Comparing the Forum Home Listings of phpBB3, SMF, Xenforo, vBulletin and IPB

Digital Doctor

Well-known member
forum-home-phpbb-smf-xenforo-vbulletin-ipb-jpg.16985

xenforo:
stands out to me as the best.
Getting rid of the forum description was a very smart move.
The Larger font on the Forum name and super small font for the Last thread information make sense.
Getting rid of the ENTIRE column for Topics and Posts is very smart.
Really so much has been cleaned up .... just go the extra mile and get rid of Latest Post information.
Score: 8.5/10

phpBB3:
stands out to me as the worst.
entire columns for Posts and Topics (major waste of space.)
Forum descriptions just clutter things up.
The Larger font for the Forum name works well.
Overall: feels cluttered.
Score 4/10

vBulletin 4:
Cluttered and Ugly
Listing Recent Blog posts on the forum home page just wastes space (and ALOT OF IT).
entire columns for Posts and Topics (major waste of space.)
Forum Titles font is too small. (worst of all 5 surveyed).
Overall: wasted space. Ugly. Feels like 1999.
Score: 5/10

SMF:
Colouring looks like Xenforo in reverse :)
Does dedicate alot of width to the Forum Title and description area (= good).
entire columns for Posts and Topics (major waste of space.)
I like the look.
Score 6.5/10

IPB:
Interesting.
Listing Recent Blog posts on the forum home page just wastes space (quite a bit).
Often, not always, getting rid of the forum description was a good move.
Wastes alot of vertical space with the descriptions it does put in.
Looks clean.
Avatars on the Page (not sure if I like this or note).
Score 7.5/10

=====================
Landslide victory for Xenforo.
=====================
 
Interesting, because to my eye phpBB is (and always has been) one of the better looking forums until the newest IPB and XenForo, I think it has a superb structure to it. I would rank them as:

1. XenForo, although I'm not keen on the wishy-washy default colours and speech bubbles, the options are in the right place and the use of the right column for stats and users is brilliant.
2. IPB3.2 - for some reason this looked amazing when released but now I see it as too squared and blocky, also the default forum icons are terrible. Having the mark forums read right at the bottom is bonkers!!
3. phpBB. Looks nice and organised, I like the structure, but far too busy/cluttered by today's standards and the default last post info not showing the actual post title is madness!! (Yes I know you can change it, but I am judging by defaults).
4. SMF - looks quite smart but a bit too much like a grey vB3
5. vB4 - too cluttered, too much text

PS good thread and nice to see them all together :)
 

It's not only the forum home. I find the XenForo community itself much better than Vbulletin. I never went to the Vbulletin community for anything (I was a co-owner of a license, but still!) It just looked so unattractive and nothing much went on (imho). But, I find myself checking the XenForo community at least 10/11 times a day xD I read the latest posts I'm interested in. And ofc, keep an eye on the announcements forum, and Brogan has been of so much assistance, I don't even think there is a need for support tickets (unless, for super high priority or complicated issues).

XenForo is just awesome in every aspect. I cannot comment on anything other than Vbulletin while comparing to XenForo, but XenForo beats Vbulletin any day. And I'm sure, in time it's going to be ranked as the #1 software with the best and most friendly community! With 1.1 XenForo's epicness will go up to. Even though my site is still in dev now, those involved in it are loving it. We can't wait to launch!

I like the little pop-up for forum description. I like the sub-forums drop down list. I like how the Discussion and messages is just below the forum title so that you know whats going on in.

I'm glad I chose XenForo :P
 
In reality, all users start CASI UN forum with pre-installed (I started with Forumotion), thinking it best, after this phpbb.com know that behind all the ESOs preinstalled forums and try to prove it for months and if we feel.

But when they see the reality of things, see that MANY hay powerful forum software style when used.

