vBulletin - Hope it's worth it

[ChristinaInCanada]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of setting up a vBulletin forum for the first time. From what I've read, it will be worth the price compared to the free phpBB, which is what I've used in the past.

So - I have an option to buy or lease. ??? My gut tells me it doesn't make sense to lease...what do you think?

Thanks,
Christina

 

[csitenet]

all my ones are leased except one which is owned. The problem is vbulletin constantly updates and with each update there MAY BE bugs so they update again, e.g. most my vbulletin's are 3.0.7, buying leased means i don't have to pay to upgrade them to the new generation of vbulletin of 3.5

So with leased you can upgrade to anything for 1 year and renew again, with owned you can't upgrade unless your willing to pay a price. Your choice, but i should warn you, prev. vbulletin's havebeen buggy and require upgrades! like vbulletin 3.0.8 it was a nightmare with all the crashes we had with them.

 

[ChristinaInCanada]

Thank you so much for posting this. It really helps me make my decision.

 

[martialtiger]

I believe even if you purchase the license you are allowed to download the updates up to a year from when you made the purchase.

Directly from their site

The first step in the order process is to select the type of license(s) you wish to purchase. We currently offer two types of license: leased and owned. The leased license will allow you to run the software on your server for one year, and then you will need to purchase another license. The owned license will allow you to run the software on your server for an unlimited amount of time and allows access to all new versions for one year. After the year, you can purchase a renewal of this access. For more information, please click on the links in the "Product Information" section on the left hand side of the page.

 

[ChristinaInCanada]

My new friend, martial!
Yes, I was just reading about that too...

So, do you really think I need to go with vBulletin? phpBB doesn't cut it, does it?

 

[martialtiger]

Honestly if this is your first time with a forum I would suggest using a free board like phpBB or SMF (Simple Machines Forum). Both are fairly flexible. Remember creating a community will take a lot of work and can be frustrating. You may decide to just give up on it (not saying you will) so why not just test out how it is to start up a community. You can always upgrade to vBulletin later (I agree with most everyone that vBulletin is hands down the best forum script out there). Hope that helps.

 

[ChristinaInCanada]

Hi again,

Well, I have done a few forums in the past - two are still up and running now, one with fair success, the other not so much (yet). I've heard it can be difficult to switch over from phpBB to vBulletin, and wonder if it's not worth it to just start out with it. My other two are phpBB...

I need to do a bit of thinking about it all. Thanks again,
Christina

 

[007]

Hi.. I have several owned licenses and you can upgrade them whenever you want as long as the license is still active. Definitely the easiest way to go if you ask me.

Also, you have to start somewhere. I started with vBulletin as my first hosted forum and had no problems at all keeping it going, and even modifying it extensively.

Go vB for sure.

 

[ChristinaInCanada]

Thanks 007. vB just has this really polished, professional look that I want on this particular forum. I think I'm going to try it out.

thanks again to all of you for some excellent advice.

 

[007]

I spent a few months doing research before finally going with vB. I would never recommend using a free board, so I never even looked into PHPbb, but the other one that I considered was UBB. Infopop (UBB) has an impressive board as well. At the time, it came down to the fact that a majority of the forums I visited used vB, and I liked the feel of it.

Looking at the two now, vB is by far superior to UBB in many ways. I think you will find it the best $160 you ever spent. Also, if you end up buying a bunch the price goes down.

Studies show that your users won't care what board you use, and to a degree this is right. I post at boards that use all different types of forum software, but when it comes to running a forum, you will find that the people on vBulletin.org (official modification and admin site for vB) are very friendly and helpful. It's a great company and I would suggest them to anybody.

As an admin, when I go to a PHPbb site, the first thing I think is "Ok, they didn't spend much money on this." It's not always a fair statement, but it's good for your members to see that you are willing to invest money into your site. I have never seen a PHPbb site that compaired to a vB.

 

[GiantDomains]

go vb