yes i know, there are alot of topics comparing them but everyone has thier own opinion and i want to give mine as well as hear a few.

First of both vBB and IPB are very powerful forums, infact both the board have won awards for most powerful forum software available, now vbulletin (IMO) is a more proffesional forum, as it requires you edit the config.php.new file to set it up and does not have a script where you enter your information like IPB does, vBB is also more proffesional because it has some features (pro features) that arnt included in IPB (ie: you can customize every aspect of it) and with vB you can even install language packs and give translation for certain phrases.

Now for IPB, IMO IPB is a very user friendly board because its got a very easy to understand usercp and admincp, and plus it has alot of easy to figuer out options that are in plain site (with most skins) like the logout button which usually hidden on vBB, and the personal messenger and assistant is a pretty cool feature just to make it so much easier for users to understand whats going on.

a while ago both vBB and IPB released thier brand new board (3.5 and 2.1) with a tonne of new features including inline moderation and AJAX features, personally i would like it if the entire forum included ajax features but im not a coder and i wouldnt know how difficult that would be

but this is my speal on both of the nets more powerful forums, please let me know who you think will win this epic battle for most powerful forum ever.

Hmm, you consider it MORE proffesional because it has you edit the config file? I, and many other people also do, or at least prefer this, and this is why almost every other poplular board uses this method. Ajax really isn't something needed on every page, and can really be easily over-used, I like the way they didn't use too much. I'm not sure what other features vBB has besides the language thing, but IPB offers language translations also, although some of the less frequently seen languages are harder to come by, but you can easily make you own (it is do-able via admin panel, and you can even export it, or you can find one on one of the sites for mods, skins, and language files like invisionize.com. I agree that they are both some of the best forums, but I also think phpBB deserves a spot up there, while it has fallen back a little it is still one of the easier and is MUCH better documented than ANY other forum, and also you can find any feature the other forums have plus more for it via modifications, and you can even get a mod that will block all of those stupid exploits (even ones that have not yet been found, because it uses a .htaccess to lock the Admin panel and other important features that could be exploited with a passowrd.) that have been happening lately. I myself however use

If I was to discuss features, I wouldn't really choose one over the other, since the features lacking in one are not really that fundamental and may be easily dispensed of. Of course, that's only my opinion; other people are welcome to disagree, especially if they have a certain feature that's essential to their boards.

But I'll admit that I haven't started my own bullet-in board yet, so even though I've read a lot about these systems, my opinion may still be a bit superficial.

But visually, I don't really like vB, and I'd choose either phpBB or IPB over it any day of the week, with phpBB coming in first.

Personally, I can't compare the two now.

I like IPB (although I despised it a couple of months back) and the features that come with the latest versions.

The graphics of IPB are considerably more thought out and better than vB, as well as the arrangement of the Admin CP. Other functions that make vB squirm are the huge amounts controls, that are inside the Admin CP to change the template.

I also like vB, because of the deeper features. vB had the AJAX thing going on before IPB, and also utilized many other features that IPB did not.

Yes, I know vBB and IPB are both very powerful forums.
But, both of them are costly for me.

I dont mean their not worth it.
Can't offer the money to get both forums to compare.
Just kidding. Sure you can test their demo online for 24 hrs.
But I think for most people free forums like phpbb are just enough.

I totally agree with what you just stated. I like vB and haven't been to many site with IPB and I like vB but I myself am a broke mofo and used phpBB which was nice since it was free.

From a user perspective...I like vB a whole hell of a lot better than IPB. From an admin perspective, I just use phpBB3 or SMF because they're easy to administer and they're free. I don't want to spend anything more than time on my website...I just have better sinks for my money (like FFXI) than a site which barely generates any revenue.