Simple Machines Forum, popularly referred to as SMF, is a professional free grade software package that allows you to own your online community that you have set-up. Forums are essentially applications where a topic of discussion is initiated by a particular user with other readers airing their views pertaining to the topic. Such a community can be replicated in your own web space for either staying connected to your relations or for matters to do with your business.

SMF comes with a powerful custom template engine that proffers total control of the message board layout. The unique Server Side Includes-or simply SSI-function allows your website and forum to interact with each other.
The language employed by SMF is the popular PHP and the database used is MySQL. The design is such that it affords you all the features that you require from a bulletin board with very minimal impact on server resources.

Here below are some of the outstanding features of SMF;
a.SMF is easy to use and absolutely free – SMF simplicity does mean that its features are comprimised. With powerful languages used like PHP and MySQL, SMF is designed to meet optimal performance with extensive template system, multi-language support, an efficient template system and categories/boards and topics consisting comprehensive search options.
b.Application is secure: all actions by the forum administrator require session authorizations with the prerequisite of conducting administrative work being the user’s password.  SMF being the powerful tool that it is will deny admission to the IP completely if the system detects unsuccessful login attempt from a particular IP.
c.Framework is well organized: The organization of the internal structure is brilliant and is customizable to meet your preferences. The categories of the board can either be collapsible or non-collapsible. Provisions for the creation of sub boards under main board are provided for. The administrator is able to assign particular boards to moderators.  Postings by Guest can be allowed with access permitted to select member groups. 
d.Wireless access and external integration: This feature makes SMF a cut above the other forum builders. Wireless protocols like I-Mode, WAP 2 and WAP are supported by SMF. If your phone is high-end GPRS enabled, you can surf through the boards and topics as you have access your SMF application. With WAP onwards you can be able to log into the systems and even post new messages giving an opportunity to stay connected to the community at all times.
e.Templates, themes, attachments and others: these set of features supported by SMF gave the application that extra something. The themes and templates at your disposal are varied and many to select from. SMF supports image posting and attachments on topics, fast posting tools like rich editing environment and spell check, support for polls and calendar among many others.
Having looked and discussed the features of SMF, let’s now turn our attention to its pros and cons.

Pros of SMF:

Automatic package manager is used when installing or uninstalling additional mods.
SMF is able to support multiple languages at the same time.
Option for displaying query count per page are provided for
Censoring of words is can be done either fully or partially.
Authentication is cookie and session based
Spell checker is provided for

Cons of SMF:

BBCode buttons are not supported
Custom profile fields are absent
Does not have a provision of user rating
Search flood control is absent
Customizable private message filters is lacking
To sum it up, keeping faith in its name, Simple Machines Forum is taking the online community world to a new level and more importantly in the right direction.
To conclude, Simple Machines Forum has taken the online community to unprecedented levels and more so in the right direction.  

vBulletin (VB) is a powerful commercial internet forum software. The software written is written in PHP and MySQL database server used. Jelsoft Enterprises and vBuletin solutions, both subsidiaries of internet brands, are the producers of this software.
The powerful community solution makes it easy to add forum messaging systems to your website. It’s created using MySQL and PHP known for its efficient open source database. This feature allows creation of products that are both amazingly fast yet reasonably stable.

VBULETIN FEATURES

vBulletin offers a whole lot of compelling features for both the end users , the forum administrators and moderators. Some of them are:
Private messaging
Comprehensive similes and avatars
Separate and rich-feature administrator, moderator and user control panels
Versions of printer-friendly threads and posts
Available linear, threaded and hybrid views for threads
A built-in calendar
Comprehensive permission system based on user, user groups or forums
Queue moderation for user registration and posting
Attachments complete with thumbnails preview
Private forums
Ranking and user notes
Paid subscriptions(which use PayPal, World Pay, NOCHEX and Authorize.net)
Banning features
Editable FAQ system
Friendly engine search meaning you get better ranking in the search results
Interface response
Search speed(thanks to effective content indexing)
Instant availability of new/edited posts with no delays

Customization

Thanks to a variety of in-built tools the interface can be changed with the minimum knowledge of web programming languages. Also it’s easy and fast to customize. It offers the following:
Having a built-in template editing interface; there’s no need to mess about with FTP and text editors
A full access to all the board settings through custom interface
Customizing or adding multi-lingual support is made easy since built in texts are stored as phrases
Ability to create and store multiple styles, which can be applied to different forums and users
It allows you the user to write powerful and versatile codes since conditionals are supported in all templates

EASY MAINTAINANCE

The most stable discussion board also needs maintenance often to keep it properly running. Data backup and restorations are vital because the data stored in the discussion board is the backbone of the community. This includes:
Table repair functions, built in database backups and style backup.
To allow the automated running of many administrative tools it contains a task scheduler.
Extensive board statistics i.e. number of old and new users, new posts, new threads etc.
Automatic post pruning to keep database size manageable.
Extensive server settings and optimization options.

