The Buying Question

Summit

Summit

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So, I have recently been looking upon either XenForo or vBulletin. I feel that XenForo looks nicer, but vBulletin has more features. As of now, I'm using a shared hosting plan, until the website gets more popular.
What are the major differences between the 2? I want some opinions, possibly on both sides. I really like the idea of vBulletins mobile suite (although pricey), but again, at next update I'm paying 400 dollars. Do you guys plan on having a mobile suite?

Thanks Guys
 
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Hi Michael,

i think you don't need to make a comparison with vBulletin because, in my very humble opinion, vBulletin has no future. Don't take my post as a biased bashing. I used vBulletin for my community for a lot of time. I used 3.x and 4.x version and i think i would continued to use vBulletin for a long of time if i did not saw what happened with vbulletin 5.

When vBulletin started to bomb me with email about new Beta version of vBulletin 5 at the end i said to my self "oook, let's take a look at this stuff, maybe it's cool". Youtube video were quite cool, but when they launched vBulletin 5 on their own site i realized that they broke the toy. I said "oh ****, this is totally crap...slow...not usable....what the hell are they doing ? Going back instead of going forward ???"

Then i started to find info, and feedback, and reading official vBUlletin 5 feedback forum hoping to see good news but no..a disaster.
I feared for my community. I don't like tinkering with tech stuff each day, each month, each year but in that case i had to search an alternative only because i realized that vBulletin had (and has, imho) NO FUTURE.

So, my suggestion is to compare Xenforo with other forum suite, such as IPB.

And by the way i had no problems, issues, clashes with vBulletin staff. When i had to sell my vBulletin license they were very helpful and kind. So no biased bashing is intended in this post.
 
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Michael DeVito said:
So, I have recently been looking upon either XenForo or vBulletin. I feel that XenForo looks nicer, but vBulletin has more features. As of now, I'm using a shared hosting plan, until the website gets more popular.
What are the major differences between the 2? I want some opinions, possibly on both sides. I really like the idea of vBulletins mobile suite (although pricey), but again, at next update I'm paying 400 dollars. Do you guys plan on having a mobile suite?

Thanks Guys
Click to expand...

XenForo works on mobile devices out-of-the-box - no need for a mobile "app" or suite.

Can you tell us a bit more about your plans; is this a brand new forum or are you migrating from another platform? Is your forum a personal / hobby or interest one (using your own money and on a limited budget), or are you developing a forum for customers of a business or for a certain profession (more money to spend and specific requirements for the site/set-up)?

What features do you feel are absolutely essential for your community?

What hosting package do you have (or do you plan to invest in)?

Do you have any experience with installing / managing forums and would you be comfortable with installing Xenforo on your own or would you need some assistance from the community?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
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This isn't a "Brand New" forum. It has been up for a month and people (friends, family, members) have donated to enhance the website. So I was looking at what would be best. Its a gaming community, so others can chat together, help each other, and make friends.

EDIT: For the most part, everything I have installed has been on my own via FTP. So I'm good with installations, its just getting used to the software. Might need add-on's and themes however, but I have already found most of what I'm looking for here.
 
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Michael DeVito said:
This isn't a "Brand New" forum. It has been up for a month and people (friends, family, members) have donated to enhance the website. So I was looking at what would be best. Its a gaming community, so others can chat together, help each other, and make friends.

EDIT: For the most part, everything I have installed has been on my own via FTP. So I'm good with installations, its just getting used to the software. Might need add-on's and themes however, but I have already found most of what I'm looking for here.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you'll be fine installing everything you need. (y)

I would expect XF to be able to fulfil most of your wants and needs, and you get an active and helpful community thrown in for free too! :D
 
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Installing vBulletin these days is almost like instant death for your community. Your community would actually have a better chance of survival if you just deleted it. The fact that the vBulletin 5 demo is currently broken speaks for itself. They can't even get that right. I'm not saying this just for the sake of bashing vBulletin. It's just the sad truth.
 
