why do people use vbulletin instead of phpbb
 

one is free the other one you have to pay for?

Security.

I doubt phpbb offers the same features as VB

Way more features and security.

phpbb is a major security flaw. There'll always be more holes than patches.

I use both forum scripts.... and have found that VBulletin is far more secure ... I prefer the Admin CP and some of the options phpbb offers.

I like invision power boards :)

VBulletin has advanced admin control panel, way more features, more add-ons, hacks etc and it's better to skin.

phpBB had a MAJOR security vulnerability 2-3 years ago that basically left a lot of web servers wide open. I remember working for a hosting company at the time and customers' web sites just started disappearing and being defaced. Some companies even went ahead and banned phpBB from their servers.

Of course, that was a long time ago and I'm sure phpBB developers have learned their lesson. They have pretty strict rules about what is expected of all developers now.

phpBB 3 beta looks spectacular, completely css-driven and table-less design (with apparently a few flaws in IE7). It looks web2.0-ready.

vBulletin 2.x was awesome, it was leaps and bounds better than any other bulletin board script out there. After that though, it's on the trail of new features. vBulletin support team is pretty quick though.

Didnt their site get hacked just a few weeks back

while we are on this topic who is a good person ofr making a skin for vbulletin?

Vbulletin = Less flaws, lot better design, better admin, lots more features.

Did they really? :1orglaugh I remember their site was supposed to be down due to upgrades (and implementing phpBB3 as their primary forum).

If they did then I retract my post about phpBB having vulnerabilities a few years ago. :upsidedow

Aside from the support vBulletin team provides, if there is a flaw found in vBulletin, their developers are pretty damn quick to fix and release a fix for it.

thanks for the help, i will go for vbulletin

No it didn't..the site was down because they had 2 HD failures on their server..they kept the site down a cpl extra days as they went ahead and implemented the new version of the phpBB software into their site. Check it out ..its all totally different now.

Commercial .. use vBulletin or even Invision Power Board. More features, more support, more plugins, and definitely more secure than phpBB.

If you really want free, I would recommend SMF, but again - I still say stick to vB or IPB :2 cents:

I hate them both, and I hate IPB. I only ever use SMF, designed from the ground up by security experts who were more interested in the security of the forum than whackjob features that barely anyone used anyways.

Ive used Phpbb forever and never had many problems. Couple people I hosted for didnt update their patches and got wiped out, but since I backup mysql every couple days wasnt much lost, and I had them back up in short order. The big security problem they has was sql injection problems. The reason phpbb is hacked more is it is open source, so well... duh.