Changing Forum Platform? Is it possible?

Hi DPers.

Sorry for bad english.
I am planning to start my Forum, At first I will go for a free Forum software like PHPBB or MYBB etc, because i don't wanna pay for a Forum in start if I don't get any revenue. After making some revenue from my Forum I would go for a Paid one. Now my question is If I go for a free one and after that I change the forum software to a paid one like VBulletin etc. Will I be able to transfer all of my data like post, threads, members database etc...?
And also, Can I put ads on the Free forums software? What are the Pros and Cons. of free ones?
Need your help in this regards.

Regards,
Kawish

 

Hey guys, No Reply???

 

Most likely you'll be able to find a conversion tool to convert your free forums to a paid forum software. You'll just need to do some research though, depending on the forum software you plan to start with and move to, to make sure. That said, most reputable forum software companies should have the conversion tool you'll need. The only drawback would be that if you use any hacks in your free software you'll have to find a similar one for the new software and any data used for those probably won't be able to be converted.

If you use the base software only, though, you should be fine.

 

Thank u for assistant. One more thing, how much time will be needed to make this conversion?

 

I'd say a few hours at least. You'll want to do the conversion on a "test installation" to make sure everything works. Also be sure to make backups of everything you do so you can always just go back one step instead of starting the entire process all over again.

 

I recently moved from phpBB to IPB, IPB provide a converter so what you want is possible. The complete conversion took me about 3 hours.

 

Thank u Creaky, Your answer did lot to me, m much satisfied now. I would go for this very soon.

 

You need to find a good import tool they are called forum import

 

I have not tried myself, but Vanilla Forums also has an import tool to switch forums. They have both free (self-hosted) and paid version, so you could start with the free one if you wish.

 

It should be possible- you could always hire a freelancer to do it.