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Ok, I think I have made my decision. XenForo. I have asked the same question on vBulletin, and about half the people there told me to go to XenForo. I was thinking IP.B like others said, but the fact I'm paying XX amount every 6 months was kind of annoying. This community seems really great here, and I will be defiantly be showing my final product as soon as I purchase the software.
 
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Michael DeVito said:
Ok, I think I have made my decision. XenForo. I have asked the same question on vBulletin, and about half the people there told me to go to XenForo. I was thinking IP.B like others said, but the fact I'm paying XX amount every 6 months was kind of annoying. This community seems really great here, and I will be defiantly be showing my final product as soon as I purchase the software.
Click to expand...
Welcome to XenForo :)
 
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Michael DeVito said:
So, I have recently been looking upon either XenForo or vBulletin. I feel that XenForo looks nicer, but vBulletin has more features. As of now, I'm using a shared hosting plan, until the website gets more popular.
What are the major differences between the 2? I want some opinions, possibly on both sides. I really like the idea of vBulletins mobile suite (although pricey), but again, at next update I'm paying 400 dollars. Do you guys plan on having a mobile suite?

Thanks Guys
Click to expand...

I recently moved from VB 5.05 to XenForo. Although VB is feature rich, I was disappointed that there were many bugs and upgrades would break features.

For example upgrades broke
  • the 'out of the box' registration of VB, making very difficult to sign up new members
  • Announcements could not be used without disabling message features such as 'like' or 'replies'

Message subscriptions do not work properly. In fact, a major upgrade to VB was announced as a beta release Friday, but the message subscriptions won't make it as a part of that scheduled release. We lost members with the VB software. We are seeing some members return with XenForo's software.

Run through the VB Forums to read what customers are saying.

I am impressed with XenForo's software; more positive, helpful posts in these forums; software that really works.
 
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I am in the process of moving my community to XenForo (from vBulletin 3). XenForo is so awesome to work with. Everything is there for you to play with and modify. vBulletin is old and not as extensible. XenForo is so elegant and powerful.
The people who built vBulletin ( @Kier and @Mike ) back when it was the coolest are now working on XenForo. That has to count for something.
 
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I used vBulletin for 10 years and was really hoping I could continue to use vBulletin into the future because I really loved that software. When 4.0 came out, it was a nightmare and it took quite a while for it to become a stable product. I was considering upgrading my 3.8 site up to 4.2 but version 5 was the final straw for me. I had bought a copy of Xenforo to evaluate, I like it, but it was still pretty green. After the lawsuit was settled and it looked like development was back on here, I made the decision to make the jump. I did about 4-5 months of checking out addons and did 3 test conversions. I made the jump over Thanksgiving week and haven't looked back. I love it and more importantly, my users love it. I even added a "vBulletin" skin to make it seem like home.
 
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Michael DeVito said:
So, I have recently been looking upon either XenForo or vBulletin. I feel that XenForo looks nicer, but vBulletin has more features. As of now, I'm using a shared hosting plan, until the website gets more popular.
What are the major differences between the 2? I want some opinions, possibly on both sides. I really like the idea of vBulletins mobile suite (although pricey), but again, at next update I'm paying 400 dollars. Do you guys plan on having a mobile suite?

Thanks Guys
Click to expand...
Here is the decision matrix that my nonprofit used when evaluating forum software:
http://tmswiki.org/ppd/TMSWiki:Forum_Comparisons/Details

We ruled out vBulletin very early on because their user community seems like a real mess. Also, as an economist, I really don't want to buy software from a software company owned by a holding company owned by a private equity firm (if I have that right; I don't have the time to double check):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Brands
Does the CEO of a firm with $100 million of annual revenue ever spend much time on forums? If not, how can he or she evaluate whether the software is any good? Maybe that's why vBulletin forum owners are legendary for sticking with version 3 of the software instead of version 4. My hunch is that that is because back when version 3 came out, management actually understood forums and knew what good forum software looked like. I don't know if they do now.

But Kier and Mike use this forum every day and their software rocks. I love it.
 
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