When developing a forum based community, the most critical aspect is choosing “which forum software to use?” At Resdaz, our forum software of choice for over two years has been Simple Machines (SMF) because it is “open source” and the foundational code can be altered to any extent by outside developers.

The only requirement for using the SMF forum software is that you must retain a hyperlink to the official SMF site at the bottom of every forum you operate using the software. All costs considered, it’s a small price to pay when you have the option of purchasing the leading competitor forum software, vBulletin (VB).

vBulletin is undeniably the most widely used forum software but vBulletin isn’t free nor is it “open source”. The operational cost is minimal, $85 per year for a “leased vBulletin Forum license”. If you’re operating only one forum, $85 per year for the license isn’t a lot of money to shell out especially if you have no intentions of modifying the fundamental software’s source code.

Unfortunately, if you are a business who plans on operating numerous forums or a hosting company looking to offer a “value added” service to your customers, $85 per year, per license can add up. The choice was obvious for our forum software needs.