What does XF have that vB3 doesn't?

[Claudio]

I converted over from vB4 to XenForo a few years ago. We had used vB3 for quite a while before that, so I've got some experience.

In my personal opinion, there are dozens of reasons to switch to XenForo from VB4 or VB3.

Better Administration
- The control panel in vBulletin is a nightmare, I always felt like I was digging through settings on a linux PC from the 90s. XenForo's control panel makes sense, it's crazy simple, and works great.
- vBullettin's template modification system is a pain in the neck to work. Making changes on our vB3 forum always took days to get right. XenForo does the same in minutes.
- Getting around the vBulletin system to moderate users, posts, etc is like trying to fix your car on the side of the road during a rain storm.. The inline moderation of threads, users, and posts in XenForo is genius and always works flawlessly.

I'm constantly surprised by the no-nonsense layout in XenForo. Not just for me, but for the users as well. People know where to find things. You can't really put a price on that.

Efficient Code Written for Modern Web Standards
- From what I can tell, up to VB4 (and maybe VB5), the same code base was used since VB1. They never took the time to rewrite the software from scratch for modern standards and it shows. It's the same issue as Windows. Decorate it all you want, people can tell your core system was built in the 90s.
- The modern coding used in XenForo allows it to take advantage of new technologies in a practical way. Our forum saw an increase in users sticking around longer as well as increased traffic from SEO. We saw faster load times and the horrible feature creep vBulletin software seems to be smothered in is nowhere to be found.
- Honestly, the biggest advantage here is it keeps your forum relevant. Users want to know that you're keeping up with web standards for the sake of security and usability.

With better administration and better code, you spend less time banging your head on the screen trying to get forum software to do what you want and more time actually engaging your community. Which is what you should be doing most of the time, anyway. These behind the scenes changes aren't going to bring night and day difference right away, but they pay off within a few weeks.

Less Frustrated Users
As for the users, I've found we get way less e-mails wondering how to get X done on the forum. The XenForo layout of things just makes sense. You wouldn't know it, but tons of people get frustrated with websites over hundreds of things like the navigation, page load times, and arrangement of features. They don't send you an e-mail, instead they just leave to somewhere that meets their needs. In this respect. XenForo gets it right. User's don't leave frustrated because the software is GETTING IN THEIR WAY. The stick around because everything does what it claims to. From my experience, vBulletin fails horribly in this regard.

*steps off soap box*

Excellent post!

 

[realaqu]

I think the worst part of xenforo is in order to function exactly like vb3, you have to cast double or triple money or more than vb3, and those addon authors looks a little greedy to me compared with vb3, just my own thoughts, sorry about that I m so straightforward. many addons should be default with xenforo software suite.

 

[TLMD]

many addons should be default with xenforo software suite.

Some might agree to this. On the other hand addons allow users to customize XF to their liking -- and to leave out things they don't need. XF is a relatively young software, so I am pretty sure, more and more features will be added in the future.

 

[Shelley]

I think the worst part of xenforo is in order to function exactly like vb3, you have to cast double or triple money or more than vb3, and those addon authors looks a little greedy to me compared with vb3, just my own thoughts, sorry about that I m so straightforward. many addons should be default with xenforo software suite.

You could apply that to any and all software. Everyone sees an add-on that they find so useful that they deem it as core worthy.

With regards to the add-on authors being greedy I won't get into, suffice to say I disagree with that claim.

 

[realaqu]

Some might agree to this. On the other hand addons allow users to customize XF to their liking -- and to leave out things they don't need. XF is a relatively young software, so I am pretty sure, more and more features will be added in the future.

agree with you, don't you think invite others jo

You could apply that to any and all software. Everyone sees an add-on that they find so useful that they deem it as core worthy.

With regards to the add-on authors being greedy I won't get into, suffice to say I disagree with that claim.

I don't think so, compared to xenforo software itself, how many lines those guys wrote? sell for 140$, that is a bargain, some addons sells for 50$, 40$, to me they only worth 5 bucks at most, they can sell at this price just because users have no 2nd choice, when switch to xenforo, finding the replacement to make it functional like old vb3. that is the price I didn't see when I decide to switch to xenforo.

I do wish xenforo guys can make many of those addons as default options with forum software.

 

[Daniel Hood]

....some addons sells for 50$, 40$, to me they only worth 5 bucks at most...

This is the most absurd statement I've read in a long time. Those $50 addons I can only assume are the blogs and galleries. When you learn how to use Object Oriented PHP, learn javascript, learn html, and learn css feel free to reevaluate that price.

Just because they coded less lines than the XenForo developers doesn't mean anything. XenForo has a larger customer base. You need to learn the average hourly wage of web development and also learn about supply and demand.

 

[TPerry]

This is the most absurd statement I've read in a long time. Those $50 addons I can only assume are the blogs and galleries. When you learn how to use Object Oriented PHP, learn javascript, learn html, and learn css feel free to reevaluate that price.

It's real easy for a non-coder to say "But that's a simple add-on and shouldn't cost that much - xenForo only costs a little more". Once you start looking at the code (and learning to code yourself) you realize that just because it's an add-on doesn't mean a lot of time didn't go into it.
The REAL problem is that people are coming over to it from the mindset of vB (it should include the kitchen sink) to the mindset of xenForo (minimalistic with "fancy" functions provided by add-ons).

