Why should I buy this?

[cherrysodastar]

So.. I have been looking around the forum here and I've seen some really nice themes created by people, but the pricetag is a bit intense.

I was hoping maybe some people could give me some reasons they decided to take the plunge and buy XenForo.

What was the deciding factor for you?

 

[MySiteGuy]

Also, thank you to everyone who has replied thus far. I was afraid after the response I received from James that my request would be met with more contention from others, I almost didn't come back. I appreciate all your genuine responses.

I saw nothing contentious about his response , and the questions were valid because use case, budget, how much ability you have with servers, etc. are all factors. Xenforo isn't the right choice for every situation.

 

[DohTheme]

Are you for real?! I am so deeply in love with your Retro theme I can't even stand it. It's one of the main reasons I'm considering XenForo!

Yes it’s real, just DM me after you get your xenForo license.

 

[cherrysodastar]

I saw nothing contentious about his response , and the questions were valid because use case, budget, how much ability you have with servers, etc. are all factors. Xenforo isn't the right choice for every situation.

I felt as though the first response was purposely circumventing my question instead of telling me why he would choose it. I didn't ask to help me decide, I asked what drove others' decisions.

My reason for asking was to understand what thing (perhaps features I was unaware of, or experiences) others had decided this was the best forum when there are many of other choices.

A secondary reason for this post was to actually USE a XenForo forum and get some experience with it myself. Many forums I looked at I did not have permission to post or reply in.

 

[Gemma]

It's not the reason I chose xenForo in the first place but probably the reason I continue to use it is I find it very easy to customise. I'm not a computer person but I like to think I'm creative and with xenForo and a base theme I've been able to create a site the way I want without too much knowledge or difficulty.

There are also some super talented developers I use and respect that have created addons that are key to my site like @Bob, @Ozzy47 (and his team), @BassMan

If you chose xenforo for a project, I don't think you'd regret it.

All the best and good luck with your forum

 

[cherrysodastar]

Oh wow @Gemma your board is absolutely inspirational!
Do you use cloud or self-hosted?

 

[Miri]

My reason for asking was to understand what thing (perhaps features I was unaware of, or experiences) others had decided this was the best forum when there are many of other choices.

When I was choosing the right forum for my site, I decided to try out the online demos from the major forum developers. And something odd happened... While with other competitors demos I was very drawn to the design effects, thinking: wow this looks great, that looks great, love the colors here and there, what does this do, what does that do... with the XenForo demo, in the same amount of time, I had already posted about 20 test messages. In contrast, in the other demos I posted 0 messages because I was too busy "admiring" the effects and settings. It felt like everything in XenForo was built around the editor... It invited me to write something, instead of getting lost in it.

 

[Gemma]

Oh wow @Gemma your board is absolutely inspirational!

Thank you! I've been out my comfort zone and pushed my boundaries quite a lot but learning is all part of the fun and experience. XenForo does allow you to be creative even with little knowledge. My layout isn't to everyone's taste but my members like it and that's what matters to me.

Do you use cloud or self-hosted?

Self-hosted, on a shared plan with KnowHost. We'll never be a big enough site to need anything else

 

[amsaal]

xenForo software is great for many reasons you can find by some deep searching, comparing, and testing. As I get notified that you love one of our themes, so If you decide to choose xenForo and get a license I will give you that theme for free.

i am your customer but did not got the free [Theme]

 

[Suzanne O]

i am your customer but did not got free

It's not free software

 

[amsaal]

It's not free software

was refering to theme

 

[Suzanne O]

was refering to theme

Themes are not always free. They usually cost a bit of money.

 

[DohTheme]

i am your customer but did not got the free [Theme]

We had hundreds of customers who paid for this theme, some situations require special attention like this post.
We can make you happy by extending your license for 6 months more for free

 

[amsaal]

We had hundreds of customers who paid for this theme, some situations require special attention like this post.
We can make you happy by extending your license for 6 months more for free

your themes has made my forum so much better that my users love it. appreciate your dedicated work that has been done.

 

[DohTheme]

your themes has made my forum so much better that my users love it. appreciate your dedicated work that has been done.

thank you for your kind words and your license has been extended.

 

[mattrogowski]

Ah okay. I used to run custom themes (by ThemeHouse, IIRC) but they required a special addon for certain things to work well, so I stopped using their themes.

Out of interest, why would you stop using the theme because it requires a helper addon?

 

[KensonPlays]

Out of interest, why would you stop using the theme because it requires a helper addon?

An extra thing to wait on for updates, like from 2.2 to 2.3.

Plus the 2.3 default theme is good enough for me with color changes.

 

[stromb0li]

the board is for a hobby, not a business.

Hobbies in general are expensive and have cost. A lot of people go into setting up forums with the intent of it becoming a major revenue generator and those days are just not as realistic as they were back in the early days of the internet when content wasn't as easily accessible.

If your goal is to look at your forum as a revenue generator, you will need to focus on your business plan; and look at factoring in the cost of XF as a business expense (which honestly, is not a large expense if it's designed as part of your business).

If your goal is to learn, foster a small community, and treat your forum as an actual hobby, then cost should be viewed as an investment in education and self-satisfaction. You'll have to ask yourself is $250 is a good rate of return for what you learn and the sense of satisfaction. IMO, $250 a year is a pretty affordable hobby, but I understand that hobby investments vary from person to person.

If $250 is still too much based on your life circumstances, then maybe consider starting with something free like phpBB; learn more about forum software in general and build your community, then consider moving to XF as a long-term goal / upgrade to your community experience.

 

[Opus X]

Xenfocus has themes that are 30 to 49 bucks. As long as Xenforo doesn't get rid of the resources area I'll be happy. Ipb got rid of the resources area and they charge $500. Vb is just greedy even though they lowered the license fee.

that is kind of disingenuous.
when i was pricing both the full package of xenforo was
$195 + $60 + $70 + 70 = $395
renew = $100
ipb was $499
renew = $199
you get more with ipb like a calendar a social groups and something called pages that if you learn it you can create your own interface to relational databases that you create and something called commerce.
if you add paid plug ins from others to get the same ability in xenforo the price is very close if not better for ipb.
i went with xenforo because i got it and several plug ins for $25.
i was told to avoid vb like you would with the latter letter being two letters farther down the alphabet.

 

[Brian Jones]

I went with Xenforo many years ago. Started with nukephp then moved into IPB but moved to xenforo after their release just because I liked the community and how helpful they were.

I stayed because the forum is easy to use for the end users and the 3rd party devs tend to be VERY good.

 

[cdub]

I moved to XenForo in 2012? 2013?. I'd been using a paid forum service called Infopop since 2001 or so and was sick of it. The company kept changing their name all the time and introducing weird features.

Anyways I decided on XenForo because of the research I did and it was also what the IGN forums were using at the time. I originally chose Infopop back in the day because it was what the company I was working at at the time was using for their forums. (I had nothing to do with that department)

Cost seemed reasonable coming from the service I was already using and I was already paying for a server for my main site.

I like it because it's extremely robust and customizable.