Highly Recommended Free Software

These are your best bets, really. Free, Modern, Secure, and Actively developed.

PunBB

PunBB is a free lightweight opensource forum system, geared towards being simple and straightforward while still including most of the features expected from something like phpBB.

  • Links: Official Site, Official Forums, Semi-Official Modding Community / Database
  • Security Record: Very Good. Exploits are rare, generally low in severity, and get patched in a very timely fashion.
  • Spam Protection: Project Founder Rickard Andersson is strictly against CAPTCHAs in all forms, and refuses to add one by default in PunBB on the grounds that it ruins accessibility. Luckily, this mod with these further tweaks and a readable font like DejaVu can result in a rather strong defense against spam.
  • Modding: PunBB mods are generally installed the Hard Way by editing some source files and running an installer PHP script to make any necessary database changes. There’s a wide variety of mods available at PunRes, but not all of them will work immediately since installer scripts have a hard-coded max version and people seem to rarely update that. Luckily, any mod made for the 1.2.x line should work for any 1.2.x version of PunBB, you just have to edit the max version in the install_mod.php to match what you have.
  • Theming: PunBB Themes are purely CSS based, not template based like phpBB or SMF. This can be somewhat daunting if you have minimal CSS experience, but if you do have CSS experience it’s amazing. PunRes has a decent amount of themes available in their database, but if you just want to tweak the colors there’s a site called Spinkbb that lets you interactively muck around with the forum colors and ends up spitting out a custom .css file for you.
  • Support: The Official PunBB forums are quite helpful in troubleshooting, and it’s not uncommon for Rickard to show up in a thread and tell you exactly how to do whatever you want to do. Then again, it’s also not uncommon to come across some bug that you might be stuck troubleshooting yourself. Luckily, PunBB is very logically laid out, which makes troubleshooting quite easy if you’re relatively competent when it comes to PHP/MySQL.
  • Upgrading: PunBB upgrades like a lot of complex PHP scripts. Download changed-files-only package, upload changed files, run an included update script to mess with the database if necessary. Only pot-holes to watch for are that any files you modified due to mods either aren’t changed or are re-patched once you upgrade.
  • Migration: If you’re jumping ship from from some other forum system to PunBB, a nice converter script is available that will migrate your old database to a new shiny PunBB one. It can convert from pretty much all major boards, including everything in this article save for Vanilla (too new) and UBB.threads, with varying levels of success. phpBB, for instance, will migrate users, threads, posts and postcounts, but things like Ranks, administrators, user groups, etc are all up to you. Migrating the things it misses isn’t very difficult if you’re good with MySQL, though.

 

Simple Machines

SMF is a more advanced forum package compared to things like PunBB. Rather than attempting to be a streamlined package, SMF is geared more towards being a complete 1:1 replacement for systems like phpBB, but done right. SMF has its roots in YaBB, by way of the short-lived “YaBB SE” which was a port of YaBB to PHP. The devs decided to scrap all that YaBB stuff and start from scratch as Simple Machines.

  • Links: Official Site, Official Forums, Official Mod/Theme Database
  • Security Record: Pretty clean. This shouldn’t be a sign that their software is bulletproof, though, just that no one has tried to seriously attack it yet.
  • Spam Protection: None built in, however mods are available like this one. Some recent posts seem to indicate it may have some bugs at the moment.
  • Modding: Mods for SMF are package based. This means no editing of source files and no desync when you upgrade. Neat.
  • Theming: Themes are installed via the same package based system. If you want to make your own, you can either use the web-based system in the admin panel or make your own offline. Either way, it uses a full templating system, similar to YaBB.
  • Support: SMF has a rather extensive support section, featuring a detailed FAQ, a Wiki-based Online Manual, and then of course there’s the forums you can search.
  • Upgrading: Upgrading works just about like all other boards. Upload stuff, run an upgrade script. But since mods and themes are package based, you don’t have to worry about file desync. Plus there are a bunch of nice extras in the upgrade script, like integrated database backup and the ability to putt the forum into maintenance mode during the upgrade.
  • Migration: SMF has a couple converters available, covering most common forum systems. Not sure how good they are, though. You should probably be ready with some manual SQL action.

 

Vanilla

Vanilla is a very new forum system [initially released 1 JUL 2006] that attempts to completely reinvision the forum system. So much so that it probably isn’t what you’re looking for. Don’t expect a lot of structure and don’t expect to use it for a high-volume forum.

  • Links: Official Site, Official Forums, Official Mod/Theme Database
  • Security Record: Technically impeccable. However, this is just due to the fact that it’s so new. phpBB didn’t have any exploits in the wild after a month, either.
  • Spam Protection: Vanilla’s idea of “Spam Protection” is “force the admin to manually approve all registrations”. Brilliant, guys. Brilliant.
  • Modding: Vanilla really plays up the whole Modding thing. Vanilla mods (called “extensions”) are all self contained like SMF, but . . uh . . they all seem to do stuff I can’t imagine anyone ever caring about. Like this amazing To-Do List. A forum with a To-Do list. Just what I need.
  • Theming: Since it’s new and all, there are apparently only four themes. One’s the default, one’s a very minor mod, and one’s a placeholder, leaving one actual theme. Super.
  • Support: Pretty simple, you’ve got some docs, you’ve got some forums. Party on.
  • Upgrading / Migration: As far as I can tell, this stuff is nonexistant. I assume upgrading instructions might show up when there’s a version to upgrade to, but Migration stuff might take awhile.
  • Other Stuff: Vanilla only supports PHP/MySQL. Sorry Postgresql users! Sorry SQLite crew! You get to sit this Web2.0 shitfest out.

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