I am planning to set up a site with forum service.
Read some info about phpbb2 and discuz!4, seem both good.

(And I seen many old bbs powered by vBulletin.
But vBulletin cost so much $$ I know phpbb is free. Yet vbulletin is faster and more reliable)

So I need some opinion about which one s better?
about pros and cons
Or, is there any other better free forum you guys recommend?

I personally like PHPBB compared to the rest of the open-source/freeware BB systems. However, some will argue that SMF board is better. I suppose it just depends on what you are going to do.

The reason I have PHPBB is because it's the one I am comfortable with. It may take some time to mod it (adding mods) and a lot of mods to make it competable with the likes of vBulleting or IPB, but the simplicity and features it comes with are more than enough for small communities.

With that, I suggest that you project what type of community you will have. Will it be a small community, where there is only a few members on per day, then I suggest you go for SMF/PHPBB. If you're going to have a larger pool of members, then go for PHPBB (but mod it - or download PHPBB+ from phpbb2.de). And finally, if you are going to be having (projected) a large community with regular flows of members, then go for a very hardy forum software, like IPB or vBulletin. I have used both. I find IPB hard to customize when it comes to skinning, but then again I didn't keep my copy for long enough to understand it. vBulleting is like a rusty bucket. That doesn't mean it is crap. I find the whole concept of vBulletin more logical - Topics are known as Threads, pinned topics are known as Sticky Threads and so on. The ACP (admin control panel) is also a lot more basic and doesn't employ the whole features that IPB has.

You would be best finding a comparison chart of the four major BBS; PHPBB, SMF, vB, IPB. vB and IPB cost money as they need a license, but if you pay the one-off perpetual license, then you'll be fine for life and you can use the license for any board set-up (only one at a time I think).

I've never heard of discuz! board, so I can't comment on it.


--mik

P.S. My 400th post. Wipeee!

PhpBB is good. Since its free most people who dont want to invest much in a forum software go for PhpBB. Some other free GOOD forum softwares include SimpleMachines Forum (SMF) >> LINK << , or if you want your forum to be embedded in the CMS then e107 >> LINK << or PHP Nuke >> LINK << would be your best solutions.

If you want to pay for a forum software then Invision would be your best opt, cause its professional and got loads of funtions. vBulletin is good too but i felt it had a little less options for the users. But thats just my point of view.

There are more, but these are a few i tried and liked after i read the reviews. The one i currently use is the e107 CMS, its got its built in forum software and is pretty complete with everything you need.

Others may give you better options, so wait for them to post too and then make a decision ..

Regards
Dhanesh.

I have used just about all with the exception of vBulletin (cause it costs) and have copies of IPB prior to them charging for it. Mercury Board SMF (new YaBB) punBB and phpBB. phpBB can be just about anything you want with the proper MODs applied to it. There will be some features that each might have that you might be comfortable with but all in all, I would try out all the free ones first before just going out and paying for a BBS and later finding out you like some features of another one.

Go ahead and try them out till you get used to how forum software works and then you will be able to more easily decide what you would like in your forum software and the only way to do that is to actually use the various ones, and there will be one that you end up using for one reason or the other.

Most all of them use PHP and MySQL, but the way the set up and the ease of use of various features of the product is what you would find interesting.

I heard phpbb2 has some security flaws.
Is it crucial?

Well, since phpbb is popular and free, I think I would choose it.
Thanks for you guys!

It is not only free and popular, there is great support for the product, and you can get patches for any security flaws that are found by checking the website every now and then. I use a ported version on PHP-Nuke which makes it more secure by having to pass through the CMS first and there are other things in that version that help with security. phpBB is a great choice for anyone even if experienced with BBSs or not.