IPS V5 vs XF 3

[Watt579]

Hello everyone,

Im not openng this topic as a hater, i would like to hear your opinions and to debate about this controverial subject : XF vs IPS
I also need to take a decision to upgrade the IPS to v5 or to migrate to XF maybe v3 because i dont have a deadline and i can wait.
Im curently using IPS v4.7.23, my community have more than 7M posts, im using Commerce App with custom built gateway based on bitcoin (BTC Server), along with Gallery application, Blogs, Pages, Files, along with other private app such as Member of the Month , Attachment Watermark, FAQ, Hide Content, Enhanced Advertisments and other custom apps when a user gets automatically PM after purchase a subscription.

1. I think first thing i noticed when i have checked Xenforo software is have less features than IPS,this thing may be good or bad it depends of what sort of community we are talking about. My community tends to use all features from IPS, users gives negative rep points each other, complaints to moderators, communicating each other on blogs, writing comments everywhere, debating etc. What do you think about features from XF versus features IPS 4 v ?

2. Whats your opinion about IPS v5 compare to XF version 3 (i know is not finished yet) ?

3. Can all my list with applications ,i wrote at the begining my comment, be transfered to XF including all data ?

4. You think is better to wait for XF version 3 before migrating ?

5. I need to keep the URLs structure SAME as they are in IPS to avoid SEO problems, is it possible ?

6. I know it depende of lots of things, but if proper optimized which IPS or XF can be faster when loading ?

The reason of migration from IPS is quite bizzare. Recently, we have change server, and i encounter some troubles. The IPS support only focus on their cloud clients and give very little attention to self-hosted clients. And the support give this small amount of attention, only gets respondes such as deactivate all plugins/application, it doesnt work and other ******** answer. I received (paid) support from users from official IPS forum, neither from source. Also the official forum is have a lack of activity, it seems dead sometimes i can see 2-3 comments on daily basis compare to XF community where is intensive activity after refresing the page. Also they have removed marketplace, which is another problem.
When trying to hire a developer from official IPS, dont get any answers, lots of them retired/abandoned accounts and when i tried to use Freelancer/fiverr/upwork/toptal the devs never heard of IPS, they did heard about vbulletin and XF and i have to explan them about IPS, give them the official URL etc. I dont get the feelling of trust anymore about IPS.

 

[Suzanne O]

XF 3 isn't out yet mate. But if you want to use XF 2.3.8 or XF 2.4 they will be out shortly.
Just gotta wait until this guy @Chris D finishes the coding of it.

 

[Yenxji]

1. Features: IPS is ok, XenForo framework is much better and faster, also best for security and development, reliable

• IPS: Commerce, gallery, blogs, pages all included
• XF: Leaner core, better performance, stronger addon development and ecosystem for the future

2. IPS v5 vs XF 3

3. Migration Reality Check:
Forums, posts, users, gallery = Yes, possible
Commerce, Blogs, Pages, custom apps = No, your Bitcoin Commerce addon would need an upgrade for development


4. Shall you wait for XenForo 3.0? No, because it will take 1 to up to 4 years away, and so just a theme change. You can migrate to XF 2.3.7 now if you are going to do it right now


5. URL preservation: Possible,

Redirection Scripts for Invision IP Forums and Gallery

Dec 12, 2017

Redirects Invision URLs to XenForo for SEO benefits

• XenForo
• Redirection scripts [2.x]

The import system | Manual | XenForo

End-user documentation for XenForo

xenforo.com

6. Performance board: XenForo framework is much better and faster than IPS in most benchmarks. Your 7 Millions posts will load quicker on XF with proper optimization than on IPS


Bottom line as: Your IPS complaints are valid (support sucks, marketplace gone, can't find devs). But migration will cost you:

• $1k or up to 10k in the development
• Complete commerce rebuild
• Loss of blogs and pages
• Weeks of work
• Possible SEO damage

 

[Ricsca]

The cost of Invasion is insane! I switched with my forum from Invitation 4 to xenforo.

 

[Rene_V]

What do you think about features from XF versus features IPS 4 v ?

The best way to go about this imo is to use the XenForo demo and see for yourself what it has to offer.

Create a XenForo demo

xenforo.com

Can all my list with applications ,i wrote at the begining my comment, be transfered to XF including all data ?

I don't think that the data for the Ips apps will be converted to XenForo by the official converter. The same goes for any third party apps. That said, you can always hire someone to do custom converts for you.

