Xenforo vs BBPress

[UndecidedMN]

Hello,

I am in the process of creating a Wordpress site (well my developer is) and it will have a large forum component that is essential for success. The web developer is really pushing BBPress due to ease of integration with the site and for lack of better term "same operating system". Can you please tell me why Xenforo is better?

The site I hope will be a large interactive forum with moderators other than myself being able to answer questions. Potential client base is 50,000 new users per year. I hope to have 5,000 to 10,000 new members per year that will most likely turnover 90%.

Thanks

 

[Chris D]

Your developer has a point in terms of integration, but with XF being one of the most popular forum packages and WP being one of the most popular CMS systems, it's not uncommon to find that people have been successful in integrating them.

There are some XF add-ons in this category that implement a bridge with WordPress which may help:
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/bridges-integrations.17/

I have no experience with BBPress and hardly any experience worth mentioning with WordPress, so I can't tell you why XF is better. But I can tell you that there have been people have gone on to become XenForo customers who left a WP/BBPress set up to move to XF:

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/moving-from-worldpress-bbpress-to-xenforo.72089/

If you have a search there may be similar threads to the above, where essentially they have "grown out of" the BBPress forum.

 

[Sadik B]

XenForo is a better forum software than bbPress.

bbPress integrates better with wordpress.

The decision you have to make, is whether you want a better experience for your forum users or for yourself (and your dev).

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

how to someone can compare xenforo and bbpress, its a madness

 

[LPH]

The web developer is really pushing BBPress due to ease of integration with the site and for lack of better term "same operating system". Can you please tell me why Xenforo is better?

I can give you one simple reason why to choose XenForo over bbPress - and that is security. Using XenForo as a login, and the master user database, blocks potential issues with WordPress. In my view*, XenForo is far safer with member information over WordPress.

Consider this little screenshot from my site's WP dashboard.



This is what you will face with WordPress. If you aren't planning to use WordPress.com VIP hosting then you are left to worry about security. It's a big issue to discuss with your developer and hosting company.

* I am not a security expert.

 

[Member_68162]

I'm a member of a site that uses bbPress for its forum and I have to say that the software is so archaic (for lack of a better word) that it puts me off to posting there on a regular basis. The site's owner recently share with one of my communities that she was "technology ignorant" when she installed bbPress and if she had known better she would have definitely installed something else for her forum.

 

[jost]

Im super late to the party but I can definitely answer this question.
If you have a large forum, bbPress is not an option. Not even close.

Its stuck using wordpresses architecture. It shares tables with wordpress.
Wordpress and bbPress basically stuff everything into 2 huge tables.

Its performance is atrocious. I was willing to sacrifice a lot to get wordpress integration, and it was a complete failure. I have a forum with 300K posts and 9K users and bbPress burned it to the ground.

I moved the site to a server that was 6 times faster than the old server and it still ran significantly slower than phpBB. bbPress is not very impressive compared to full blown forum software and it doesnt scale worth a damn. Only good for small small small sites.

Im checking out xenforo now as an alternative, but really mad I spent weeks migrating to bbPress for it to fail so badly. Im also a techie and optimized bbPress/wordpress to death, with multiple layers of cache + cloudflare, and it still runs like ****. So angry.

But now im on the latest bbPress and dont know if there is anyway to port to Xenforo with the latest bbPress they just released. Really hoping im not stuck.

Need to port and make sure there is a proper 301 redirect so I dont lose all my google rankings. Frustrated to death.

 

[shabbirbhimani]

I am late too @jost but I had similar question that I answered to my blog ( https://imtips.co/forum-in-wordpress.html ). Newbie WP developer will always push for BBPress and then my client had to make a move to XenForo and this is when I created this script to move the content for him

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/bbpress-importer.5474/

BBPress has not been updated for ages and so anybody thinking about BBPress has not idea about community.

 

[jost]

bbPress had a recent upgrade to 2.6. Lots of performance improvements, but still just way too slow for a large site. They are on 2.6 Beta 2? now. Which is what im on.

It doesnt seem like they changed the table structure, and I seriously hope they did not, because I plan on trying your conversion script.

If your script doesnt work, im literally stuck on bbPress with no solution.

There are no good pathways away from bbPress.

 

[isa87]

I've a WP installation on my server. First I used bbPress but I don't like it at all. Then I used asgaros forum for a while (it's also a forum plugin for WP). Not bad (in my opinion) and easy customizable. But now I've switched to XenForo and I'm very happy with this decision. I never saw a forum software before which runs so smoothly and fast.
But don't forget that bbPress is a simple forum plugin specifically for WP and XF is a forum software which has a lot more functions and extentions. I think you can't compare these two things.

 

[jost]

DANG IT - wont let me download your converter unless im already a licensed customer.

Ummmm anyway I can test this before I decide to purchase???

I am late too @jost but I had similar question that I answered to my blog ( https://imtips.co/forum-in-wordpress.html ). Newbie WP developer will always push for BBPress and then my client had to make a move to XenForo and this is when I created this script to move the content for him

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/bbpress-importer.5474/

BBPress has not been updated for ages and so anybody thinking about BBPress has not idea about community.

 

[Paul B]

You would require an XF license anyway, even if you did have a copy of the importer.

There is no way to test an import without one.

 

[jost]

What is an XF license? I dont see it on the buy page. Confused.

 

[Paul B]

XF is the software you would need to run the forum - https://xenforo.com/purchase/

The importer is a free third party add-on which you would have access to if you are a licensed XF customer.

 

[jost]

Oh, you just mean an XenForo license. Gotcha

I thought "XF" what a TYPE of XenForo license. ;-)