Which forum software is better to use?

It's depend your size of forums.. also cost..

for free, I like phpbb and mybb and for paid one, recommend vbulletin.. We also use vbulletin for our company forum.

thanks

I'd recommend you use forum hosting for this purpose. Many companies recommend this kind of hosting, for example ServerPoint.com offers different kinds of forum web hosting lke phpBB hosting, vBulletin, php and many others.

My personal favorite free forum script is phpBB, but you'll need to have mySQL on your server to run it, and if you're not familiar with the database structure of your server, you'll want to have a MySQL administration console... it makes it a lot easier to manage your databases (free as well, but your webhost may charge for that service).
If you haven't got much time, and want to see what the new phpbb3 can offer, just try it out on this host : www.forumotion.com

Hope this can help!

vBulletin IMO.

For free PunBB is pretty good.

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I like SMF. As for me it looks like vBulletin and at the same time it is free.

I think ***.com can help you in it very much. This company provides web hostingtat is good for forum software. And the prices are quite nice.

Specify your budget.

Much depends on the amount of unique visitors consequently you may need a semi-dedi, VPS or dedi.
Many companies provids these kinds of services but I'd emphasize some of them that are famous for their good reputation and stability in providing web hosting services. They are ***.com, Site5.com and Webhostingbuzz.com. Think you'll choose the necessary solution for yourself.