 

[Daniel Hood]

Oh, and just for reference:

http://www.invisionpower.com/buy

Their forums: $175 (+$35 compared to XenForo)
Their blogs: $50 (same as Better Blogs for XenForo [actually also has a free version])
Their gallery: $65 (+$15 compared to the two leading galleries on XenForo)

So...

 

[Shelley]

agree with you, don't you think invite others jo


I don't think so, compared to xenforo software itself, how many lines those guys wrote? sell for 140$, that is a bargain, some addons sells for 50$, 40$, to me they only worth 5 bucks at most, they can sell at this price just because users have no 2nd choice, when switch to xenforo, finding the replacement to make it functional like old vb3. that is the price I didn't see when I decide to switch to xenforo.

I do wish xenforo guys can make many of those addons as default options with forum software.

You pretty much destroyed any debate/argument to put forth that you had here on in. To say the 2 galleries, showcase, RM, 2 blogs etc are not worth any more than 5 dollars is absurd. If they went up for that price I'd refuse to purchase them as it would be an insult to that respected author.

 

[realaqu]

This is the most absurd statement I've read in a long time. Those $50 addons I can only assume are the blogs and galleries. When you learn how to use Object Oriented PHP, learn javascript, learn html, and learn css feel free to reevaluate that price.

Just because they coded less lines than the XenForo developers doesn't mean anything. XenForo has a larger customer base. You need to learn the average hourly wage of web development and also learn about supply and demand.

according to your words, can you set up a reasonable price for xenforo software itself?
you have to learn object oriented php, js, html5, maybe flash, photoshop, mysql, maybe bash, shell, you name it, I didn't say all of those 50$ 40$ addons worth only 5 bucks, it is your words not mine, just some of them should be default comes with xenforo, as an end user, I just told my opinion about vb3 and xenforo.

 

[Daniel Hood]

according to your words, can you set up a reasonable price for xenforo software itself?
you have to learn object oriented php, js, html5, maybe flash, photoshop, mysql, maybe bash, shell, you name it, I didn't say all of those 50$ 40$ addons worth only 5 bucks, it is your words not mine, just some of them should be default comes with xenforo, as an end user, I just told my opinion about vb3 and xenforo.

.... I quoted your post? It was your words, not mine.

Again, you cannot compare add on prices and lines of code to the XenForo software itself. Goes back to you learning about supply and demand.

 

[realaqu]

.... I quoted your post? It was your words, not mine.

Again, you cannot compare add on prices and lines of code to the XenForo software itself. Goes back to you learning about supply and demand.

this is my words "some addons sells for 50$, 40$, to me they only worth 5 bucks at most", that means all of thos e 50$ addons to you?

 

[realaqu]

this is my words "some addons sells for 50$, 40$, to me they only worth 5 bucks at most", that means all of thos e 50$ addons to you?

and BTW, I did paid for those addons I thought they worth those 50$, but compared with what I paid for vb3, the cost is double.

 

[RobParker]

$5 would be something like 10 minutes of a developers time. Even if they sell 50 copies (very optimistic!) then that'd be only about 8 hours of development time.

I imagine the bigger addons have taken weeks/months, not hours, of time to develop. Surely you can see how your idea of value doesn't add up?

 

[realaqu]

$5 would be something like 10 minutes of a developers time. Even if they sell 50 copies (very optimistic!) then that'd be only about 4 hours of development time.

I imagine the bigger addons have taken weeks/months, not hours, of time to develop. Surely you can see how your idea of value doesn't add up?

we are talking about vb3 vs xenforro, right?

 

[RobParker]

we are talking about vb3 vs xenforro, right?

Well I was

You also have to consider that the XF market is still smaller than VB, so less copies will be sold, hence to break even devs might have to charge more.

I'd much rather we get some of these great addons at whatever price it costs to make them worthwhile for the devs to work on than not have them.

 

[digitalpoint]

The price of paid addons is really just supply and demand. If you think they are way overpriced, it's an opportunity for you to build them (or have them built) for cheaper and sell them for slightly less. Everyone will buy them from you if you offer the same thing for cheaper, right?

 

[realaqu]

Well I was

You also have to consider that the XF market is still smaller than VB, so less copies will be sold, hence to break even devs might have to charge more.

I'd much rather we get some of these great addons at whatever price it costs to make them worthwhile for the devs to work on than not have them.

my previous post just suggest xenforo guys should make some functions as default option with forum software.

 

[RobParker]

The price of paid addons is really just supply and demand. If you think they are way overpriced, it's an opportunity for you to build them (or have them built) for cheaper and sell them for slightly less. Everyone will buy them from you if you offer the same thing for cheaper, right?

Remind us again how many dev hours/cost you spent converting to XF. Something like 100K wasn't it?

Stuff like that really puts these kind of complaints into perspective.

 

[realaqu]

The price of paid addons is really just supply and demand. If you think they are way overpriced, it's an opportunity for you to build them (or have them built) for cheaper and sell them for slightly less. Everyone will buy them from you if you offer the same thing for cheaper, right?

man, I m telling my feeling as an ordinary end user about vb3 vs xenforo. not from a programer's view