Thinking about setting up a forum for my gaming community. phpBB is free and open source, vBulletin is $160, and Invision Board is $100. Is vBulletin really $160 better than phpBB?

We'd have maybe 50-100 active members to start.

vBulletin is worth every penny if you're serious. The admin panel, template system, and performance are all significantly better than phpBB. The community plugin ecosystem is huge too.

phpBB is perfectly fine for a community your size. Save the $160 and put it toward hosting. If you outgrow phpBB you can always migrate later.

I run vBulletin for a 2000-member community and it's rock solid. But for 50-100 members, phpBB does the job. Don't overthink it.