How can xenforo compete against the big companies like vBulletin and IPB?

Princeton

Princeton

Well-known member
competition breeds excellence

- vbulletin will be forced to create a better product
- xenforo will be forced to create a better product

In the end, we all win.

vbulletin does have the upper hand
  • a trusted brand; even with the current problems people still trust the name
  • member base is huge - most don't even know about the problems
  • resources
xenforo greatest advantage is that it has no restrictions. It can build from the ground up with features that work.

The question we should be asking...
How can xenforo compete against the big companies like vBulletin and IPB?

1)__ Start building your Brand - the biggest asset it has is the staff. But this can only take you so far...
  • make it easy for people to spread the word - send-to-friend email?
  • offer a newsletter? Why force people to register / subscribe to forum?
  • banners to share on sites, etc ... it will help others become aware of the brand
Remember: It's not about xenforo - the great software. It's about getting people to trust xenforo - the company - the brand.

2)__ Build for those who can spread the word - developers, programmers, web designers, etc. Start working on a marketplace, on new policies, etc ... even if it's just on paper or just taking input from members. It's important to show them how serious you are in working with them.

3)__ Ensure that a smooth upgrade is possible. (eg. SEO ) Changing features and interface is one thing but making it difficult for people to transition from one software to another because of indexed pages, URL rewrites, etc can be detrimental to growth. (Not everyone will have the knowledge to do this on their own.)

4)__ Get many eyes on the software. This is possible by targeting large sites. If you can convert large sites you will...
  • expose the brand to many people.
  • increase word-of-mouth.

(for education purposes only ... the same can apply to other endeavors)
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I think the most important factor for XF is media attention. Think about what made all these web 2.0 companies suddenly grow so fast. It's the media that makes you today. That goes for pop stars but just as well for services and products. I'm sure the owners of XF have already thought about this once or twice, but sending press releases to as many news media as possible is essential.

I also agree that it's important to convince big boards first. People need role models, big boards can play that role. It's like planting a seed and watching a big three grow.

But also I think it is a process that takes time, and doesn't need to be forced too much. Quality eventually reaches the surface and will be noticed. A good (better) product will sell itself at some point in time.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Princeton said:
Any tips on how a company (such as xenforo) can get from point A to point B in less time?
Click to expand...

I don't think there will be any problem in this regard. There is a huge pent up demand for xf.

Suggestions for xf would be
  • keep making the 'have you seen' videos, including developer videos. The amount of talent in the xf membership is mind boggling.
  • In addition, take the best parts of how other companies do things with regards to after market paid vs unpaid modification/skins.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Princeton said:
competition breeds excellence

- vbulletin will be forced to create a better product
- xenforo will be forced to create a better product

In the end, we all win.
Click to expand...
That's the part I like... xenforo will push VB & IPB to better their own products... xenforo will have to be more creative and innovative to gain market share, which means we as end users just win!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My first visit and view of xenforo. I must say I like the "look" a lot better than vB4. Plus it actually works!

Good to see a lot of the old vB community here.

I was banned by vB on the day they announced the license change and their new prices.
It was a sad to see a special community that had developed the software over many years destroyed by greed.

Good luck to all that are involved in this project.

El Burro
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Good thread Princeton.

I'm positioning XF as an 'upgrade' to vBulletin, and am hoping the import system will function that smoothly. If they can get other systems importing smoothly (IPB, phpBB, smf) that will encourage existing big boards to migrate and they in turn will champion XenForo to their own users.

I really like the screencasts that have been coming out so far, and believe user generated screencasts of first contact with a XF migration from someone new to it could push it over the line, assuming the "upgrade" is smooth.

Admin's are a unique bunch, they generally visit many different forums to cater to their different interests and word of mouth will be huge when XF goes to market.

Personally, I wont migrate until vaultwiki supports XenForo.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sushubh Mittal said:
you really need to intercept in this thread! things are pretty hot in here.

http://xenforo.com/community/thread...-of-free-publicity-and-sales.3347/#post-51424
Click to expand...
It's impossible to keep up with the trolling in all these threads.

