Migrating from SMF to XenForo. Why?

[Senkusha]

I've been running SMF on and off for years, because it's free, and reliably stable. However, recently, I'm looking around and noticing more forums are using this software, XenForo. I'll be honest, sinking nearly $200 (+add ons that I want) is pretty steep, for me considering that my forum is... struggling. Perhaps because I'm using an antiqued software, perhaps my niche of anime role playing is uninteresting. Or maybe there's other reasons.

I'd like to know, if you went from using SMF to XenForo, what were the reasons that caused you to make the leap?

 

[Alvin63]

I've only used Xenforo, but I have used/been a member on SMF forums. What my users like is - the ability to have reactions (likes, hearts) etc on posts. Which is similar to social media type reactions. I think they like the ease of uploading photos directly from a phone onto a post. And the ease of pasting links, which unfurl. Also pasted youtube links become embedded videos which can be watched on the site.

For me I like Bob's AMS Articles addon - which I use as a visual home page with photos for each article.

If it's more of a text based forum then you maybe want to just stick with what you've got. But I find there is a lot of functionality in Xenforo that users like.

I wouldn't know what the difference was on the admin side but there is a large range of functionality and options in the admin control panel as well. Plus stopforumspam is built in.

If you have enough members, maybe you could ask for donations for the upgrade? Or pay for it the first year and ask for donations the second year? Or add affiliate links to help fund it.

Whether it attracts more users or not I wouldn't know - that is more likely from backlinks and good google ranking for many posts IMO.

 

[ScrapBlox]

I haven't used SMF too in depth but XenForo while expensive for small communities especially as there's plenty of options (personally I like Discourse) I really like the look and feel of XF and there's from my experience a lot more in the XenForo administration panel as compared to SMF.

XenForo out of the box as compared to SMF for me is better from features and profile page look.

(idk about member growth per each software either)

 

[Mr. Jinx]

what were the reasons that caused you to make the leap?

For me, the biggest reason is the addon and template system that XF is using. It is leaps ahead of SMF.
With SMF you would directly patch and modify source files. XF has a system that makes installing addons and modifying templates much easier without directly modifying core system files. XF has it's core files which you just don't touch as a user. Instead you use the template and addon system with versioning.

I remember with SMF that every software update was a real pain. The upgrade might work, but then you couldn't upgrade or uninstall a previously installed addon because source files were modified, resulting in a big mess.
With XF this proces works flawless.

ps: If your forum is struggling, I'm afraid that new software won't do the magic for you. Forums are having a hard time in general.