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ā€¦bearing in mind, this is all a huge learning curve for me

This is primarily why I went with Xenforo, because after testing all options, I found Xenforo to be the easiest to adapt to, with the most easiest learning curve. I'm not saying that it's going to be the same for you. You'll have to demo them and see what fits for you.
 
This is primarily why I went with Xenforo, because after testing all options, I found Xenforo to be the easiest to adapt to, with the most easiest learning curve. I'm not saying that it's going to be the same for you. You'll have to demo them and see what fits for you.
Thanks for your opinion šŸ‘

I have experience administrating XF and found it fairly simple to adapt to :)
 
I donā€™t believe IPB is free. Would you say SMF is better even in comparison to XF?
No... it's why my pipe site was on SMF 2.1.4 and is now on XenForo. And it gets no use.. but I simply did not like SMF in comparison from an admin standpoint nor a user standpoint.
Custom templating is easier in XF. Modifying (without touching the default template) is easier in XF.
You have prefixes in XF and not in SMF. You have custom fields in XF and not SMF. You have a decent reactions in XF and not SMF. You have more quality 3rd party add-ons in XF and not SMF.
You have better spam prevention in XF than in SMF. You have better moderation abilities in XF than SMF.
SMF is still stuck in the mid 2000's in many ways.
 
No... it's why my pipe site was on SMF 2.1.4 and is now on XenForo. And it gets no use.. but I simply did not like SMF in comparison from an admin standpoint nor a user standpoint.
Custom templating is easier in XF. Modifying (without touching the default template) is easier in XF.
You have prefixes in XF and not in SMF. You have custom fields in XF and not SMF. You have a decent reactions in XF and not SMF. You have more quality 3rd party add-ons in XF and not SMF.
You have better spam prevention in XF than in SMF. You have better moderation abilities in XF than SMF.
SMF is still stuck in the mid 2000's in many ways.
In what ways would you call SMF retro?
Also can you add other custom reactions in SMF like XF?
 
In what ways would you call SMF retro?
Also can you add other custom reactions in SMF like XF?
I had to use an add-on to GET reactions in SMF... and it had a bug in it. Not to mention, that add-on stated that for reactions, it ONLY support GIF style images.

I wish I had my SMF site still up as I could easily show you.

To me, as an end user... it's more a "tweaked" vB 3.x/4.x era look and interface feeling.
Of the free offerings as an overall "forum" feeling for the user, it's probably the better choice.
 
Iā€™ve seen some forums run on Woltlab and it looks pretty good. Have you used Woltlab at any point? How does the ACP and moderation panel compare and does that justify the price?
I have a 4.x license and ran a Linux site on it... At the same time I was running IPS 4.3 on another site and XF.
You can easily see which script I settled on.
 
What would you say you prefer about xenforo ocmpared to IPB?

IPB is very enterprise focused - both in pricing + feature set. E.g if itā€™s a must have for yku to be able to link your community to a business CRM system, then IPB is probably the way to go. Itā€™s a good platform, but I generally prefer XF and find it easier to use. I run sites across both IPB and XF and will probably end up consolidating on XF.

XF is on the whole fairly intuitive, and easy to customise.

I havenā€™t used Wotlab recently, or any of the free alternatives.

One thing Iā€™d suggest - set up a demo, and play about with the ACP and feature set. If youā€™re just looking to create a new community, then XF is a good option. If you have a specific feature in mind thatā€™s a ā€œmust haveā€, then youā€™ll probably need to review each platform to see how well it supports that feature.
 
Why do you say that?

I donā€™t think itā€™s a competition, but their community forum has significantly higher activity the last few days vs XF.
Think of how easy things are to get a forum up on your server.
IPS is one of the worst because of having to pay for things every 6 months.
The fact is if you're a fan of that forum always have other forums using other software.
pick up 5 or 6 urls and sign them up with different software.
It's what i do.
 
I have a 4.x license and ran a Linux site on it... At the same time I was running IPS 4.3 on another site and XF.
You can easily see which script I settled on.
Yeah but you're also a fan of the whole ips software.
that's what i'm getting out of you here.
Those two threads where you bagged the xf staff doesn't look good.
you might think they're unhelpful or petty but look at your attitude. you're a customer.
 
Just forums and an articles section
Then XF is a good bet as it covers both. If you want a more advanced article system then @Bob is the best out there, you can see it in action on:

On my Spiritual site (the link is in my signature) I've just used the built in article option of XF to push my articles out there.

I've demoed Woltlab and it's a nice system, but not so easy to customise as XF and I like getting my hands dirty lol. Feel free to visit any of my sites linked in my signature, they all use XF. Good luck to you regardless of where you lay your hat, we need more people opening forum sites.
 
@aussiefooty leaving out that vbulletin is now really inconvenient to use...
Vbulletin costs $249
Xenforo $160

Where do you find VB cheaper?
It's actually ok to use but can be difficult to fill out.
I love using the software but it's not as easy to use like what xenforo is.

with vbulletin you have to fill out a lot of forms and then have to upload via your ftp.

vbcloud is a godsend as they deal with all the upgrades similar to xf cloud.
 
IPB is very enterprise focused - both in pricing + feature set. E.g if itā€™s a must have for yku to be able to link your community to a business CRM system, then IPB is probably the way to go. Itā€™s a good platform, but I generally prefer XF and find it easier to use. I run sites across both IPB and XF and will probably end up consolidating on XF.

XF is on the whole fairly intuitive, and easy to customise.

I havenā€™t used Wotlab recently, or any of the free alternatives.

One thing Iā€™d suggest - set up a demo, and play about with the ACP and feature set. If youā€™re just looking to create a new community, then XF is a good option. If you have a specific feature in mind thatā€™s a ā€œmust haveā€, then youā€™ll probably need to review each platform to see how well it supports that feature.
I had to test IPB a while back to see about integration with a custom CRM... And that site is now using XenForo.

If you can get by with Zapier (which is fine for basic integrations) then you may be okay, but if you're going to be requiring custom development you are hands down better off going with XenForo.

Literally for the additional cost of running IPB, I can hire a developer to do custom integrations or addons.
 
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