A lot of the suggestions being made are by people who have never had to earn a living writing software, marketing it, or handling customer service for it. Obviously people are welcome to post whatever feedback they want, but when people say XenForo needs search feature X, a certain price point, a certain privacy feature, a certain FaceBook-like feature, or "it will not survive the marketplace" and other such inflammatory nonsense, it's not constructive.

People are using the Suggestions forums as a soapbox to preach from.
Any customer who can show proof of purchase of the vBulletin 4 software can then purchase XenForo 1.0 for the price of 1 dollar.
Click to expand...
You won't be taken seriously with a $1 offer. You can't market the quality of a product and sell it for $1 in the same breath. It doesn't work.

Frustration with vBulletin 4 is such that XenForo doesn't need to lower their price, at least at first. 2-3 months down the road, they could offer a competitive switch price once sales slow.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yes, I am a person who does not have much experience with software. But I can not see how XenForo can be priced the same as vBulletin which is much more established and has more functionality as a result of that.

For a simple comparison which may be useful for some to explain my logic.

The iPhone 4 and Samsung Wave

They both have pretty much identical hardware. But due to the fact that the iPhone is a premium brand and people really value the functionality and applications/other add ons - it is about three times more expensive.

XenForo may be nice software but it simply does not have the same level of add ons and therefore should not be priced the same.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Borgia said:
Yes, I am a person who does not have much experience with software.
Click to expand...
I'm not trying to be rude, but you disqualify the rest of the post with that statement.
I don't think that we need to worry about the pricing of XenForo. Kier has been at the forefront during the development of what at one time was the most popular premium forum software. Before IB destroyed it (for many of us).
Ashley has been with Jelsoft for a long time doing exactly what he is doing here. The same goes for Mike too.
You could not ask for more competent people for what they are doing here.

So please everyone - enough with the business advice. It's really getting on my nerves. And if it's getting on mine, I don't even wanna know what Kier, Mike and Ashley must think about that.
We are potential customers. Not shareholders, not business advisors or anything of the sort. So let's leave the building and strategizing the pricing, promotion and future of xenForo to those whose a) job it is and b) who know exactly what they're doing.

We are (potential) customers, they are the (future) suppliers of the product. We should not confuse those two roles.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Been Told said:
So please everyone - enough with the business advice. It's really getting on my nerves. And if it's getting on mine, I don't even wanna know what Kier, Mike and Ashley must think about that.
We are potential customers. Not shareholders, not business advisors or anything of the sort. So let's leave the building and strategizing the pricing, promotion and future of xenForo to those whose a) job it is and b) who know exactly what they're doing.

We are (potential) customers, they are the (future) suppliers of the product. We should not confuse those two roles.
Click to expand...
AMEN!!!! Could not have said it better.

Liz
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think for what it's worth VB has nothing against xF. xF stands out from all the rest already. xF has a life of it's own. It can do already so many things that the others lack.

The question is, how do you make it stand our from the rest? Mike and Kier i think have already accomplished that. And the feeling and vibe i get from them is that they want the product to speak for itself. To me it already has, and is already making the rest of the others shake at their knees.

Look, we all know that there needed to be something out there that would answer our call for help. I think the time has come to embrace change and accept the fact that xF will be a major contender out there in the forum script world. If not the "BEST" there is.

By the looks of things here, the others have a lot of catching up to do. ;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
To be honest, I don't see any reason for XF to worry. Not for one big reason, but many small ones.
For example:
These days when I go to forums other than this place, 6 times out of 10 I will click the thread title expecting to be taken to the first unread post (not the first post of the thread). I keep expecting to be notified of quotes and new replies in a nice little alerts box.
I think that these "little" things are very important. A lot of people would be surprised (I think) to know what these little things can do. If XF were out as forum software, I know I'd have told every forum admin I know to at least look at it.
And primarily not just because I want XF to succeed. No - primarily because this UI, the whole philosophy and ease of use that you can feel in XF just gets to you as a whole.
You start wishing everyone else could do it. And not only that - I'm getting a little annoyed because the others can't. And that little annoyance, I think, can go a long way.

