Phpbb Or Smf?

Lately I have been testing out forums anywhere from PHPbb, SMF to E-Blah. All of them sound great but I don't know which one will hold up the longest overall with like security and stuff. Also which one do you think offers the best themes. The themes I am looking for are game related and are not just plain but have maybe some flash that is embedded in them. Any suggestions would be great.Grenade

Well I personaly like PhpBB much better than SMF. SMF is a tad too complicated I think, and I would rather use XMB than that. You can get all sorts of themes and modifications from PhpBB's website and I find that pretty good. SMF again, I don't think they have as much themes and modifications as PhpBB. If you were to open up to paying for a forum system, I would choose vBulletin by far, why? Because it is simply the best, with great mods, 24 hour support and great themes.

PhpBB3 is on process and i see it like IPB, more powerful than version 2.Smf is a lite forum but powerful too. But phpBB has more time to expand than SMF.

Yes, but I would not try PhpBB 3 until it is released and not in beta, as you could wreck your whole forum up. You may not think it could happen to you, but it could. I would wait until PhpBB give the all clear that it's all working and not in any beta stages anymore!

If you want power, get SMF. It has some features that comapre to IPB. But if you are looking for something relatively simple, then phpBB might be better. In SMf the profile area gives the user stats and tons of options, while in phpBB, you get just one page with mostly the smae stuff (meaning it has basically all of the profile fields, but no stats).

Yea to me SMF is complicated at all, the admin area is very simple and easy to use. The other thing like michael said is there is alot of mods to d/l for the profile like you can shoose your country, your religion, awards, karma and alot else. Thanks for the suggestions.Grenade

i use smf and i dont get it what u mean with "its complicated" its very easy in my opinion. iam not a programmer at al but managed to fix all isuues and errors by myself. expanding it is also no problem O.o

I have used both but now settled with SMF. Its simple, who have said it complicated, I have not found it complex. The Ad mod of SMF is very good. I can show adsense ads in my forum.I haven't seen Php3 but have heard it to be more powerful. But for now I will recommend SMF.

I would have to say phpBB. Just don't get the beta version :PphpBB, has lots of customization, lots of themes, and lots of MODS.SMF, small, minimal features, not many or no MODS, but it is fast and simplistic.

I think phpbb is very better than smf becuase i think phpbb is very older and has many hacks and skin , phpbb support phpnuke , phpnuke is really nice php prtal (cms) for home user , but smf has some good options like subforums , phpbb has not subforumsyou must analyze your forum for testing phpbb or smf

Although I haven?t proved SMF, I?d recommend phpBB because you will always find a way to suit the design to your needs as there are so much templates, modifications and even tutorials to customize it by yourself if you need to. It?s free and there?s a huge community of users who could help you. I just can?t wait the final 3 version to be released.

However, phpbb has been tainted with bad security before, and since then, I chose not to use phpbb whenever possible.SMF is good and stable, a nice alternative to invision.

I would choose phpbb because for the fact that it is completly opensource. I also don't like the look and feel of SMF. But if you want something really nice, it's got a license like SMF but I like it a lot more. https://mybb.com/ is the way to go. It's newer than SMF but very nice.

I would say you should go for SMF, alot of people have said that it's complex when it is not complex at all, phpBB has a lot of skins but it has got security vulnerablities too at the same time. SMF is pretty stable and the skins and mods available for it too are great!