Why XF instead of free forum?

[Chromaniac]

if you are starting a new community, i would suggest using something basic for starters. xenforo though reasonably priced is still an investment. most of the good addons and themes are paid so the costs add up. not every community need something like xenforo. if i were to start something new today, i would use something like flarum or discourse. not because they are better than xenforo but because xenforo is better suited at traditional large communities.

 

[Deathstarr]

Control.

I control everything when I own the software. What mods, what themes, what can be said and what cant. I dont have "Free" hosting terms of service I can speak on what ever topic I would like. Guns is my niche so.

 

[bilgikupu]

I really want to go to XF but do not know if I'm going to spend money when it's so hard to get members today. Forum time is right when damn Facebook and Twitter came.

But if I understood correctly, it costs $ 140 now, which cost up to $ 250 a week ago?

 

[Deathstarr]

no $140 a year since the beginning, If you buy the extra like media gallery or Resource Manager then you will be around the 250 mark.

I built my forum mostly using Social Media. Its paying off just so you know in my niche since facebook ban guns.

 

[Shelley]

I really want to go to XF but do not know if I'm going to spend money when it's so hard to get members today. Forum time is right when damn Facebook and Twitter came.

But if I understood correctly, it costs $ 140 now, which cost up to $ 250 a week ago?

You can't keep blaming Facebook and Twitter because the majority of the world has the attention span of a fish (which these two specific sites cater for). I'd also throw in <insert what you you just had to eat> and throw up a picture of said food, not the type of audience you really want. Accumulating members is the easy part, keeping them on your forum and getting them posting is the tough part, if you give them something that they can engage in then they'll come, possibly stay and remain active, remember Rome wasn't built in a day.

Point being, the sucess of your forum is down to you, not Foodbook and if you feel you can enter a niche that you can provide indepth, creative and unique content for your members then often than not paid software is where you want to be looking at since they usually provide the best support and 3rd party products.

You make the choice, nobody can do that for you from when I used XF. the Software speaks for it self, alone.

Have you tried vBulletin 5s? I hear that is coming along quite beautifully?

 

[MoonShadows]

You can't keep blaming Facebook and Twitter because the majority of the world has the attention span of a fish (which these two specific sites cater for). I'd also throw in <insert what you you just had to eat> and throw up a picture of said food, not the type of audience you really want. Accumulating members is the easy part, keeping them on your forum and getting them posting is the tough part, if you give them something that they can engage in then they'll come, possibly stay and remain active, remember Rome wasn't built in a day.

Point being, the sucess of your forum is down to you, not Foodbook and if you feel you can enter a niche that you can provide indepth, creative and unique content for your members then often than not paid software is where you want to be looking at since they usually provide the best support and 3rd party products.

You make the choice, nobody can do that for you from when I used XF. the Software speaks for it self, alone.

Have you tried vBulletin 5s? I hear that is coming along quite beautifully?

 

[gforce]

Because the forum is good.
The free stuff is fine if you just need a discussion space, don't have commercial intent, don't need to extend it much, etc.

But if you want to attract new people to your forum, the quality is important. The level of features and attention to fine detail in XenForo is, in my opinion, unmatched. Users do notice, and they do enjoy the extra features.

Agreed. More development and support is key.

 

[Suzanne O]

Wondering why to choose (convince me) a forum that costs when there are several who offer free?

You get to own the software when you pay for a license.
Free ones own the forum and restrict you from using it’s software.

 

[michael.s]

You get to own the software when you pay for a license.

No, you don't.
C&P from https://xenforo.com/license-agreement/

2. Rights
The Software is licensed to You for use only under the terms and conditions of the License. You acknowledge that all intellectual property rights, copyrights and trademarks in the Software belong to XenForo Limited, that rights in the Software are licensed (not sold) to You, and that You have no rights in, or to, the Software other than the right to use them in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.

 

[runnyeggs]

Try simple machines forum or Phpbb. I like SMF more bc it’s simple and fast. It’s not bad. If you are going to have a forum with 2-300 people there is no need to shell out $170 even if it’s a Corvette and not a bus. You can upgrade when your forum grows. Spend the money on a good host in the meantime. The top 3 paid ones are vB, IPS, and XF. Truth is that each one has their fans.

Or if you are adventurous test it on a local host using a sandbox to see what the difference are.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Looked at phpBB and it is single threaded as far as I could tell - no subforums, but didn't spend much time on it. Have years of experience using xf as a member of a community and love it. A study of the top 3 paid for forums would be valuable.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Note the initial license is $140 and renewal after that is $40. See the fine print. It's not $140 per year as someone implied.

 

[Suzanne O]

If you go with proboards or something like them you have to stick to their rules because you are renting a forum off them.
The software may not be as good and you cannot do much to the forum.
With xenforo you pay for the licence and you pay for a host that keeps your forum running smoothly.
You can do more with xenforo than proboards that is free.

 

[CNK]

When I had a forum on a modified phpBB2 with a lot of free addons a long time ago, the user experience was good, because all forums were on phpBB2 at that time. Installations of addons was not that convenient, you had to manually modify the code after each forum update... It cost a lot of time... But with time, I had problems with the database, the forum was slow and caused a lot of burdens, which made my hosters block me.. Changing the hosting account for the better did not help for long. This is the main reason why I chose paid solutions (first vB, later xenForo).