Pros and cons of SMF Forum Software

Posted by: WH13 Administrator on May 18, 2013 Under: Articles

If you want to create your own forum, you can easily do so if you use SMF forum software. This tool is designed to allow one to create a forum quick and easy. This tool is written in PHP language which is one of the most popular programming languages as well as this tool makes use of MySQL database as well. Whether you have a website or none and you just want to build a community wherein you can easily create forums and discussions about certain topics that interest you, SMF has its share of pros and cons that you need to be aware of.

The Pros

It saves money. SMF is a free tool to download which is why it can save you a lot of bucks on forum building. While there are other tools that require payment, SMF requires none at all.

It saves time. This software is designed for people who want to create their own forums in a jiffy. This is why this tool can save a lot of time. It only takes several minutes in order for your community to be ready and that’s faster compared to other forum tools out there.

It has effective and cool features. All the features that are included in this tool are not gimmick features but truly useful features for creating forums. Because the features are cool and effective, you are guaranteed to create a reliable forum too.

It gives you layout control. One of the best pro of this tool is the fact that it includes a template engine that is powerful and custom-made and allows you to gain full control over the template you are going to use for your forum. You can create a more personalized forum because of this cool control feature.

It also offers website-forum interaction. This ability is due to the feature known as SSI or Server Side Includes function. With this function, your website and your forum can have interaction with each other.

It does not give server overload. The fact that this tool uses PHP and MySQL is what makes this advantage possible because even if the programming language and the database used are feature-packed, they have the ability to prevent sever overload.

The Cons

There is only a single minor con when using this forum tool. It is the fact that it lacks some important features that may also be of help when it comes to creating forums. These lacking features are profile fields, user rating, search flood control, customizable private message filters as well as support for custom BBCode buttons. While the performance of this tool may not be that directly or greatly affected by the lack of these important features, utilizing this tool would be better and more fun if these features are also incorporated.

It is easy to create a forum with the SMF forum software. Even if it lacks some features, it is still an effective tool towards a successful forum creation.

Compare Hosting Company with SMF Forum included