What's the difference between XenForo and vBulletin?

[Preemo]

I'm not an expert with either of the 2 forum softwares, however I am looking at buying one soon.

I'm already swinging towards XenForo, so I'd prefer anyone to tell me the advantages compared to vBulletin

Thank you,
Ryan

 

[Paul B]

I'll leave it to others to extol the virtues of each one, but in case you weren't aware, there's an online demo here:

Admin Demo

 

[SchmitzIT]

XF works as promised, vB does not.
XF is a breeze to install and upgrade, vB is a nightmare.
XF updates solve bugs and/or introduce new features requested by the community. vB introduces new bugs, and features nobody requested but that make IB a few bucks in affiliate programs.

 

[Walter]

I have experience with vBulletin since 2001 and I'm a Xenforo customer since the beginning (2010). The main pros for Xenforo are

• good user interface, very easy to use for the users
• way more easy to make styles (according to my designer)
• the search engines love it
• very stable product
• so far no broken promises

Are there any things I don't like with Xenforo? Sure. But besides the fact that the development could be faster there are only very minor annoyances.

 

[James]

It's easier to say what are the similarities. I'm not sure if you're asking the difference in terms of features or of architecture.

 

[Ingenious]

That large queue of forum owners and administrators waiting to leave vBulletin for any other platform should be a clue

 

[Markos]

Vbulletin currently have more features & addons. Xenforo is more stable (few, minor bugs), is more modern (see here), and IMHO has better customer support.

 

[dutchbb]

In short...

vBulletin
Pros: Lots of features, large add-on community.
Cons: Version 4...

XenForo
Pros: Well written, up-to-date, social.
Cons: Not as mature as others (features/add-ons).

It all comes down to what you need and what your priorities are.

 

[el canadiano]

According to Kier himself, it's superior user experience vs. piling on more features.

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78018

 

[Jose Amaral Mota]

Working with XenForo



Working With Current vBulletin.... Just ask if you can enter vBulletin customer only area forum.... (hidden from public viewing)

Would not of posted, but your avatar made me do it.

 

[x4rl]

I'm not an expert with either of the 2 forum softwares, however I am looking at buying one soon.

I'm already swinging towards XenForo, so I'd prefer anyone to tell me the advantages compared to vBulletin

Thank you,
Ryan

There both the same as in a forum xenforo fix bugs vb seem not too.

 

[User]

I'm not an expert with either of the 2 forum softwares, however I am looking at buying one soon.

I'm already swinging towards XenForo, so I'd prefer anyone to tell me the advantages compared to vBulletin

If you are new to forums and this is for a new forum that doesn't currently exist, then just go with Xenforo. You won't be missing features you don't know about and your users will have no prior experience with your forum and thus they too will not be missing anything.

If you are serious about the forum, as in you have a business and a marketing plan for it and it can realistically become a revenue generating site, then I'd suggest to buy the three viable commercial scripts (IPB, vB, XF) and thoroughly test out which one fits your needs the best at this time without consideration what may or may not happen in the future. I'd make that choice based on logic and rationale rather than on emotion.

 

[Panupat]

why is that GIF missing some parts?

 

[Digital Doctor]

Xenforo is faster, and a better user experience than vB.
I found vBulletin harder to administrate as well ... so many million features - it was overwhelming.
vB was great software.
was. The vBulletin 3.x series will go down as the golden age of forums.
vB4 was a total disaster, and still is. vBulletin 4 is almost usable now, if your standards are low.
I didn't want to leave vBulletin, but I couldn't pick inferior software either. Now that vBulletin is run by a large American Corporation it performs and feels like a bloated mess.
Xenforo is missing some things that super picky and experienced admins want: Ignore features, thread prefixes, and a robust gallery. Those things will be relatively easy to fix. Fixing the utter mess that is vBulletin 4 might prove impossible.

If you give details of your plans, I would give you an honest opinion of whether or not vBulletin or Xenforo is better.

 

[Forsaken]

why is that GIF missing some parts?

Animated avatars aren't supported in XenForo, but should be supported in 1.1.

 

[DroidHost]

I think xenforo could be classify as framework not just a forum software ..

 

[Forsaken]

I think xenforo could be classify as framework not just a forum software ..

IPB and vBulletin also have a framework, it just isn't as thought out and extensible as XenForo is (imo).

 

[Jeremy]

I think xenforo could be classify as framework not just a forum software ..

I built many projects on vBulletin's framework. The procedural style code that was employed made for a more difficult time creating some of these. XenForo's framework was more thought out (in a time when you had "frameworks") and much easier to extend. I thoroughly enjoy my projects on XenForo and have plans for quite a bit more in the future.

 

[erich37]

Working with XenForo

View attachment 16183

View attachment 16184 Working With Current vBulletin.... Just ask if you can enter vBulletin customer only area forum.... (hidden from public viewing)

Would not of posted, but your avatar made me do it.

LOL