ADVANTAGES

Here are the top key benefits/reasons to base your community on vBulletin
Versatility/Versatile
Written in PHP vBulletin makes it fast, efficient and capable of running on a broad range of hosting platforms. Fully dedicated servers offer the greatest speed, power and flexibility on a substantially increased cost unlike the shared hosting which provides a cheaper option while the semi-dedicated offers more power for a higher price. Using MySQL database it stores data and settings. Attachments can be uploaded and stored in either the database or the server file system. Also it’s fully scalable so the database server and the web server can reside on separate computers for the ultimate power and flexibility.

It can be run on any system that supports PHP and MySQM meaning that the user has a wide choice ranging from Linux and Windows to Solaris, BSD and Macintosh. The important facility allows data from another forum to be converted into vBulletin format. This includes users, posts, avatars and private messages.
The import facility supports the following boards: Infopop’s Ultimate Bulletin Board, Invision, UBBThreads, OpenTopic, ezboard,phpBB and Ikonboard.

PERFORMANCE

No matter the size of your site, vBulletin is designed with speed in mind, so you & your users won’t be stuck waiting for pages to load whether on a dial up modem or a broadband connection. Fast page loading is one of its advantages.
To sum up, vBulletin is one of the most advantageous server. With the above features its hard to ignore it. Its the best in all the ways possible to use the server. The best option you could have and the best decision you could make.

PHP Bulletin Board or simply phpBB as is commonly referred to- is a popular Internet forum package that is written in PHP scripting language. phpBB is readily available under the GNU General Public License and it’s free.  Since its inception in 2000, phpBB has grown in to become the most sought after and used Open Source forum solution.
phpBB popularity stems from the fact that it’s administration panel is user friendly and the installation process is friendly, which permits you to set-up the forum in minutes.  The key features are highly customizable coupled with a compliant standard interface.
The high customizable key features with a standard compliant interface, phpBB will grow and complement your website.

These are some of the features of phpBB

The Admin Control Panel is modular designed, as well as the Moderator Control Panel, and User Control Panel. The administrator has a lot of control on the features of the forum software like how it is displayed to user and group permission management. 
Multiple database management systems support for ODBC accessible DBMS LIKE MySQL, Firebird, SQLite, OpenLink Virtuoso, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and Oracle.
Limitless levels of subforums support
Able to create custom defined BBCode
Custom profiles field can be created
System permission
The system style template is such that it is easy to customize and it keeps the HTML separate from the PHP.
PHPBB2 has over 48 translations through a language pack system giving phpBB an international feel.
PhpBB is compatible with multi database management systems including postgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Microsoft Access.
The interface customisations and code also known as MODs and styles.
Installation of phpBB is very easy
High security is prioritized with phpBB with extensive authorization system boosted with a strong encryption for the password safety. 
phpBB has a powerful search facility
Can take a limitless number of members for the forum 
Has private and public forums 
The message facility is very private
You are able to customize the templates 
phpBB has been designed to allow you to format the different font and styles image posting and for automatic URL link and display of the code.
Support will be provided for free by the huge phpBB community. 
The following are some of the pros that make phpBB one of the most popular free bullentin board applications.
pros:
Offers free templates/plugins/mods
MySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQL database engines supported
Has search flood control
Posts are sorted
Able to customize private message filters
 
Cons:
phpBB mod installer is not automatic
Some of the additional mods require advanced programming skills to when installing
HTML in posts is not possible
Lacks user ranking
RSS is unavailable
PhpBB forum hosting
 
The phpBB forum hosting providers are several in the market offering absolutely free, or inexpensive hosting packages forums and also premium paid hosting packages. All the aforementioned will depend on the quality of that server and the features that are proffered in the particular package. Also the customer service quality and support provided by the forum hosting company. phpBB that are free will have very minimal disc space for their message board and pop up ads to boot. Incases of paid phpBB service, the disk space is more and is add free.