What made you purchase forum software?

[Juice]

We were all newbies once with not so much knowledge as we may have today about forums and forum softwares. Normally when someone is starting out creating a forum, they'll normally stick to a free software, sometimes even a forum hosting website so they don't need to grab themselves a domain, hosting and such. Some people may of always stuck with the free software, but I know hundreds, thousands, maybe millions? Have purchased forum software, so what made you purchase it?

The few times I have purchased forum software is really just to test about with it as I've heard good things being spoken about the specific software. I've only ever purchased vBulletin and XenForo, both times I actually didn't regret the purchase, although I may of hated the price.

If it wasn't for the silly costs of themes, plugins and the software itself I would probably stick around with a paid forum software, although in my eyes, MyBB will always be my true forum love.

 

[Belthazar]

I think MyBB is by far the best free software. I've only used XenForo a few times (including here), however. It's quickly became my favorite. The ACP is incredibly easy to navigate, as well as really responsive. Though, if I were to start a forum today, I'm not sure if I'd use XenForo because of the price tag. All in all, most forum software companies are names. Their software is not very unique, it's just a name. Though, the name carries a 150 dollar price tag

 

[reddyash]

Hello John,

What you said is 100% true "Their software is not very unique, it's just a name. ".
I am running two forums, one forum is on Xenforo and the other is on vBulletin. I dont see much difference most of the features are the same but different in price. And if I think in future to create my third forum then I would use MyBB.

 

[alakazam]

So far, the only paid forum script I have ever purchased has been IPB. I bought it because I had used IPB forums for a year or so, and one of the forums I used to visit got abandoned and eventually disappeared. I decided to try running a community with a paid script, after having used phpBB and YaBB on my previous forums.

 

[ddoesmc]

For the most part, I have been using myBB. I have a few private forums that use paid software that I don't pay for, lucky me right? I don't think I will ever buy software.