Is Vbulletin $160 better than phpBB?

Hello DP'ers!

I'm in the process of trying to make my site better then my competitors (aren't we all...) and my eyes have turned towards VB. I currently have about 2,000 members in a phpBB for nuke, but I've decided to take my scripts out of the PHP-Nuke system to speed up page load times. I figured that I'll have to install a standalone phpBB anyway...so I might as well just convert the user tables and "upgrade" to VB. Sites similar to mine are all using the phpBB (the default sub-silver skin, no less) and just look very unprofessional and I think I can do better. I also think that my users will enjoy the extra features like featuring threads, ranking threads and giving people green points for good things.

What are your experiences? Is the install easy? How about changing the theme?...I like the plain blue, but I'd like to tweak it a bit and maybe make some custom buttons (simple stuff). Finally, will my low-tech readers be able to deal with the change from phpBB? It's quite similar on the front end from what I can tell, right down to the Quote button.

 

I've used phpBB and thought it was great. What are the advantages of Vbulletin? It would have to more $160 better for me; I'de rather support a free product!

 

As soon as the new version of VBulletin comes out, i'm upgrading.

A few things to consider:


1. Pay $85 for the lease every year and always get updates and new versions.

2. I have always noticed, even with mod_rewrite mods/hacks for phpbb2, VBulletin seems to keep more pages indexed in Google (just a personal observation). It seems like the engines just like it more. Again, just a personal observation, it may or may not be true but is something i've observed.

3. Tons more options, as you pointed out. If your site was a mere fan site and non profit, then phpbb2 would be fine, but if you want to get serious get VBulletin.

4. The backend is way easier to admin the phpbb2. It'll take a little time to learn the differences, but you'll be amazed as you discover options that aren't in Phpbb2.

Don't get me wrong, phpbb2 is my favorite free forum software and is ok for someone who doesn't want to shell out money for forums, but with VBulletin, you get what you pay for. I think most DP posters will agree.

 

If $160.00 is an issue, you have no business in the forum business.

Free software is fun to "play" forum with, but if you are serious, most see the light and get vB.

I tried to run a "free" forum on free software, it was not worth the effort. I've made my 160 back many times over in having to make less effort and having more traffic that generates revenue.

There's a fine line between a hobby and a business.

 

Okay, great topic for someone who is considering adding a forum to their website. What about which is the easiest for someone who knows absolutely nothing about coding but wants a slick, quick, seo´able forum to plug in?

 

There is no such option IMO. None of them are nice stock.

 

When I installed phpbb2 I didn't know anything about coding, I just knew how to follow directions. As long as you know the basics of server administration and setting up a database, you should be ok. Knowing html will come in handy in customizing you forum template to fit in your design, but to just get the forum running it shouldn't be too hard under normal circumstances.

 

Wow thank you for all the fast replies! I'm happy to report that our sponsors (along with adsense) will offset the $160 rather quickly, so that's not an issue. It's a hobby/professional/academic type site at the moment but I plan to start selling some products (like CD's recorded by our contributors) soon, so I can certainly benefit by attracting to people to my site with better forum software. I like the idea of giving reputation points because people will enjoy becoming 'experts' on our forums. (Some of them already have big enough egos, I might as well feed them)

I'm willing to get into the code a tiny bit, I'm also very good at following instructions. So far it sounds like Vbulletin is worth my while...anyone have negative opinions? I'm just as interested in them also.

 

The staff has teenages on board at vB that can be annoying. Other then that, they have a good product.

10 for product
7 for support
8 for price

On the 8 for price, I would pay more for adult and professional support.

 

You can continue to get updates on an owned license by paying the $30 renewal fee.

 

phpBB is something nice and cheap to play around with if you are just starting out and wanting to see if your forum is worthwhile to keep going. But after having my phpBB forum hacked 2 times even while always updating to the latest version almost as soon as they came out it just became more cost effective to upgrade to vB. Got sick and tired of upgrading every other month to fix a security hole and having to re-hack all over again. Now I just have to wait till 3.5 comes out so I can work on getting it skinned

 

The $30 dollar renewal fee sounds like a good idea because then i can upgrade when I choose, not when my sub runs out. So today i stumbled upon the search engine watch forums (am I allowed to talk about other forums? ) and I saw their "Featured Discussions" at the top of their VB homepage...is that a hack or a plugin? I'm really interested in that feature or anything similar. Is it part of the package, is it available as a plugin, or did they hack it themselves? Anyone know?

 

Yes, vb is very good and be sure to go with owned lisence, then $30.00 every year and there are allot of hacks (as they call them) to add or have one made at vbulletin.org, you can do allot with it, about install I can't help you there as I have my developer do this for me so there is very minimal down time if any at all, also found some nice skinz over at extremepixels.com for all board versions.

Hey let us know what you do I want to see it when you are done.

 

You can get some free vBulletin Hacks from various places. Most are free too!

 

In my opinion VB is well worth and is your best choice if you plan on having your forum running for a long time.....

phpbb is a good forum, don't get me wrong, but it's purpose seems best if your just starting out as a test and your willing to do the merge if it takes off....

If your serious about your forum, you can feel safe with jumping right into VB...

 

If you want a free forum software, my personal recommendation is SMF - simple to use, very easy to mod for the learner webmaster, and has mod_rewrite on Apache as an option if required.

I personally wouldn't touch phpbb with a barge pole for anything that matters - the security problems it has had are pretty appalling. I've seen too many people on forums complaining about their phpbb being hacked, and for someone to write a worm to attack phpbbs in general in December was pretty astonishing. I have old and unpatched vBulletins running which are far far less likely to be hacked than an up-to-date phpbb.

 

Oh shut up... vBulletin is not worth $160 dollars, in fact if I had a choice to pay for one or the other and they were the same price, I would use phpBB, I have expierence with both scripts, but phpBB is 10x more seo friendly (when you play with it and mod it).

Bussiness or personal, I would never buy vbulletin again, don't get lost in noppid's personal opinions, he thinks just because something costs money that it's better.

Only downside of phpBB is last I check you can't upload files, but there are mods out there, that's why I am not sure if it's still like this, mine is moded so I have always been able to upload files.


phpBB > vBulletin by far, don't bother wasting your money.

 

You just keep thinking how wonderful phpBB is up until the day you wake up and find your board has been hacked for the 3rd time because of a previously unknown security flaw that seems to turn up every other month or so or you are lucky enough not to have been hacked but are upgrading your heavily modded board for the 3rd time this year having to start over from scratch and re-doing all those wonderful mods (quite a few of which are included in vBulletin) and 3 days later your board is finally back to where you started.

 

Ok I run both phpbb and Vbulletin boards and no doubt vbulletin is better, both from a users point of view and a webmasters. Whether it cost money or not, if its easier for my members and easier for me to use then its worth the money.

Dont get me wrong I have a lot of respect for the phpBB guys who could have made a bit of money out of it.

 

1) That's unlikely. As for SEO, that's your job and those of us that know can and do SEO vBulletin just fine. Thank you.

2) You have no clue my friend. This is not about money making it better. I'm the cheapest bastard there is! I've tried all the free software and it sucks in comparison. So I got my wallet out against my will. Again, if you knew me, you'd know I'm no vB support or staff fan. I just can't knock the software, it is as advertised.

3) Attachments being a hack is just one of the many downsides of PHPBB. It is not what one would expect out of the box.

4) Oh shut up... PHPBB is not worth my time to secure or hack. Don't get lost in Inka's personal opinions, he's just mad because vBulletin costs money and his mommy won't give up her credit card.