I'm not sure how much of that is an effect by design or if it's just a result of a very, very well thought out UI. But in my opinion, this new UI adds a certain je ne sais quoi to XF that makes it stand out - instantly. You just know you are dealing with something completely different, something new, something fresh.
We must not forget:
vBulletin and IP.Board didn't become so big because they had a big budget, many devs or anything like that. There was one reason and one reason alone for them getting big:
great software.

And that is something that is evident in XF to such an extent, that the question of "how will XF survive against the big shots" really doesn't arise. Because XF is not the new vBulletin or IP.Board. It's a whole new thing. It doesn't need to steal customers from vBulletin or any other particular forum software. I predict that XenForo will persuade people to pay for forum software who were previously perfectly happy with good free software like phpBB and MyBB. And that is the reason why XenForo will succeed and also why the big commercial forum software makers are no threat whatsoever to XF.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
There have been numerous ideas thrown out here and probably all are worthy of consideration. On the basis that perhaps some may want us to implement some of these ideas, please keep in mind our broad approach and ethos.

XenForo is about passion and care and has been created with much love. I realise that this sounds very unbusiness like, but here is the kicker. We believe that others will also love XenForo and we want everyone to consider using it. We have therefore exposed the front end to gather feedback and ascertain that we are on the right path. So far it looks promising.

Our way forward from here is to make XenForo available, looking for you to support us, by buying XenForo (and running it), so that we can in turn, support you by developing it further. Yes, it is a business, however, XenForo is more than simply business. We offer and honest and reasonable proposition and conduct ourselves professionally and will not employ any sharp practice.

The talk of competing with the others is good and well and of course we want users of other software to use XenForo. For some XenForo will not suit and for some it will not suit right now. There are some and we hope many, for whom XenForo does suit and together we will grow XenForo to stand on it's own, irrespective of all other forum software.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Like I promised awhile back, within 3 months of Xenforo being released I will buy a copy of it AND put it to use. Why so soon? Simple.

In the short amount of time I have played with it as a member, I have been very impressed. Speed, design, feel. It all just gels together well and feels natural. And from what I have seen of the admin area, I'm pretty impressed.

As well, Kier and Mike have listened to the community. They actually care about the product and people they are selling it to. This resonates well with people. Especially those disgruntled for whatever reason with IPB or VB.

Also, the fact I have seen some big name and well known and well respected skin designers and mod makers from both the VB and IPB community showing interest in Xenforo shows that they have confidence in it too. So hopefully people keep their expectations realistic and not so high that they end up disappointed when it's released. Be realistic about it all.

Xenforo is showing innovation. It's obviously not constrained by previous Xenforo versions or features.

Long story short, I look forward to Xenforo being released. I'm confident this time next year many of us will be singing it's praises.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
feldon30 said:
You won't be taken seriously with a $1 offer. You can't market the quality of a product and sell it for $1 in the same breath. It doesn't work.
Frustration with vBulletin 4 is such that XenForo doesn't need to lower their price, at least at first. 2-3 months down the road, they could offer a competitive switch price once sales slow.
Click to expand...

To be fair i was merely suggesting it as a gimmick to garner some early buzz. Maybe to offer something like that in the first week or during a presale or something.
I certainly was not saying that xenForo should price the software for a dollar. The regular price would of course still be the regular price... whatever that was.
My intent was not to cheapen the xenForo brand, nor to give early adopters a discount or anything of the sort.
Just some free publicity.

But reading the response from Kier i realized that he took that type of thing as taking the low road.
I dont think its that cheap of a gimmick myself, ive seen other established companies give away product in similar schemes... but i also do understand that he does not want his company to be perceived in a way that he is not comfortable with.

What was and is still a little strange to me is the reaction to this type of thing.
While i understand that its probably frustrating to keep hearing this kind of unsolicited business advice... its not like we are spitting on his puppy or something.

A suggestion like this comes out of people wanting xF to succeed. Nothing more.
Although when suggestions become demands... then thats something different.
There really is no place for things like... "if this software does not have feature X then it will be a failure".
Thats just rubbish and should be throughly ridiculed... not because the feature is not important, but because of the demanding way the user presented it.
That makes a huge difference.
It takes a constructive thought into non constructive criticism.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Similar threads

S
How to Compete against the Big Boys VBulletins
Replies
5
Views
1K
steven s
steven s
Top Bottom