How active is the IPB community compared to phpBB?

I ask because I've been thinking about switching a forum from phpBB to IPB, but am now not sure I want to. I think the forum software is nicer, but the community doesn't seem to be nearly as active, or helpful, as the phpBB community.

For example, when I ask a question on the phpBB support forum, I usually get a good response in less than half an hour (sometimes it takes longer, but often I get answers very quickly); in contrast, I've asked two pretty simple questions on the IPB pre-sales forum in the past few days and have not gotten responses. This kind of concerns me. I mean, if IPB staff don't help people who are thinking about buying their software, are they really going to help me after I give them my money?

 

Community at IPB is less active but it's also because they are more focused and less noobs using the free PHPBB script. PHPBB attracts a great deal of idiots that need support. IPB tends to be a lot more professional requiring less support. And since it's a paid software I'm sure it has less downloads.

The size of the community does not overall reflect the quality of the product. One might even say the less active a forum the better the software. You should be spending your time on your own forum not the support site anyways.

 

Thanks for your reply.

I'm afraid the last week I've answered my own question: The IPB community support is TERRIBLE. I've asked several questions on the forum and gotten no answers in days. It's also extremely weird how no IPB terms show up in Google. For example, when I wasn't sure what an ACP option was in phpBB, I would just do a quick Google search and dozens of sites would come up with the answer. With IPB, I'll do a search - for example, "Show article listing in this category?" - and NOTHING will come up. Isn't that odd?

Yikes..

 

The only help I've gotten through IPB is the paid support

 

I paid for a basic hosted plan to try out the software and, you're right, the paid support is pretty good. IPS always responds within two business days and gives pretty good answers.

I really don't get why they don't provide support in the forums, though; I mean, not doing so just doesn't make sense! They would save themselves a whole lot of work by answering questions in a place where other people can find the answers..

 

Their paid support is excellent, certainly better than what you'd get in Free software and certainly better than vBulletin. They apparently were moving towards doing more support on the forums, but I've sold my IPB since then (I currently own a XenForo, which in retrospect has more or less been 90% community support).

 

Most of IPB customers are using forum script as a part of their commercial, as a official forum, so their dont have time to join in IPS community to help you.

 

Last time I checked, you also needed an active license of IPB in order to participate at the forums.

I bought a perpetual license and it does not entitle me to participate there without paying them money at each 6 months. Not a very good motivator for common clients to exchange thoughts. Also, they are making money with paid support whereas free support doesn't favor them.