Best free forum/portal software?

**Clarkie** · January 11th, 2011, 12:46 PM

Hey there,

I've bought a domain that I plan to run a community on but I need to know the best free software that will give me everything I need.

Forum

The forum must be secure and easy to use. I am accustomed to using MyBB and phpBB.

Portal

Must have the ability to show multiple polls.
Must be part of the forum.
Must be able to display posts from a certain forum, eg news.

I don't mind using addons/plugins.

Hopefully somebody knows of something that can do this and is preferably customisable enough.

Thanks,
Clarkie

**QualityNonsense** · January 11th, 2011, 2:48 PM

Considered BBPress + WordPress + BuddyPress? Will require some setting up, but BBPress & WP are super easy to use,.

**Clarkie** · January 11th, 2011, 3:32 PM

That's more blog based though. I'm looking for forum software with a more customizable portal.

**tke71709** · January 11th, 2011, 3:33 PM

Define what you mean by portal and that would probably help.

**Clarkie** · January 11th, 2011, 3:38 PM

A page that displays the same theme and can show posts and polls from specified forums. Preferably with the possibility of adding extra pages with the same theme.

**tke71709** · January 11th, 2011, 4:03 PM

Sounds like Wordpress to me.

Wordpress is an awesome CMS, you don't have to have it look like a blog. Not sure how you would pull polls but...

You could also look at Xoops or Drupal. Don't know if anyone uses Xoops anymore, I did years ago and really found it to be noob-friendly.

**WSYSBroker** · January 11th, 2011, 4:06 PM

Wordpress all the way. My partners have used Wordpress for a number of forums. I'll get the URLs and post them here so you can see what they look like.

**Clinton** · January 11th, 2011, 5:09 PM

I'm with WSYSBroker, QN etc. I sold a WP site recently that has a forum. Check the forum out here and tell me what you think.

It doesn't have the bells and whistles that this forum has, but I think it looks pretty cool (I didn't design it).

@tke71709: WP Polls, and more

Clarkie, you bolded the word "free". Why is it so important to be free (apart from the fact that free costs less)?

BTW, I like your questions and how you're using this forum. Newbies often join up and sit in the shadows hoping to absorb the right stuff by osmosis. That's very inefficient. It's by taking part, asking questions and getting involved in discussions that you can best tap into the knowledge and experience of members here.

**JockP** · January 12th, 2011, 6:43 AM

Clarkie is going places. You cna just tell.

Clarkie free isn't the best way to do things. Although we all love to boostrap it is mostly in your detriment to try and do everything for free

Try v bulletin. It is a couple hundred bucks but well worth it.

**akirk** · January 12th, 2011, 6:48 AM

Originally Posted by JockP

Clarkie is going places. You cna just tell.

Clarkie free isn't the best way to do things. Although we all love to boostrap it is mostly in your detriment to try and do everything for free

Try v bulletin. It is a couple hundred bucks but well worth it.

or Invision Power Board (IPB) - also commercial - personally I think that they give better service than VB
both are good

Alasdair