Are MyBB plugins/ themes cheaper than other paid software?

[Sam1]

Something I've noticed is that MyBB plugins/ themes tend to be cheaper than comparable alterations on other, paid, forum software. Have you noticed this? Why do you think this is? I had a custom theme coded which cost 1/2 to 1/3 what a custom theme would cost on Xenforo according to: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/what-is-the-average-price-of-a-custom-style.54241/. Mybb tends to have theme/ plugin clubs which are relatively cheap as well.

 

[Christopher1]

Something I've noticed is that MyBB plugins/ themes tend to be cheaper than comparable alterations on other, paid, forum software. Have you noticed this? Why do you think this is? I had a custom theme coded which cost 1/2 to 1/3 what a custom theme would cost on Xenforo according to: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/what-is-the-average-price-of-a-custom-style.54241/. Mybb tends to have theme/ plugin clubs which are relatively cheap as well.

Hmm.. Not sure. What are the benefits of myBB compared to Xenforo? Also, how many people use myBB compared to Xenforo?

 

[Sam1]

Hmm.. Not sure. What are the benefits of myBB compared to Xenforo? Also, how many people use myBB compared to Xenforo?

I had a Xenforo license but it got sold with holderhost. We just used it for a community forum that was never active. I did very much consider using Xenforo for this project (I'd only use MyBB or Xenforo.... I hate phpBB, SMF is meh and I don't have any experience with the other software). I decided that, from experience, a Xenforo board would probably be a lot more costly to setup (perhaps $500-600 with a custom theme- which it needs) and I would rather spend that money on getting activity on the board. In terms of features, you seem to be able to make a MyBB forum do everything a Xenforo board can. I also very much prefer the administration panel in MyBB.

I believe Xenforo is more widely used at the moment (at least by larger communities which are more likely to be indexed): http://w3techs.com/technologies/comparison/cm-mybb,cm-xenforo but there are some huge forums which do use MyBB.... HackForums (50 million posts), CSNBBS (12 million), LeakForums (17 million), ForumKorner etc.

 

[Christopher1]

I decided that, from experience, a Xenforo board would probably be a lot more costly to setup (perhaps $500-600 with a custom theme- which it needs) and I would rather spend that money on getting activity on the board. In terms of features, you seem to be able to make a MyBB forum do everything a Xenforo board can. I also very much prefer the administration panel in MyBB.

It's tough to choose between spending lots of money on the functionality or marketing. On the one hand you want people to feel comfortable using your forum. On the other hand, you need people to visit your forum.

 

[Sam1]

It's tough to choose between spending lots of money on the functionality or marketing. On the one hand you want people to feel comfortable using your forum. On the other hand, you need people to visit your forum.

Absolutely. My personal opinion is that as long as the forum is user friendly and reasonably well - designed it does not matter. I remember a debate forum that took off a few years ago. It suddenly amassed tens of thousands of posts extremely quickly. They had a MyBB based forum but the design was absolute garbage. It was an eyesore. I never understood why it attracted so many posts but it was simply a strong community built up with heated debate.

 

[Christopher1]

Absolutely. My personal opinion is that as long as the forum is user friendly and reasonably well - designed it does not matter. I remember a debate forum that took off a few years ago. It suddenly amassed tens of thousands of posts extremely quickly. They had a MyBB based forum but the design was absolute garbage. It was an eyesore. I never understood why it attracted so many posts but it was simply a strong community built up with heated debate.

Interesting. I often wonder how Reddit amassed users so quickly. I'm not sure how it was developed but the design is god-awful.