I run an electric car website where I have been using SMF.
I got hacked. Now I am looking to put up smf again or move to a new forum that is more secure hopefully.
I want a good looking forum with lots of integratable features like gallery, blog, news sections, things I may want in the future basically.
I don't wanna waste money on something that I will just decide is not for me so I want something that will provide everything I could need.
I am leaning towards IPB but that may be dumb because I get the feeling that I am only doing this because it looks better to me.
I would like a forum with a very clean and elegant look kind of like apple does with its products if you know what I mean.
I have looked into IPB, VB, PHPBB, SMF, ubb threads and Vanilla.
Vanilla is actually to me the best looking but offers not near enough features and is more of a casual discussion board in my opinion.
If you would like me to delve deeper in detail of what i need so that you can help me out, I am happy to although I'm not sure whatelse there is to say.
Please tell me what the difference between IPB and VB is and please answer with information and reasons rather then just saying one is better. I cannot get a good answer.
VB seems to be the safter bet but I am just sick of the layout and look. I know its customizable but to what degree?
Please help and thankyou
I am very new to this.....

I would recommend IP.Board (IPB) You can get addon packages which include Gallery and Blog which is something you are looking for.

IP.Board has a very use friendly interface. as for safety. There is no board where security is the best, they both equally have security flaws, however they are usually patched fairly quickly upon discovery. But IP.Board is quite safe, take this site for example. It uses IP.Board 2.3.1

thanksI am leaning towards IPB but on most boards the majority lean towards VB, is this because its has been around longer? I'm really confused. I suppose it doens't really mattter that much but I would of atleast of expected one to be better at one thing and the other at another thing.

In the past I would have said IPB, but I have since started using other forums.

If you want a full site to go with the forum I woudl suggest Dragonfly CMS though. it comes with a version of phpBB. ad Dragonfly is programmed centered around security, and in my experience is by far the most secure CMS/BB. plugins/modules for Dragonfly also have a security rating/certification so you can make sure you only install trusted secure modules.

I recently opened up a new site of mine to the public (spamz0rs) that is run by IPB with the gallery and blog additions. The front page news is also run by the built-in features of IPB. It is a tad costly, but sometimes it is actually worth it to fork over the cash. Although this new site of mine is just starting out and has a lot of growing to do, I have been very happy with IPB's performance so far (and I doubt I will have any major problems with it anytime soon).

I use invision, i love it and so do my users :)click the link below to visit it!I also have an aracade mod so users can play games and try to beat each other scores in it

IceBB looks a lot like IP.Board and is free. I believe IceBB was made by some former IP.Board devs.