💬 Platform Discussion vBulletin Thread

[Cedric]

I've spent some time into vBulletin, their website, support forums, add ons and styles and lastly requested a free trial.

It's ridiculous how confusing it can be. In no way is vBulletin as user friendly as Xenforo is. They charge a 249USD subscription for a confusing website, support forum and a forum software that isn't user friendly imo. I guess that could all be improved by adding loads of add ons, but the question is, is vBulletin worth it? I mean, I'd go for Invision Community or XenForo anytime above vBulletin. Woltlab is also a much better choice if you're in doubt!

 

[Arantor]

vBulletin 4.x is the last version anyone should be running, vB 5 was a dumpster fire at launch and never got better. Sure, it added the things that 5.0 launch didn’t have but 5.x was a dumpster fire the entire time.

 

[Nomad]

Well.... I can't really comment on this since I'm paying (on average) around $350 a year for "upgrades" on XF and it's associated add-ons that I use.... and I generate no revenue from my site either.
For me.. this is a hobby.... and as with most hobbies, they cost money!

But as far as vBulletin goes... it would be one of the last choices I would choose... I'll pick free script like SMF or myBB before it for use.

I know a lot of people are running communities as a hobby, however, I am running communities to make money. Since it is really hard to generate income on forums, I use open source.

 

[Tracy]

I know a lot of people are running communities as a hobby, however, I am running communities to make money. Since it is really hard to generate income on forums, I use open source.

The bad thing is... most paid scripts (and 3rd party add-ons) far exceed what an open source script provides..
Classic case... my Pipe/Tobacco site... it was running on SMF.. and only had a bare portion of what it now has available to it. For a "premium/paid" site...those extra features would make a difference. For me, since it is a hobby.. I offer them for free.

 

[JoshB]

Appears that VB 6 was released not too long ago.

vBulletin 6 licenses will retail for $179, which includes one year of free updates and one month of ticket support from vBulletin’s world-renowned support team. The average vBulletin support ticket is answered within twenty-four hours, at any time of the day or night, seven days a week.


After the first year, purchasing a maintenance service add-on ($79) will provide access to updates for an additional year. New in vBulletin 6, maintenance add-ons provide enhanced support through robust updates every eight weeks.


vBulletin Cloud packages running vBulletin 6 start at $14.99/month. Existing vBulletin Cloud communities will be upgraded to vBulletin 6 at no charge.

They lowered their pricing and the renewal which I could only guess was in response to their customers threatening to bail because of pricing for the quality of the product. I do have to say it's been many years since I've visited a Vb forum and their forum is not that good-looking.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Makes me wonder if they decided to lower the price of their software because Invision lowered their prices. Though out of the paid software, vBulletin is definitely the weakest. It's crazy to think back in the day they were the most popular paid forum script, almost every gaming forum I joined used vB.