galaxian - 9:51 am on Feb 13, 2010 (gmt 0)

I think some "big" companies or retailers might use a solution from a company like [lithium.com...] But even still, vBulletin is really advanced, and big companies use that too. I can't see big companies developing their own in house forum software that would be able to beat the features of these products.

I would recommend vBulletin any day as an inexpensive industrial strength forum platform. There are a lot of companies and hobby sites using it, so that means good support as well.