Xenforo VS Vbulletin 6

[Zweeper]

Hi, I am sure this question has been answered for old versions, but, what are the big "advantages" of Xenforo compared to vBulletin "6"?
Opinions, facts? especially regarding speed and SEO and I am talking about out of the box versions.


Greetings
Zweeper

 

[BrettC]

I hope it is acceptable to add to this thread. I ended up here because I decided to search for alternative software to vBulletin. I never realized most of the old VB team had left and created this new (to me) software. I've spent the past 2 months trying to get a straight answer from the current VB team about upgrading from v.3.6.8 to the latest version without success. The person who originally bought the licence is no longer involved in the running of the site and doesn't know the CustomerID or the email address he used when making the purchase. I've tried to make a new account but never got a verification email (yes, spam and junk have been checked), tried emailing sales and support, filling in the relevant form, and even resorted to phoning them and the guy was at a total loss as to why my account hasn't been verified.

I don't have direct access to our host server, except the database through phpmyadmin, but have spoke to our host, and he's happy to work with us to get this resolved.

What I'd like to know first of all is would someone be willing to take the steps to upgrade from our old version of vBulletin to the latest version of Xenforo? It's possible our host could do it, but I'd rather someone who has already taken on an upgrade undertook the job.

Regards,

Paul Irwin

There are various folks on this forum that can assist you with a managed migration. Check out https://xenforo.com/community/forums/third-party-services-offers.42/ for various folks offering services.

Otherwise, with XenForo, assuming that you have already configured and installed XF: Within your customer portal at https://xenforo.com/customers/ - Click the Download down arrow icon, download the importers addon. Install that XenForo Importer addon to your XenForo forum, then go to Admin CP -> Tools (category) -> Data Maintenance (section) -> Import Data. You'll be presented with this list of mediums to import to XenForo.


Select the appropriate forum you're going to import from. All given items are fairly straight forward on the import process.

 

[ASD1978]

Thanks for the reply Brett. We haven't even got to the stage of purchasing the software, never mind installing it.

I thought I seen a step-by-step guide to installing Xenforo but I'd rather pay for the installation service.

If it's simple enough I'll probably get my host to run in the import the data from vBulletin. If he can't then I'll get in touch with one of the third-party providers.

Your advice if greatly appreciated. Now I'm off to convince my admin team to make the switch. Wish me luck!

 

[Dragonfruit]

@MySiteGuy provides migration/upgrade services, so he should be able to help you with that.

Personally I'm of the mind that you should do this yourself. Experiencing how everything works is important to being an Administrator so you can better understand it, and resolve problems as they appear.

I migrated from vBulletin as well. I set up a test board to do a migration test, set up new skins, install addons to replicate features/functions. Once I was happy with that, we did the live migration and moved over fully.

Members were quick to point out issues, or things they missed from vBulletin. Easy fixes since I was so immersed by this point with how Xenforo works.

 

[ASD1978]

Thanks for the reply Dragonfruit. It won't be me doing the upgrade, it'll be my host, assuming he can (I think he will). If I run into any problems, I know where to come. I was thrown into the deep end with vBulletin so I'm sure I'll manage with Xenforo. Your help is appreciated.

 

[Yenxji]

Hi, I am sure this question has been answered for old versions, but, what are the big "advantages" of Xenforo compared to vBulletin "6"?
Opinions, facts? especially regarding speed and SEO and I am talking about out of the box versions.


Greetings
Zweeper

vBulletin = Full exploitable / vulnerability, security weakness, lacks UI, and has a lot of issues.

XenForo = More secure and better security and SEO, mobile UI responsive friendly, modern UI, easier to build add-ons, and understand the board to use, future-proofing.