have the right thing for SEO.

phenomlab

Abhi it's also not mobile friendly either - no responsive theme and looks like it was built in the 80's

Abhi

Which one would you choose ? 🧐

phenomlab

Abhi I wouldn't. I would use either flarum (preferred) or at the very least, wpforo.

Abhi

Flarum needs an advanced host.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpforo/

wpForo sounds too basic when compared to Vanilla and phpBB. attachments, Ads, embed, polls, PM etc are terribly costly

phenomlab

Abhi Flarum needs an advanced host.

No, it doesn't. Where did you read that ?

Abhi

phenomlab Where did you read that ?

Can we use it on a shared hosting ?

phenomlab

Abhi provided you have access to SSH, yes

admin

Someone was talking that phpBB has security issues. It is possibly a gossip as I haven't heard that comment more than once. Both phpBB and Vanilla are time tested.

If you want traditional forum, you will have to stay with phpBB. Vanilla is more like Flarum.

admin

You will need root access to install Composer. It is better to check with your host beforehand whether they will allow you to do that.

Jason

Did you made a decision Abhi?

Abhi

Not yet. It is not my call.

But still confused. I want to recommend Vanilla, because it is clean. Not sure that's the right thing to do.

admin

Vanilla forums is going through proper major version development phase. Their v4.0 RC1 is now available for testing. It is possible that the stable version will be out in around 6 months, say June 2021. v3.3 is also not bad. Their gamification plugin YAGA is very effective like the award system available with Discourse.

Abhi

What is new in 4.0 ? Vanilla Forums survived the last decade. They do a lot of PR. The last I checked, they have a very comfortable responsive theme.