Is XenForo worth buying for a small community just starting?

MasonHD

New member
Hello. My name is Mason and i recently had an idea of starting a small community for gamers. Before i do this, i wanted to know whether or not it is worth it. I am on a low budget and XenForo will take a vast chunk out of it. Is there good enough support? Are there add-ons for nearly anything? Is the price fair? I need answers to these. I don't wish to join the group of nulled users out there so this is why im considering buying.
 
XenForo is a great forum script, but if you are not sure how well your forum would be received and you don't have a lot of funds to allocate towards it I would suggest doing something else.

The something else would be using something like myBB 1.6.x series (not sure if the new 1.8 line can be imported/merged). With the 1.6.x line you can import your forum into XenForo if you see it has taken off and you want to upgrade to a paid script.
You could also do the same thing but use phpBB3.

The support is far above what most other scripts are, and for my 4 forums I have been able to find add-ons that do all that I need them to do. If you have some esoteric type stuff then you would probably have to have some custom add-ons done.
 
XenForo is a great forum script, but if you are not sure how well your forum would be received and you don't have a lot of funds to allocate towards it I would suggest doing something else.

The something else would be using something like myBB 1.6.x series (not sure if the new 1.8 line can be imported/merged). With the 1.6.x line you can import your forum into XenForo if you see it has taken off and you want to upgrade to a paid script.
You could also do the same thing but use phpBB3.

The support is far above what most other scripts are, and for my 4 forums I have been able to find add-ons that do all that I need them to do. If you have some esoteric type stuff then you would probably have to have some custom add-ons done.
Thank you! I may be going straight for the xenForo option. If it goes wrong i can always use it for other things, including adding forums to my dev website... Thanks for the tips bud.
 
Budget. Haha. I remember having one of those some time ago.

I came from a free system to XF some 18 months ago. Bit of a shock paying for stuff I could get for free, but also opened up more choice in what I could do. Ended up spending my "budget" plus some more.

I agree with Tracy's sentiments, but I personally wouldn't have the patience to build one up and then migrate to something else.
 
Budget. Haha. I remember having one of those some time ago.

I came from a free system to XF some 18 months ago. Bit of a shock paying for stuff I could get for free, but also opened up more choice in what I could do. Ended up spending my "budget" plus some more.

I agree with Tracy's sentiments, but I personally wouldn't have the patience to build one up and then migrate to something else.
Well ok, haha. I understand. Oh, nice forum. My father had a BMW Z3
 
Hi Mason, it's hard to answer your question without knowing more of your requirements and expectations. I can say you won't fine a more helpful support group out there. One thing that may make a difference in your decision that not many people mention is that the Xenforo license retains its value more than any of its competitors. What I mean by that is that if your project is a failure, you can resell that license (assuming you bought it new direct from Xenforo in the first place). I'm not sure what the current secondary market value is, I've seen them go for anywhere from $80 to $120. Safe to say that you should get at least half your money back if you scrap the project and sell the license. Good luck to you whatever you decide to do!
 
I started out with a free version for many years and learned how to use, customize it, and code it myself. It was great for starting out, as I was in high school. Eventually, I bought the forum software when I had more than a weekend job. All your doing is paying for convenience and laziness. *somebody is going to burn and pitch fork my post like Frankenstein in a windmill. lol* It depends how much time you want to invest into a community that has a low chance of being successful for the first year. Communities are hard to start and I highly recommend if your in high school or freshman in college, to get your friends together and start a forum, then collaborate with the community or your own funds to buy a wonderful piece of software known as XenForo. :cool:
 
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Hi Mason, it's hard to answer your question without knowing more of your requirements and expectations. I can say you won't fine a more helpful support group out there. One thing that may make a difference in your decision that not many people mention is that the Xenforo license retains its value more than any of its competitors. What I mean by that is that if your project is a failure, you can resell that license (assuming you bought it new direct from Xenforo in the first place). I'm not sure what the current secondary market value is, I've seen them go for anywhere from $80 to $120. Safe to say that you should get at least half your money back if you scrap the project and sell the license. Good luck to you whatever you decide to do!
Ok! I actually didn't know you could resell... Thank you for that suggestion. It may be that i will do that....
 
I started out with a free version for many years and learned how to use, customize it, and code it myself. It was great for starting out, as I was in high school. Eventually, I bought the forum software when I had more than a weekend job. All your doing is paying for convenience and laziness. *somebody is going to burn and pitch fork my post like Frankenstein in a windmill. lol* It depends how much time you want to invest into a community that has a low chance of being successful for the first year. Communities are hard to start and I highly recommend if your in high school or freshman in college, to get your friends together and start a forum, then collaborate with the community or your own funds to buy a wonderful piece of software known as XenForo. :cool:
Awesome! Sounds good. I may be going for Xenforo now!:)
 
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