195$ is a brazen, overpriced pricepoint for xenforo

[Sal Collaziano]

I think I know why. They can charge a premium because they have a bunch of security and compliance certifications, which checks a big corporate box. Oftentimes, software is incredibly expensive like that because they are doing all the work and are jumping through all the regulatory hoops. Since a lot of software makers aren't going to do that, that leaves few options for groups that require certifications.

I guess so, why not? Paying extra for peace of mind, I suppose. I don't know.

 

[Mr Lucky]

If you don't know about how amazing Khoros is, then you're obviously too poor.

I don’t know how amazing it is but I am not poor.

or for those who only purchase the most expensive option assuming it's better.

Yes there are plenty of suckers around

 

[Ricsca]

I don't understand one thing, but have the prices of Xenforo licenses increased?

 

[beerForo]

Nope

 

[Taylor J]

Salesforce is actually really nice to use, used it at a previous company. They don't show off what it is because it's whatever you commission Salesforce themselves to change it up to your business needs.

They are also a 300+ billion dollar company so their screenshot-less website doesn't seem to hinder them.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

They don't show off what it is because it's whatever you commission Salesforce themselves to change it up to your business needs.

If that's what they're selling then it makes plain sense why they'd have no screenshots or live community to experience.

 

[smallwheels]

Renewing annually isn't just updates, it's also for Support. Some of us are perfectly capable of supporting ourselves so we don't need to renew constantly.

This. Also, if you compare:

XF License 195$, renewal 60$/year for updates + support
ES 60$, renewal 10$/year for updates + support
RM 70$ renewal 15$/year for updates + support
MG 70$ renewal 15$/year for updates + support

So if you have all three addons this sums up to 100$ per year.

If you want to run your forum to run as cheap as possible you buy the basic license only, renew let's say only after every 3 years and do not run any paid addons. This results for a ten year period a total of 375$ in license fees. Divide by 120 months you end up at a little more than 3$ per month.
If you run your forum on shared hosting to save money can do that for 10$/month. So you can run your forum for 13$/month, if you are willing to deal with all the tech stuff yourself (including doing backups for 0$).

At the other end of the spectrum you'd have all 3 factory addons and renew every year. This would then add up to 1295$ in ten years, almost 11$/month. Probably still not a sum that would kill anyone or be unaffordable.
You'd use a quality V-server or dedicated server that would cost you between 50 and 100$/month which adds up to 6000-12000$ in ten years.
A total of 60 - 110$/month and the licensing is a neglectible part of that. If you have a forum that needs a dedicated host you'll probably invest relevant amounts of money in customizing, theming and addons. And you'll want automated, regular off site backups. So instead of 60-110$/month you'll easily end up with 200-300$/months, depending from your needs and solutions. Maybe even more with a high end solution. The XF licensing cost is an even more irrelevant part of that.

In both cases you'll have to invest relevant amounts of your personal time for keeping the thing up and running (or pay someone for it). Even if you consider it as a hobby you loose time through that that you could use for something else.

If you go for cloud in comparison you get all three addons (no matter if you need them or not), get rid of dealing with backups and updates, administration, caring for hosting, so you save a lot of time and hassle but you pay a little more and loose a bit in terms of possiblities for customization/addons. Depending from the size of your forum you pay between 60 and 250$/month. The relevant limit for choosing the size of the cloud plan for many if not most is possibly the number of page views: 400k / 1 mio / 4 mio.

So while it is not for me the cloud plan is possilbly a proper solution for many that are not tech affinados: In comparison to self hosting they pay between 47 and 150$ more, but on the other hand if your time has value and/or your interest or abilities in technical stuff is limited that can be a pretty good deal - even if you only spend a couple of hours per month with tech stuff and administration on a self-hosted forum this translates to a very cheap hourly rate that you's have to pay for cloud hosting instead.

If you are tech competent, have fun with administration or have special needs for your forum self hosting is probably the better way to go.

Either way the licensing cost of XF is neglectible, so I do not get the roaring discussion around the cost of licensing extensions.

 

[Feline Forums]

I always thought the price point was pretty fair lol. You get to pick and choose what you want to make it even lower. You get an entire social platform of your own at your disposal for a one-time price with optional updates. It's great.

 

[Dragapult]

I already have xenforo.
I would still buy at this price, it's not too crazy of a price.

Then why does your thread title claim it's a brazen, overpriced price point? If you're willing to pay for it, sounds like it's not overpriced.

 

[Ricsca]

Then why does your thread title claim it's a brazen, overpriced price point? If you're willing to pay for it, sounds like it's not overpriced.

I also think the price is too expensive since the forums are almost dead but since there is nothing better I pay xenforo...

