Why is vBulletin so much cheaper than the competition?

[Quillz]

At most, vBulletin has a flat fee of $160. Alternatively, the competition such as ubb.threads and FusionBB can cost upwards from $300. And both software products don't seem nearly as good as vB!

What makes vBulletin so much cheaper? Is it the support, popularity... ?

[filburt1]

It's probably a reasonable price that balances the cost of developers, support staff, and advertising with making a decent profit margin. Maybe the others hire many more people and have physical assets that cost more money and therefore they have to charge more.

[AWS]

If you saw Infopops office complex you would know whay they charge so much for the products.

[Quillz]

If you saw Infopops office complex you would know whay they charge so much for the products.Do you have a screenshot of Infopop's office(s)?

[AWS]

Check on their site. When they first opened it they posted pics of it.

[mfinc]

Pricing takes alot into consideration. Many other companies usually tend to offset costs like R&D, rent, and other fixed costs into their prices.

I also think vBulletin has a very strategic pricing scheme, and if they introduced more products (under their own labels though) they can really clean up the competition.

[Mike Anime]

Pricing takes alot into consideration. Many other companies usually tend to offset costs like R&D, rent, and other fixed costs into their prices.

I also think vBulletin has a very strategic pricing scheme, and if they introduced more products (under their own labels though) they can really clean up the competition.

when any vendor starts on more projects it always lessens the quality of the original product or drives up the prices to have different teams for each product.

i like vB as it is a community focused on a product and not the bottom dollar line. though profit is factored in its almost an afterthought here.

[jamesyfx]

I think it's the a generous price for software as big as this... and all the support you get. :p

[Mike Anime]

I think it's the a generous price for software as big as this... and all the support you get. :p

no matter how brown our noses get we wont get it any cheaper :D

[SaN-DeeP]

At most, vBulletin has a flat fee of $160. Alternatively, the competition such as ubb.threads and FusionBB can cost upwards from $300. And both software products don't seem nearly as good as vB!

What makes vBulletin so much cheaper? Is it the support, popularity... ?
I have only paid $85 twice for Vbulletin (via our sponsorers) ?? ;)

[Quillz]

I have only paid $85 twice for Vbulletin (via our sponsorers) ?? ;)Sorry... I don't understand what you're saying...

[Mike Anime]

Sorry... I don't understand what you're saying...

i think S/he means that site has sponsors kinda like how nascars have adds on them and those sponsors more or less payed for their licence.

(feature request gender options in the userCP)

[squall14716]

(feature request gender options in the userCP)
That is what custom profile fields are made for. ;)

EDIT: I guess you mean here though?

[Mike Anime]

That is what custom profile fields are made for. ;)


EDIT: I guess you mean here though?

yea it would be nice if we could tell the gender of the people making a post just by looking at a M or F next to their nick or the medical symbols for male or female.

[mfinc]

when any vendor starts on more projects it always lessens the quality of the original product or drives up the prices to have different teams for each product.

i like vB as it is a community focused on a product and not the bottom dollar line. though profit is factored in its almost an afterthought here.
I think concluding that venturing into a new project always lessens the quality of the original prouduct, is a little too blunt on your part.

[Mike Anime]

I think concluding that venturing into a new project always lessens the quality of the original prouduct, is a little too blunt on your part.

ok ok almost always

[Caiman]

I think jive provide the most underfeatured forum product at the most expensive price, something in the region of $3000/year

[Jerry]

I think jive provide the most underfeatured forum product at the most expensive price, something in the region of $3000/year

Hence the importer ;)

[filburt1]

Jive is also powered by J2EE, which is specifically designed to scale extremely well.

[AWS]

I think jive provide the most underfeatured forum product at the most expensive price, something in the region of $3000/year
It isn't in the market for the same people. The don't care if people like us buy it. They want the enterprise market. The real competition for Jive is Open Topic and the advantage that Jive has over OT is you download and run it on your server. OT is a hosted app.
Jerry, there are importers for other rdbms now?

[Jerry]

It isn't in the market for the same people. The don't care if people like us buy it. They want the enterprise market. The real competition for Jive is Open Topic and the advantage that Jive has over OT is you download and run it on your server. OT is a hosted app.
Jerry, there are importers for other rdbms now?

