Forum software

I'm looking for a reliable forum software, that is easy to skin and within a reasonable price range (no more than a couple hundred dollars).

Anybody have any suggestions?

Get vBulletin, best of the best. Owned liscense is only $160.

www.vbulletin.com

Invision Power Boards is good as well.

If you are indeed willing to pay, vB and IPB are the only ways to go. Both software are essentially the same when it all comes down to it, personal preference is all that makes a difference. IPB tends to have a better admin side whereas vB tends to have a better user side...There are more advantages/disadvantages to each of course, but they are pretty miniscule.

That said, I prefer vB...it has a larger mod/support community and is the more popular software...so more people know how to use it.

I was suggested to use phpbb to start out. But I'm not sure if it could later be converted to vBulletin or another one if phpbb isn't enough.
I'd like to start out with something a bit more safe for when the site has grown and is more demanding. Would phpbb do the job?
Or does it really not compare to vBulletin or other paid for options?

Is Invision Power Boards asp?

IPB is not ASP, everything mentioned so far is PHP

You can definitely start with phpBB and later move to vB or IPB. That's actually what most forums that are not with vB or IPB did. Both software have conversion tools, so you dont need to worry about not being able to switch down the road. If you are indeed looking to start with free software first, I'm going to have to suggest yet another piece of software, haha...SMF - http://www.simplemachines.org

It's still fairly new in the forum world, but it is growing at a rapid pace, as is the popularity. Personally, I prefer SMF over phpBB...it's faster, cleaner, safer, and advancing faster than phpBB.

Invision Powerboard would be my number one suggestion followed by vBulletin.

GTAce: Can SMF be skinned?

Are the conversion tools good? I really wouldn't want to wind up with having to start the ofum again if I had to make a switch.

I'm thinking of going for a php based, since I've heard asp ones are slow.

SMF can be skinned, yes, but the mod community is not very large, in addition there are not as many skins available with SMF as there are phpBB.

As far as conversion, if I remember correctly, you will have one pretty crucial hurdle to jump moving from SMF to vB that you would not have moving from phpBB to vB and that is the passwords. Passwords are stored differently with SMF than vB...I'm pretty sure there is no way to maintain the passwords, so you would have to make all members reset their passwords after the conversion. I've moved from IPB to vB before and had this same problem...it was definitely a setback, but it's not going to kill your forums.

If that concerns you...and if the skins concern you, then you should go with phpBB. More skins and no need to worry about that password issue.

vBulletin is definitely worth the money!