Hi Im a high school student with a decent amount of traffic on my site. Im wondering whether I should blow literally all my money on vBulletin or stick with a phpbb forums? (As of now I havent added the forum function to my site) Is it worth it? What does vB have does phpbb doesn't? Afterall Im paying $230. And whats the differences between $190 and $230 package, and which should I get? Thank you so much!!
Watex, I think it may help to know what your site is about, and if there are any features in particular that you're looking for. PhpBB3 can be good enough for large sites; I was just at the Mozilla forum a few days ago to ask a support question, for example, and I noticed they're using that software. There's also, of course, the phpBB support forum itself.
I dont have anything in particular I want. I just want to know all the features vB has that phpbb doesnt (I mean, afterall, one is free and one is two hundred bucks...)
why not get a headstart tho? converting later will be a pain. I can just delete the folder now and install vbulletin
If ur forum doesnt take off atleast ur 230$ is not wasted..if u have the trust and are sure that ur forum is going to take off goo for vb.. converting later is not that hard as it looks.. u can always hire some1 to do it for u
for half the price of a vB license, I'll modify your phpBB to get you the same features lol. vBulletin is better for really, really big communities (like this one). otherwise I prefer phpBB. these kinds of questions are better answered on the admin zone where pretty much every webmaster on that site runs a forum.
I really dislike SMF. I have both phpBB and vB and I find phpBB to be much better as phpBB is more customizable for my needs. It's really up to you though.
Phpbb are good...But i say do it RIGHT and go with a VBUlletin. Best of luck I own a Vbulletin and have owned an SMF forum and for a short period a phpbb forum. To me Vbulletin is much better. -C
Im a professional phpBB mod installer, I even install modifications for people for the right price SMF is just to unfinished for me
I would stick with phpbb at least until the latest version of vBulletin (4.0) is gold and gone through a few bug updates At that time, I would switch to vbulletin if you have the money to spend
You can start with phpBB and if the forum really takes off you can import all the data into the VB platform so no data is loss,and as you are working on a tight budget and 'not everyone has a big budget' that may well be the best option.Good luck with what ever you decide to do
Very true...if thats all you have i would put a meal on my table.... (Been there) I wish you lots of success
I just heard that vBulletin is a lot easier to use for people (like beginners like me) and it has much more features. is this true? and wats up with VB 4.0? Is that out yet or what? If I bought now, do I have to upgrade later or it a preorder and I have to wait? edit: wat would be a good size traffic to be 'worthy' of VB for my site?
Here is the deal if you were to purchase a license now: VB4 is available for use, but it is still in the Release Candidate stage, so it is not advised. You can use the latest VB3 release for now and freely upgrade to VB4 when it is a finished product. In any case, I agree with digitalpoint's point. I advise using your money for necessities if you're tight, and using the decent free alternative that is phpBB3 for now.
Or AdminAddict. -- Why is phpBB the only free alternative you're considering? What's wrong with MyBB? I usually start my boards on MyBB and if they show signs of success, then I switch them to vBulletin ASAP.