Hello Everyone!! I have been searching lately about forum softwares and management. Most of the suggestions point to vBulletin. But I am still confused why it is highly recommended? 1.It has no inbuilt SEO. 2.It is very costly and plugins are to be purchased from 3rd parties. A vbulletin license demands $250. Add your domain cost, hosting bill, bandwidth burst bills and other (important) customizations in the list. That is really really costly. In my search quest i came across many forum softwares one among which was Simpleress. It can be integrated in WP and as you all know SEO becomes automatically easy. Also Simple press comes with plethora of inbuilt features (http://simple-press.com/features/). Moreover it is free to use. The only money they charge is for assistance (and some features) and that is just around $40 i think!! Now my question is: 1.Should i consider Vbulletin only because it has more people to assist? 2.Should i consider Vbulletin only because it is more famous? 3.When i am getting more almost free, is it not good to choose this path? 4.I have been reading there are discrepancies in vBulletin codes lately and many forum owners are making mind to leave it. I completely do not ignore the fact that if so many people recommend vBulletin, there must be something in it. But what really is that something? Pls provide guidance.
1. Depends on what you mean by "people to assist". If you're talking about support, vBulletin does have a strong support team to back it, with a lot of resources/plugins on vbulletin.org. If you're just talking about helpful people, these exist for all popular forum solutions. 2. No. vBulletin has become crappy since vBulletin 4 when IB acquired Jelsoft. The software code is crappier than ever (and this still holds true for vB5) and the pricing scheme is worse than crap. (Search for vbulletin pricing scheme) 3. If you're talking about vBulletin, yes. If you're talking about XenForo or IPB, no. Paid software do enjoy guaranteed support, frequent updates/bugfixes, more features and in general a higher quality than free/open-source products (see: phpBB) 4. Yes, for IPB and XenForo. The code is beyond crap, and time won't change this. IB believes in Agile software development but they don't realize that vB3 was not a good base to base anything on. (current vB4 license owner but stayed at 3, I had a friend that had 5 and when I looked at the code I literally shouted WTF to my screen) The original devs of vBulletin moved to develop XenForo, and it's a much better forum software than vBulletin. Right now it's still under legal disputes with IB (which sued them for using business secrets) so it's not really receiving updates, however support is still present and 3rd party plugin dev is still going on. Also, look at the date of the thread for the recommendation. You will notice that a lot of them are made before 2009 when IB acquired Jelsoft, and that's marks an era. Before IB came, XenForo did not exist and vBulletin was far more superior than IPB and other forum softwares. However, after IB's acquisition, vBulletin is still kind of a leader but the quality is jumping off a cliff. IPB is really catching up with quality since their version 3 release, and XenForo is really great. To be honest, before vB4, I would recommend vBulletin to new forummakers as well, but now I recommend XenForo because I'm really disappointed at what vBulletin has become.
I used to recommend vBulletin to people, but not anymore. It used to be the best forum software, six years ago they were untouchable. Those days have past, the development team has changed totally and the quality of the product and the service that backs it has declined tremendously. I do not recommend anyone starting a forum to use their product. As far as a promising future goes, I'm looking at IPB, and maybe Vanilla. Xenforo did look promising, until the vBulletin guys sued them into oblivion. Sad story that, but it did kill the product, so you shouldn't really look at it as a serious platform to build upon.
@tyteen4a03- nice description and history presentation but you too mostly talk about 'support' being the main thing. Why do i need their personal support when there are so many devs on web? Also please provide the pros and cons of SimplePress. I saw really impressing reviews about it. It is totally feature packed even more than bbPress.
All forum platforms do basically the same thing. The difference between vBulletin, phpBB, Vanilla, IPB, etc. are the extra features, stability, addons, support, price, and many other factors. When you want to choose a forum platform, consider these factors based on your particular need. Obviously there is no need to spend $250 on vBulletin for a new gaming forum with 0 members. It would be better to start with something free and expand if you need more features. It is possible to convert your forum posts and members to other platforms. I have used vBulletin, IPB, phpBB, and many others. For me I always found it to be too complex and I never used 3/4 of the features and options. I just wanted people to be able to sign up and post messages. I found Vanilla Forums, and it is extremely refreshing. It is open source and you can expand it to your needs. It is probably the most basic platform out there. We can give you suggestions based on our own personal bias but it is better for you to consider your needs when picking a platform. The best for you might not be the best for me. You can't simply say vBulletin is the best forum software because it's expensive and has great tech support. And you can't say Vanilla is the best because its free and simple to use and configure. We could probably help you more if you told us what your exact needs for a forum are.
Honestly, I feel like IPB (Invision Power Board) is a lot better. Much more user-friendly, and now has a way better layout.
VB is easy to handle, Look out VB Admin CP & IPB admin Cp. huge difference. VB is mostly preferd, 1 time payment. No need to renew every 6 months
I was also looking into this... I was mainly looking at IP.Board, but having to renew the software looks like it will get pricy. Plus it's already pricey to begin with... I understand that vBulletin is crashing, but it doesn't look like there are any stronger options. IPB looks nice, but it's just too expensive for me. I looked into buying used licenses here on this forum, but it seems a bit sketchy as there is no official way to transfer the license.
When you say built-in SEO, what exactly do you mean? Pretty URLS? Because if so, those aren't as needed as some make them out to be... When it comes to SEO, forum SEO is mostly a myth... instead of wasting your time on methods that will likely fail you... focus on two methods, content and links. You can do this with any software whether it be overpriced software like XenForo or vBulletin or free software like MyBB or SMF. If you looking to purchase paid software for the reasons you have above (OP), then you are wasting your money...
Well they've got an active development team currently making changes. It's run by Internet Brands, a publicly traded company. On their site it says that over 100,000 communities use their software. Digital Point, a very active community also uses the Vbulletin software.
SMF is better than Vbulletin in case of SPAM. Security is must. Therefore i will not recommend Vbulletin.Later you can change it. As well free forums - Many users are there, play with script and provide the report, if any security problem generate. Where as in premium only few users can do this.
I used to be extremely active with vBulletin, used it for all my clients etc. However, these days, I would never ever ever recommend vBulletin as a forum software of choice. What they've done to it is beyond stupid, over bloated, over featured software. They should have learnt the principle of KISS. vB 2.x was IMO the best they produced, if they simple expanded upon that, it'd have been great. Obviously they've had to move and expand with the times, but they've taken it to the extreme. IPB, phpBB, Vanilla, bbPress all do a far better job.
I just installed a wordpress forum on my website. It's pretty decent for being free. The only thing I find with wordpress is you get a lot of spam users trying to sign up. Still the forum doesn't look as good as these 1s like digital point.
BruceLee1, there's many plugins you can use to stop this, CAPTCHA's etc. plus the templating system is so robust you can make it look like a vB forum if you really wanted to or an entirely unique custom design like I have one of my private forums.
vBulletin losts its superiority when IPB and other software gained hook systems. I didn't care for vB then and I still don't.
I use IPB and I think its great, they also create some great official add ons too like IPB content. I decided to take the plunge and give them ago even though I heard more positive feedback in favour of vbulletin. The only problem I found is that there is less designers around that will code for IPB in comparison to VB.
Have you taken a look at the upcoming Burning Board 4 release? Very XF-like. If/when WBB4 I think it'll be worth taking a look at for testing in a sandbox. TAZ has some screen shots.