ImpEx does MSSQL, MySQL and flat file for the systems that have that as an option. Where I've got test data that is. i.e. phpBB.

I'll extend ImpEx to what ever source I can get my hands on, with in reason, i.e. postgresql.

[AWS]

Cool. I only hope that mssql support is added to vbulletin in the future then I can get rid of dotnetbb on one of my sites and switch to vbulletin. I don't have mysql installed on the server it is on and don't want to install it. I played with phpbb and mssql. It is pretty stable and runs extremely fast. I just don't think it is secure enough. Just like phpnuke there seems to be a new exploit for every new release.

[Jerry]

Cool. I only hope that mssql support is added to vbulletin in the future then I can get rid of dotnetbb on one of my sites and switch to vbulletin. I don't have mysql installed on the server it is on and don't want to install it. I played with phpbb and mssql. It is pretty stable and runs extremely fast. I just don't think it is secure enough. Just like phpnuke there seems to be a new exploit for every new release.

Well I suppose you'd have to move servers then to get it imported at the moment.

[AWS]

I'll just bide my time. Sooner or later the support will be there.
A group of users on my programming forum started a project to port our copy of vbulletin to mssql. They got it almost done and then I sold the site and they stopped working on it.

[MGM]

I'll just bide my time. Sooner or later the support will be there.
A group of users on my programming forum started a project to port our copy of vbulletin to mssql. They got it almost done and then I sold the site and they stopped working on it.
Hmm... why don't you share the results so far of the project with the community? I'm sure it can be finished with the huge amount of hackers and programming gurus at this site and vb.org

MGM out

[AWS]

I no longer own the site and lost touch with the guys that were doing it. If I see him popup online I will ask him for the changes if he still has them.
There are a large amount of hackers, but, how many of them are familar with mssql?

[James Kojiro]

The reason is that vBulletin sells more copies because it is better. So in theory the volume exceeds that of the other board software and thus they can afford to charge a lower price.

[MGM]

I no longer own the site and lost touch with the guys that were doing it. If I see him popup online I will ask him for the changes if he still has them.
There are a large amount of hackers, but, how many of them are familar with mssql?
I wouldn't know, but I'd say enough to help finish your project :)

MGM out

[Medar]

At most, vBulletin has a flat fee of $160. Alternatively, the competition such as ubb.threads and FusionBB can cost upwards from $300. And both software products don't seem nearly as good as vB!

What makes vBulletin so much cheaper? Is it the support, popularity... ?

Infopop's pricing is ridiculous ($199-229 per license plus $100+ per year member renewal)...I agree there. I have two old WWWThreads licenses, so I don't pay anywhere near that if I want to upgrade my code.

FusionBB is similar to UBBThreads, but actually looks to work properly. However, the $300 mentioned above looks to be for the lifetime license (ie license and member renewals for as long as you run the board). $99 is the beta cost of a license and one year of upgrades right now...and will be $149 according to their site once beta is over.

I am looking at alternatives to Infopop right now...hence my lurking here!

Now comparing that out...

Vbulletin = $185 lic/one year and $30 yer year after - you would NEVER catch up to how costly Infopop is (IE vbulletin will always be cheaper...and arguably ahead in the game). FusionBB at $399 for the lifetime license/upgrades it would take you 8 years of running the board before it is cheaper than vbulletin.

I am not advocating ANY system mentioned above, just doing the math :)

[David Gonzalez]

adding that invision board also overpriced their product, and even support :mad:
Perpetual license $185.00
not trying to bring any trolls out :D

[Quillz]

adding that invision board also overpriced their product, and even support :mad:
Perpetual license $185.00
not trying to bring any trolls out :DI don't think $185 is that bad of a price for IPB when you consider it comes with priority support and lifetime upgrades. Of course, what one would define as "priority support" may differ.

[Zachery]

One year of priority support Quillz :)

[ManagerJosh]

Wasn't their Perpetual license 199.00? o.O

[Quillz]

Wasn't their Perpetual license 199.00? o.ONo, the lifetime license was $199.