Moving from Vbulletin 4.2

I decided to change our forum script to another forum script. But I can't decide. Which is better? IPB or Xenforo?

Currently we have 46k topics, 884k messages and 112k users. We don't want to alianete our users. We are looking for:

1- It must be good on SEO.
2- It must have a good support, themes and add-ons.
3- It must be user friendly.

In terms of these three, which one is better? IPB or Xenforo?

 

IPB & Xenforo both are equally good for SEO. You will find more add-ons,themes for IPB. Even the IPB community is more larger than IPB. I prefer IPB interface visually and also in terms of ease of use. I will recommend IPB.

 

Thanks for your answer. But I heard that most of IPB add-ons are paid, is this right?

 

IPB currently have thrice the number of addons than Xenforo. Most of the high quality addons in any platform are paid. You will find lots of hooks on the web for IPB which is not the same for Xenforo.

 

Please check the addon store of both the platform for better understanding

http://community.invisionpower.com/files/category/1-addons-modifications/

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/add-ons.28/

 

I see. Which one is better in terms of resource (ram, cpu) using? which one is more lightweight?

 

Both are lightweight and even both can be optimized for heavy load. By default, Xenforo will be less heavier than IPB.

 

Any other ideas?

 

It depends on what you need.

If you only want a forum then I would recommend XF. It's fast, clean and very easy to use.

Should you need a content area, store or downloads etc then IPB for sure. I don't like it myself, as much as I want to like it, but there's no denying that, when bundled with the add-ons, it's very powerful and does an excellent job.

 

Changing the forum software on an established forum is alienating your users.

VBulletin 4 has all 3 points you want. There isnt much you cant find at vbulletin.org