Price = Instant Put Off

[Cheese]

Dear XenForo,
I was a long term VB user and when I heard about a new board software from ex VB designers I was thinking " Yes maybe a decent board ". Now I didnt expect the software to be free but I never expected that I would have to pay out the same price for XF as I would for VB. XF is in the starting stages of its life and guess what the price should reflect this. There is still very little support,mods,users and the fact the software is still in its opening version [still in beta too] really put me off purchasing the software.

I am sure I am not the only user who walked into XF and pretty muched walked straight out after seeing a price that matchs VB. Would it have not been a smarter idea to start the software at a lower price say $60 - 70 and increase the price over time as a support system and development level similar to VB was created. This would have also helped to increase the amount of users who would pick your software over VB.

Now dont get me wrong so far the software seems incredable but the question on my mind as I am sure alot of others is "What garante do I have that this will continue". The chances of VB going under is about 1% the chances for a site about 7 months old is about 80%. Because of this simple fact placing a large amount of cash for pretty similar software [lets not ballshit most community software is similar]. More so when currently the amount of mods and support is lesser than that of free forum software SMF.


Well thats all I wanted to say. I hope you wont see this as an attack or just a rage from a nobody. I wanted to simply explain my doubts that I bet alot of other possible clients will have also. Also I think that an "Affordable Vbulleten Alternative" would have made more sence than an "Similar Priced Software Created From Vbulletens Developers". Well think it over as I can say this now. One of the current problems with vbulleten is they seem to care more about money than they do quality and the fact you want the same price as such an early stage of your sites development does not give great confidence that XF will not follow they way of VB.


ps to simply put it

- Vbulleten - Huge Developer Community , Mods , Skins , Features , Updates , Long Term Company = Around $140

- XenoForo - New to communtiy software - Low Developer Community , Software lacks range as large as Vbulleten, Has some amazing features , Skin + Mod + Updates still very lacking. = Around $140

You do the maths and tell me if you WAS not a user of VB or XF and was about to pick one what would you truly rather pay $140 for if you was a complete amature with community software as most clients are.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Why are so many XF owners bashing up on this guy and telling him to "go look elsewhere"?

IMO anyone that uses that cheap 'go away' comment is no ambassador for XF and should consider refraining from posting. The diatribe doesn't help anyone.

The XF community needs to HELP provide positive feedback, build trust, share experience so that fencesitters understand they can be confident: the beta software IS working, the ease of administration is great, the forums look great and are easily modable, provide some links to showcase forums or example working mods etc.

Any other form of response is not constructive. Don't play the in-crowd-clique. Let's help people understand the value in XF and help get this community to takeoff.

 

[dutchbb]

Why do you consider that 'bashing'? If you step into a store on the street and you start a rant in front of other customers about how that store should lower their prices because you feel they are too expensive, I think they not only would tell you to find another store, but you'll be lucky if they don't call the police and kick you out.

If anything 'go look elsewhere' is a perfectly normal and decent answer to this thread. In fact, since we know the price is not going to get lower, the only thing people can suggest is to find a cheaper product elsewhere.

I think the only bashing going on here is coming from those who are telling others that the product is too expensive, without even having tested it thoroughly.

 

[xFalcon]

You get what you pay for. I took a chance and bought XF on a whim purely because some big names who used to work at Jelsoft are behind it. I knew nothing about how its style modification system worked, admincp or pretty much anything at all - I took a chance on all of this and I was not disappointed. Not one bit. XF may be the new underdog right now in the world of forum software, but I reckon it will be a very different story in 12 months time, maybe even 6? The beta we have right now is a truly fantastic piece of software - a base on which it will grow.

Ever since VB4 was released, I've been filled with a feeling of dread everytime I found myself downloading a new update. You just knew some of the issues were going to be fixed - but that there would be thrice that many new issues coming with it. It's a load of overcomplicated and overpriced garbage. I spent USD$285 on the full suite, only to find myself disabling the CMS and Blog almost immediately because they didn't work. Where's the value in that? My support questions would go several days (and thread bumps) before anyone at all would answer me.

I would much rather support a smaller company who know what they're doing, and is striving to produce an amazing and innovative piece of software. I live in Australia and I have asked questions here in the last few days while I've been learning the Admin Control Panel, all at varying times of the day - and guess what? Each one had a response within 10 minutes, with the answer.

It's your money and your choice.

 

[Elizabeth]

Lol it's no where near ipb - nor will it be for a long while! Many, many more features need to be incorporated before it will even be comparable to ipb.

I realize that it's not as feature rich as IPB, what I said was it had IPB in it's gunsights.

To the OP, when someone is shopping software, not everyone will want a locked in suite. Many will want something they can customize the way they want it. The theory has worked before...give the customer something lean to work with and let them add the extras. The software that has pulled that off and rocked the market leader from a 95+ market share to a 70+ (last time I checked) is known as Firefox.

 

[Ingenious]

Would it have not been a smarter idea to start the software at a lower price say $60 - 70 and increase the price over time as a support system and development level similar to VB was created. This would have also helped to increase the amount of users who would pick your software over VB.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that vB and IPB outgun XenForo in numbers of features. But it is exactly this which is putting so many people OFF. Because it's bloat, and it complicates what should be a user-engaging experience. So what would be a smart idea is to USE this forum (ironically, the fact you "walked right in" and "walked right out" but are still posting says a lot) to see if you like it - and make an informed decision on its value.

When I started to use XenForo, the number of missing features compared to vB became less and less important.

This is just my opinion, but vB4.x with all it's headaches, slow speed, bugs and lack of any real new features since vB3.x is NOT worth the asking price. Whereas XenForo, despite its lack of features, IS worth the price easily because it is fast, it works, it looks good.

You COULD go and try MyBB or PHPbb - they're free. Give them all a whirl, only you can decide which one suits you best for the price it costs.

 

[Mike]

Ultimately, we feel that the current price suits us. Plenty of people are happy to pay it, and you'll see many people say they would've paid more (not that they're unhappy with the current price ). Conversely, there will be people who won't want to pay $X - and that really applies to any price that's chosen. There are forum packages ranging from free to thousands of dollars and they fit into different parts of the market (or target specific niches).

If you're not comfortable with the current pricing, then I couldn't recommend us. We're planning to be here for the long term. I'm sure that down the line you'll see more that you're interested in and we will fit your needs more. And you'll see more of what we as a company do. The only thing we can do is keep pushing.