 

[Smartea]

Then why does your thread title claim it's a brazen, overpriced price point? If you're willing to pay for it, sounds like it's not overpriced.

I regret opening this thread. Should have opened one about the piss poor joke called cloud forums in general, not just Xenforo.
It's not that Xenforo is any good price-wise, it's that it's competitors are even worse. IPB charges 500$ for all-on-one-trash-can solution, and robbing people out of hundreds of dollars for their hellcloud product.

Time to open a new thread, this time adjusting my sights.

 

[smallwheels]

I regret opening this thread. Should have opened one about the piss poor joke called cloud forums in general, not just Xenforo.
It's not that Xenforo is any good price-wise, it's that it's competitors are even worse. IPB charges 500$ for all-on-one-trash-can solution, and robbing people out of hundreds of dollars for their hellcloud product.

If you think that, at ~3$/month incl. responsible updating, XenForo is too expensive you can always go for one of the completely free forum softwares. There are plenty around. If you think XF is better than those than maybe it is worth the price.

If you think the XF cloud options are too expensive: Nobody forces you to use them. You can host yourself and safe on money, gain possibilities but pay for that with higher personal responsibilities and more personal time to invest.

If you want a decent clould based XenForo but are not willing to pay for it and want it for free it is maybe time to face reality.

If, on the other hand, XF is as overpriced as you claim and so are the XF cloud offerings it should be really easy for you to found a business, employ a couple of skilled developers, designers, administrators, product managers, support people, marketing people and back-office staff plus the occasional lawyer and bookkeeper and offer a very decent, way better solution for a dramatically lower price. If you are right you will become a rich man in no time b/c everyone will buy what you offer as you will offer it basically for free, judging from your price expectations.

Moaning is always cheap and simple, the more if you ignore wider parts of what makes a business operation and that people have to make a living from it. Proving that it is possible to make a better offering in a economically sustainable way would be the way more interesting part of the game. I do have my doubts that you are able or at least willing to do it. So what exactly do you want to achieve with your moaning?

 

[Dixie McCall]

As long as Xenforo has a self hosting option, who gives a sheet if they offer cloud?

 

[Suzanne O]

As long as Xenforo has a self hosting option, who gives a sheet if they offer cloud?

Those of us who are on the cloud hosting program give a rat's backside about it.
In fact you love to miss the point here.
Bloke is talking about the cost of the self hosting option. It's more than $195 if you are from other countries. (It's close to double the price)
Cloud option here is more than $60 but then again i'm not from the UK.

 

[Opus X]

As long as Xenforo has a self hosting option, who gives a sheet if they offer cloud?

some people do not want the hassle of running a server even shared host.
i am lucky in that my site is ran on a vps of a friend so shared works for me.

 

[Dragapult]

I regret opening this thread. Should have opened one about the piss poor joke called cloud forums in general, not just Xenforo.
It's not that Xenforo is any good price-wise, it's that it's competitors are even worse. IPB charges 500$ for all-on-one-trash-can solution, and robbing people out of hundreds of dollars for their hellcloud product.

Time to open a new thread, this time adjusting my sights.

They're not robbing anyone. Customers know what the price is up front, and they decide if that's right for them. Same with XenForo: they tell you the price, you buy it or you don't. No one is getting robbed, it's a simple business transaction. Based on your posts, sounds like you would be better off with free self-hosted solutions, there are many. I used to use them myself.

 

[Dragapult]

I also think the price is too expensive since the forums are almost dead but since there is nothing better I pay xenforo...

If you are still willingly paying for it, sounds like it's not too expensive.

 

[smallwheels]

Bloke is talking about the cost of the self hosting option. It's more than $195 if you are from other countries. (It's close to double the price)

How do you come to that weird statement? I am from "another country" and did not pay "close to double the price". Apart from that the forum software is nothing that loses it's value the moment you bought it - it will run for years if not decades, other it makes no sense to create a forum. Thus you must set the price of the software in relation to the time of usage and include the cost of updates for that timeframe.

 

[Timelord_]

Correct, but the price increases should have been more gradual.

Discourse is free!

 

[Suzanne O]

How do you come to that weird statement? I am from "another country" and did not pay "close to double the price". Apart from that the forum software is nothing that loses it's value the moment you bought it - it will run for years if not decades, other it makes no sense to create a forum. Thus you must set the price of the software in relation to the time of usage and include the cost of updates for that timeframe.

Because you don't realise how much it costs.
I'm on the cloud. As i'm from australia it costs me $97 a month. Not $60 a month.
I don't complain about the cost of things.
I just make sure i have enough money in the card account i use.
Because the exchange rate is different over this way.