Forums Web Hosting

By Web Hosting on Oct 27, 2007 in Web Hosting

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Forums Web Hosting

In the world of websites, all the rave today is about community driven sites. Generally these sites are sites run at the core by some kind of forum software which lets users post topics and reply to topics posted by others. This kind of interaction among users creates dedicated and loyal members to the site which produces quick viral traffic if done correctly. One of the most important steps to setting up a successful forum is to find quality forum hosting.

Forum hosting is different from regular hosting. It requires a scripting language such as PHP, C#.net,VB.NET,ASP,JSP, etc and a database such as MYSQL or MSSQL. The majority of forum systems(and in my opinion the best ones) are written in PHP/MYSQL so make sure the host supports PHP/MYSQL if you plan to run a forum-driven site.

Besides the basic PHP/MYSQL requirement, a host who is well-suited for hosting forums has several other features that should be looked for. One of the things to look for is a host that has a low accounts per server ratio. Forums generally take a lot of CPU and RAM power to run smoothly and a popular forum that has many active members on at once can by itself bring an ill-managed server to its knees. For shared accounts that usually have hundreds of users on them at the same time, all running several forums, this may cause serious headaches. A forum hosting service should have good load-balancing techniques and strict CPU and RAM usage rules to keep one account from bogging down the server. You will also want to look for lenient burst CPU and RAM usage rates so your site does not get suspended for a few hours of extra-high traffic. Before signing up, check to see what the average server load is for the host. If the host already has a high average server-load, you should probably move on to another host as these hosts are probably already overloading their servers. For serious application hosting such as forums, it is advised that you stay away from the hosts such as powweb, ipowerweb, bluehost, etc that offer tremendous amounts of bandwidth at a ridiculously low price. These types of hosts will quickly suspend or delete your account the moment you go over the CPU/RAM limit. If you are determined to stick with shared hosting, I would suggest that you go with a host with a unique clustered-balanced solution such as MediaTemple as the type of solution they have will allow for more overall CPU/RAM usage than traditional shared hosting. However, if you run a forum with more than 100 users on at the same time, you should probably be looking for a VPS(Virtual Private Server) or a dedicated solution. Such large forums consume an amazingly large amount of CPU and RAM usage and shared hosts simply cannot let such accounts stay on their server because it will jeopardize the performance of the entire server and lose them many clients who reside on that server. If your forum-based site starts to get really popular, you need to be looking for your own dedicated server to run it.

As the traditional solution for forum hosting such as shared accounts, VPS, and dedicated have been discussed, another type of solution should also be looked out. This type of solution is specialized forum hosting. These types of hosts only host forums and nothing except for forums. Usually these types of hosts are better suited for handling forums and have special load-balanced or optimization techniques that forum scripts need. There are many forum-only hosts out there(free and paid), who use different types of forum software so you have your choice to choose from. Like traditional hosts however, you must do your research before signing up as different forum hosts will offer different qualities of service. For application specific hosts, look to pay a much higher price for specialized hosting. No longer expect the $5 for 500GB space and 2TB bandwidth that traditional hosts offer. For application hosting, expect to pay around $1/month for each 100MB space and 1GB bandwidth you need. Also for forum only hosts, you will be limited in the choice of forum software as each host will usually only support one type of forum software.

Since we have now looked at all the ins and outs of forum hosting, we will complete our study by examining some popular forum software packages to help you pick out the right one for you.

PHP Forums (All require PHP/MYSQL)

1. PHPBB3(http://www.phpbb.com) - This is the most popular free forum software available. PHPBB is feature rich and is in constant development to get better. The newest version boasts many security and functional improvements over the previous versions and is highly easy to customize. Despite complaints about its security and efficiency, I have found that PHPBB3 runs just as well if not better than most paid forum software.
2. Vbulletin(http://www.vbulletin.com) - Vbulletin has long bee regarded as the best forum software available. Its features and security and second to none. Paid members get premiere technical support and VB has an extensive online modding community. While the mods for VB are not as numerous as for PHPBB, they are better per-mod as the modders are usually of a higher skill level than the people who write PHPBB mods.
3. IPB(http://www.invisionpower.com) - Invision power board, when it was free, was probably the best free forum software available. Since it has now gone paid, it has even more improved features than before. Although not as popular as Vbullletin(and therefore lacks the large community Vbulletin has), IPB is a solid choice for people who are looking for professional forum software.
4. SMF(http://www.simplemachines.org) - SMF is a relatively new player to the market when compared to the others but also has the extensive features offered by the big boys. SMF is less common than PHPBB and Vbulletin so there are fewer mods for SMF. However, the forum system is powerful and flexible and gaining popularity. I’ve personally never liked SMF as much as PHPBB, but its supporters are always raving about its superior functionality and performance.
5. PunBB(http://www.punbb.org) - If your looking for a forum software that is more lightweight and does not cause too much strain on the server, then PunBB is probably your forum software of choice. It has most of the features of the forums such as PHPBB and Vbulletin, is easily moddable, but produces less server load. If your looking for a forum package that will not bog down a server while maintaining most of the features, give PunBB a try.

Non-PHP forums

1. WebWiz Forums (http://www.webwizguide.com/webwizforums/) - The best ASP(not .NET) forums available online. It is used in many ASP content management systems and has most of the essential forum features you’ll need. It requires ASP and MSSQL,MYSQL, or MSACCESS to run.
2. ASP Playground forums(http://www.aspplayground.net) - The best .NET forum software available. This software requires ASP.NET and an SQL database but can efficiently handle many users at the same time and allows for a large community on fairly limited server resources.
3. IkonBoard (http://www.ikonboard.com/) - A great PERL forum package and the predecessor to IPB. It has all the essential forum features and is easily customizable.

Now since we have looked both at the technicalities of forum hosting and the types of available forum software, you should be well-informed to make a good decision about which forum hosting and which forum software to choose for your community.

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