I have been a customer of vBulletin (Jelsoft, to be precise) since 2005 - that's about 7 years.
I was hurt a bit when I got pressured into buying vB4 before seeing the goods (was $160 at the time). Eventually, my community grew into it, and by 4.1, my thought was "Well, it could certainly be worse."
Let's move on from the release of vB4 to vB5. I'm being asked to pay $249 to upgrade to an inferior product, and I get a $40 discount for being an existing customer. Thanks.
I much preferred the old pricing model, where I paid for an "Owned" license, and then paid $30 a year for continued support. It was affordable, and it gave you (vBulletin) a reason to continue offering support in the form of tech support and software updates. All this gloss about "upgrading" the software where you're essentially buying the product all over again with a meagre discount; only to have the previous license effectively replaced, feels nothing short of being given the middle finger to me.
vBulletin's competitors seem to operate far simpler licensing models - the arch nemesis bills bi-annually at $25 every 6 months (technically $50 a year), and the budding underdog upgrades annually at $40 a year. Both these competitors have very attractive or promising products, competitive prices and fairer maintenance fees.
Sadly, I most certainly won't be upgrading to vBulletin 5 Connect - I'll stick to what works - vB4.2. If I feel the need to upgrade, I'll jump ship to XF or even IPB. That feeling of a "quality" product just isn't there any more.
I was hurt a bit when I got pressured into buying vB4 before seeing the goods (was $160 at the time). Eventually, my community grew into it, and by 4.1, my thought was "Well, it could certainly be worse."
Let's move on from the release of vB4 to vB5. I'm being asked to pay $249 to upgrade to an inferior product, and I get a $40 discount for being an existing customer. Thanks.
I much preferred the old pricing model, where I paid for an "Owned" license, and then paid $30 a year for continued support. It was affordable, and it gave you (vBulletin) a reason to continue offering support in the form of tech support and software updates. All this gloss about "upgrading" the software where you're essentially buying the product all over again with a meagre discount; only to have the previous license effectively replaced, feels nothing short of being given the middle finger to me.
vBulletin's competitors seem to operate far simpler licensing models - the arch nemesis bills bi-annually at $25 every 6 months (technically $50 a year), and the budding underdog upgrades annually at $40 a year. Both these competitors have very attractive or promising products, competitive prices and fairer maintenance fees.
Sadly, I most certainly won't be upgrading to vBulletin 5 Connect - I'll stick to what works - vB4.2. If I feel the need to upgrade, I'll jump ship to XF or even IPB. That feeling of a "quality" product just isn't there any more.
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