We have tried just about every available forum software with Wordpress and have been unsatisfied until now.

Certainly there are a few things I'd like to be able to do a little easier like replacing the BuddyPress Profile with the wpForo profile. I really don't like BuddyPress profiles, they are.. well just plain ugly. I would prefer that the wpForo profile be site wide but also include the things that the BuddPress profile pages do (i.e. notification, messages, site activity etc.).

Alas, I am not a coder and we certainly do not have the funds to pay someone for such significant changes.

Anyway, other forum software (SMF & myBB ) requires some kind of bridge between the forum and Wordpress which can lead to big problems; fitting in with your theme as just one example. bbPress is just ugly to the eye as well. 

wpForo is stylish, easy to set up, easy to use and we couldn't be happier with the support we've received, what little was necessary to get things up and running.

I do not know all of the features you are looking for, but I think you might just like setting up and using wpForo on your site. We're certainly glad we did!

On my website, I previously used WP for news, xenForo for the forum, and a WP plugin called xenWord as a bridge. It worked okay, but bridges are painful to keep up and maintain. When I discovered wpForo, I was (and still am) very happy! It is SO much nicer to have everything in WordPress and especially with such a great forum solution as wpForo.

Hi @labradorman,

wpForo is good in flexible styling, easy configuration and in easy extension. It's fully integrated with WordPress and provides single authorization system for your websites. wpForo user registration and login processes are based on WordPress user system. It becomes secure and easy manageable.

You can use dozens of thousands theme and plugins with in WordPress with wpForo forum. There are lots of security, antispam, SEO and optimization solutions with WordPress/wpForo combo. Extending of your website becomes unlimited. I'd also specify wpForo built-in Forum access, SEO, Cache and Spam protection systems. They help a lot and make forum admin life easier. There are dozens, even a hundred of other cool functions and features in wpForo.

I think, first you should compare advantages of WordPress website with standalone forum.

In case your website only consists of a discussion board, you should consider to use standalone forums. If you use WordPress, the best way is using a WordPress forum plugin. It's always not recommended to bright standalone forums with WordPress.

Thank everyone for all your great advice! 

@robert, may i ask some more questions?

1) my forum is intended to be a community on computer programming (in Thai language)

- can I use (integrate) "syntax hilighter" to highlight program codes in wpforo?

2) the options to "like" and "unlike" belong to addon extension, do I understand correctly?

3) you said that wpforo can combine with any wordpress theme. Could you please further illustrate this point? From my understanding, I can set wpforo style in its menu (eg changing color), but I dont understand how to combine with wp theme. (Because I am really new to wpforo, I am quite lost in information, sorry. Perhaps could you please provide me some pointer so that I can do self study on wpforo style adjusting.)