IPB or vBulletin?

Whether as a user or an administrator, which one would you recommend and why? Invision Power Board or vBulletin?

vBulletin has a leased license ($85) and an owned license ($160)
IPB has a One Year License ($70) and Lifetime License ($200)

IPB told me the forum remains fully functional after the One Year License expires, while vBulletin gave me a vague idea by saying that I "need to renew to avoid any abruptions" :confused:

IPB can also set up the forum for you at no additional cost but vBulletin require more payment for that.

BTW, has anyone tried phpBB? When it comes to OSes, browsers... free open-source is very popular. This seems to be an exception though; do you know why?

I guess phpBB is okay since it's free. I like the feel of vBulletin better than Invision, though my experience with Invision is purely as a regular member and not an administrator.

phpBB might be OK, until another Santy forum worm is released and infects all the servers :eek: I'm sure paid versions might be as vunerable, however source code might be harder to analyse ;)

It might be good idea to learn how to install/setup/administer a forum on a free version, then when comfortable/experienced you can move to a paid version on a dedicated hosting server etc

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I like vBulletin as a user especially because its forms are more user-friendly than IPB. I also can't live without the WYSIWYG forms.

I've already started setting up my forum on phpBB. Nothing fancy. Just want my main site's visitors to get more involved and perhaps build up a small community. It is exciting nonetheless :D

As for Santy, I guess it only affected those who didn't upgrade to PHP 4.

vBulletin is good. v good for more visually oriented people like me! ;)

vBulletin is the way to go! At least for me. I like how its interface is so easy to use. For the leased lisence you can only use your vB for one year and thats it. For the owned lisence, you get it forever and all the updates till the next major version eg from v3 to v4. Critial sercurity updates are always free and avaliable.

For Invision, the interface may be very confusing at first but you have to take some time to get yourself straight. Its nice, but I prefer vB!

rohit n i have tried phpbb. no problems so far... ok... we had to reinstall once because of some unexplainable mysql error. But I dont think it was a virus problem. Phpbb has a few less features than vbulletin but many of them can be fixed with mods (available on the official phpbb site).

I'm using phpBB too.
Installation and upgrades are very easy also for server-side novice like me :p

Thanks for your replies, everyone! :D Greatly appreciated.

Because I have no BIG plans at the moment, I'll stick with phpBB. If it grows and I find the forum worth spending some money on it, I might consider buying forum software.