I was a vBulletin fan because I like their look by default, after 4 months to read all about I realized that BB has many errors version 4, here which gave me a free software seeks the sea The Possible sostificado and while many are looking for known software and tell my opinion of each one:

xenForo (abbreviated as xF) - a new software today to a great start, his first version exceeds all first and second versions of phpBB, vBulletin, SMF, IPB, among others.

xenForo was well planned and developed, will note that a widely used software and thanks to all of its features is what it is now

vBulletin (abbreviated as vB) - software xF as pay as you all know, but because we pay for mistakes and a rather large by BB in version 4, the only thing that surprised me was the default style is compact, simple and somewhat attractive.

But as people prefer to be one of the software with a fair amount of customers and being a known service, but as he had said "Ingenious" is very confusing up so much space wasted text

phpBB - is free software and everyone says it is messy, and your opinion is true, but has an advantage that such disorder can be arranged if you're smart and good at what you do, one disadvantage is that when you install phpbb mod always should be aware if this mod will not hurt your forum and what is more annoying to be giving everything to click install mods, but for example Gaia Online (forum with the most posts and users in the world) is of phpbb and has many mods and other [ie, has a lot of time online].


But let us not back to phpBB, as it has not reached its version 4 if version 2 brought him fame and version 3 also named Olympus was one of the best and most used current versions of the world, then, must realize that phpBB works well if your version 4 will be a reality and perhaps invincible for a long time ...

Simple Machines Forum (abbreviated as SMF) - I have used this software and it seems almost a copy of vBulletin, only in gray, which is worst of all, that leaves a lot to talk about this software, but I have to admit that try to be original and potential customers to use their forum ...

Invision Power Board (abbreviated IPB) - is a paid software, the graphic look is not as impressive as xF, worst of all, the name of the software, ie "Invision" suggests to users must have a strong graphic look, and I declare that your system is normal in forums ....


All software is always an imperfect in its design and programming, we can not say that xF is best, but we are somewhat familiar when we saw the first time this software xF.

Now he feels the first world war xD Software.

PD: I Hardank (software to create in the near future) will be operating to overcome all the software, but I have only 2 days working on it, I think as long hard 6 months, because I'm a rookie ...
 
erm what?

Invision Power Board (abbreviated IPB) - is a paid software, the graphic look is not as impressive as xF, worst of all, the name of the software, ie "Invision" suggests to users must have a strong graphic look, and I declare that your system is normal in forums ....
 
I think he's promoting his 2 days old forum software named hardank:D
 
Invision Power Board (abbreviated IPB) - is a paid software, the graphic look is not as impressive as xF, worst of all, the name of the software, ie "Invision" suggests to users must have a strong graphic look, and I declare that your system is normal in forums ....

It doesn't suggest anything of the sort. :eek:
 
Still
Hate
Forum Homes
:)

The problem inherent with forum homes in today's world is presentation IMO. I struggle with this when trying to determine whether I want to use sub forums or rely on tags and prefixes to sort posts. Regardless though, the presentation problem for forum admins is how to quickly pass along all of the interesting posts to the guest who at best will spend very little time browsing before making a decision to stay or move on.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions on how to better present forum home?
 
I really dislike how vb has replaced the normal 'whats new' with a terrible activity stream... and has made it the 'homepage' by default..

(I have 3-4 vbulletin boards and the one xenforo one)
 
I don't see how you can rank ipb so high when it isn't so different than vB4.

the replies and such don't even fit on the same line, etc. Personally I'm not sure I see where those numbers even have a place in forum home except for the admins.
 
You guys do realize that all those blocks on the side of IPB forum display can be removed right? Just a click of a button in the admin, no coding needed. Are most forum owners noobs nowadays? Man im from the days where coding your own stuff was a must, my how times change lol. Now on to the topic, XF is a nice software already established but lets be real here, the other options are not bad. vB yes needs work but so does everything, xf needs alot of work too, dont be so naive here kids. IPB really doesnt need that much work tbh. However everything can always use improvement.
 
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