4. You think is better to wait for XF version 3 before migrating ?

Personally I think it's better to not wait for xf 3 to migrate your forum. You can migrate it to the current xf version. It will be worth the while.

 

[Konon]

I'd wait for XF 2.4 as there will be more features and a new editor.

 

[SoulReplicant]

Your use case seems very very complex, migrating something outside the very basic from a forum structure (users, threads, posts, direct messages, profile posts (if you have/use them in IPB), nodes and categories, is literally tears and blood. Even with the basic, when you have a huge base or many years of history content, problems can arise in a big import. You have a lot of applications besides a forum so if I were on your shoes:

1.- I'd look for suitable XF 3rd party addons that mimic your current IPB ones. With IPB Blogs form example you can check XenAddons Blogs to see if their features satisfy your needs. Don't look for Blogs content migration (for now).

2.- Buy a XF self hosted license (yeah you'll have to spend money just to try things even if the end result won't be achievable) and try a test migration just for the forum to see how it goes. Your user base and forum content is your must appreciated asset by now.

3.- Invite a few trusted users with you to your test environment to see if they can feel the new system.

4.- If yes then you can start to purchase the addons. Start with the cheaper ones, try to communicate with their developers and explain them your use case to double check you'll get the desired outcome. The same, test the addons with your trusted users, you'll need your team in the final stage.

5.- Here's the tricky part. Put everything IPB related in a separated folder (and menu link) as a "read only" mode. That should imply revoking all "writable" permissions in IPB related stuff for all your members, even moderators. And forget migrating Blogs, Gallery, Files, Pages, FAQ and any other content created by an addon. It's too much a hassle to migrate that (unless done manually) and the idea here is to put your old content in some archive space were can still be visited (but not modified). It's just a way to perpetuate your old content (and not lose the SEO on it) until your user base gets used to the new system and new associated addons.

6.- You'll receive a lot of questions from your users, also friction and maybe some of them will leave (others will love it). That's where your trusted team comes in help, answering the questions, guiding the rest of the users in the new systems and addons and helping them (and you) to make the transition the most smoothly (or frictionless) possible.

I think in that case you won't spend a lot of money in custom work and, most importantly, less chance to be a Sysiphus endeavour.

Good luck

 

[Kirby]

I need to keep the URLs structure SAME as they are in IPS to avoid SEO problems, is it possible ?

I am not familiar with IPS URL structure, but generally it is not possible to keep the URL structure in XenForo exactly as it was in a different software, at least not without custom code.

 

[USCSS_Nostromo]

For XenForo, everything you mentioned already exists - blogs, member of the month, image watermarks, and so on.
But I wouldn’t switch if I were you.

What’s the point, if you already have all of that?

Users definitely won’t like it. People don’t like such major changes.
And you could drop out of Google search results. Your URLs will change, the page structure will change - basically everything will change.

I need to keep the URLs structure SAME as they are in IPS to avoid SEO problems, is it possible ?

Do you think that an HTML page can completely change its internal structure while keeping the same URL, and that this way you will fool Google?
I’ve been through this - the situation is unpredictable. No one can really recommend anything to you.

You think is better to wait for XF version 3 before migrating ?

Half a year passed between versions 2.3.7 and 2.3.8.
In a year, 2.4.x will start and will continue for several more years.
How long do you think it will take for 3.0 to come out - 3...5 years?

If you were using vBulletin, I would tell you to migrate. But IPS - no.

 

[tajhay]

Id wait for xf 2.4 to actually see what the team has been doing for past couple of years before deciding.

 

[DracoBlue]

Invision Community V5 has a much more pleasant design and a better-developed UI/UX, which gives it an advantage over XenForo. However, when it comes to optimization and code cleanliness, XenForo comes out on top.

 

[Suzanne O]

Invision Community V5 has a much more pleasant design and a better-developed UI/UX, which gives it an advantage over XenForo. However, when it comes to optimization and code cleanliness, XenForo comes out on top.

The expense alone of that ips software is too expensive as you have to renew it every 6 months.
Xf you only need to renew once a year and is less expensive

 

[vbresults]

A lot of the default experience is deliberately not customizable in Invision Community 5, a choice of their development team. It's no exaggeration to say that Invision Community 4 was far better in this regard, albeit far less stable even out of the box without customizations.

vBulletin 3.6 is more customizable in terms of the backend than IC5 is, which says a lot. They also shut down the third-party marketplace some time ago prior to IC5's release. But the customizations that can be done in IC5 are more structured. It's good for a lot of customers.

But for someone coming from XenForo or vBulletin expecting to have a high level of customization, you are going to be disappointed.

 

[chillibear]

The expense alone of that ips software is too expensive as you have to renew it every 6 months.
Xf you only need to renew once a year and is less expensive

The self hosted version (which is what the OP mentioned they are using) is an initial purchase cost of $499 and then $199 per year to maintain the licence and receive updates. I don't know what happens if you let the licence lapse and what the costs might be for any extensions they are using. The"cloud" hosted pricing is also given on their site.

The reason of migration from IPS is quite bizzare. Recently, we have change server, and i encounter some troubles. The IPS support only focus on their cloud clients and give very little attention to self-hosted clients. And the support give this small amount of attention, only gets respondes such as deactivate all plugins/application, it doesnt work and other ******** answer. I received (paid) support from users from official IPS forum, neither from source. Also the official forum is have a lack of activity, it seems dead sometimes i can see 2-3 comments on daily basis compare to XF community where is intensive activity after refresing the page.

I think there is going to be a reasonable cost to switching as it sounds like you have a good number of features that will require add-ons to XF that may or may not already exist. Data migration may also require some custom work and that either costs your time or someone you're paying. That's not to say you should or shouldn't do it. Certainly I've found the XF support both formally raising tickets and here from other users to be fine for our needs, but then again we've been hosting servers now for 25 years or so. I'm quite happy with XF as a platform.

I think personally if the cost of a XF licence isn't prohibitive for you ($195 starting point for self hosted) and the free demo time is too short then buy one and have a serious play with it and experiment with some of the add-ons and so forth. If you like it then pursue it further, if you don't you can probably sell the licence on to someone else or write it off. The second thing is considering spending some of the money you might on a migration (ie custom add-on development, etc) on having someone figure out your server issues. AFAIK IPS is just PHP+MySQL so nothing unusual, although it does sound like you may have tried this a little already? I'm going to make the rash assumption that IPS is perfectly reasonable software and so a decent sys-admin and PHP developer could perhaps fix your current issues.

 

[Suzanne O]

@chillibear

I was talking about Invision.

I went with them once and was shocked that i had to pay $600 AU every 6 months.

I'm with XF and have been with them for about 14 years.
I have 3 different licenses with them.
Xf cloud's a good option too if you struggling to go somewhere.

I also have a vB license too that i can still use at any time.
But strongly recommend their cloud usage.

I treat forum software the same way i do with whoever i choose to host my forum.
I've been with namecheap of over 15 years.
Highly recommend them over knownhost.

 

[chillibear]

@chillibear
I was talking about Invision.
I went with them once and was shocked that i had to pay $600 AU every 6 months.

My apologies. Evidently I have the products mixed up I'd been under the impression Invision (Community) was the forum software and the developer was IPS? Anyhow I must confess to being less familiar with the rest of the available options having mostly just used XF when I needed a forum for someone and not overly worried about the competition!

 

[Ricsca]

I went with them once and was shocked that i had to pay $600 AU every 6 months.

With the new super expensive license, Invision currently costs 499 euros for the first time and then 199 euros every 12 months and the annual renewal must be done by force if you want to continue having the forum and not at the discretion of the admin.

 

[FTL]

Given the huge size of your forum and how much you use features unsupported by XF, I recommend you stay with Invision, as much as it hurts to say this.

If you were determined to migrate, you'd have to pay an expert developer lots of money to write custom add-ons for you. It would take a long time, testing and bugs, then it's likely to break when a new XF version comes out. Basically, you're in for a big, expensive headache so it's just not worth it.

 

[Suzanne O]

With the new super expensive license, Invision currently costs 499 euros for the first time and then 199 euros every 12 months and the annual renewal must be done by force if you want to continue having the forum and not at the discretion of the admin.

My point is you shouldn't need to be paying that amount twice a year.
Back when i used to use it we were forced to pay every 6 months.

 

[Suzanne O]

My apologies. Evidently I have the products mixed up I'd been under the impression Invision (Community) was the forum software and the developer was IPS? Anyhow I must confess to being less familiar with the rest of the available options having mostly just used XF when I needed a forum for someone and not overly worried about the competition!

Yes it was