Should I upgrade to vB 5?

[M.Rizk]

Hello everybody,

When I first joined vB I bought vB 5 but it had so many bugs so I had to downgrade to vB 4 Suite as it was stable.

I am currently using vBulletin 4, and vBulletin 4 CMS but everyone is saying that vBulletin 4 CMS is so bad specially when it comes to SEO and will kill almost any popular website.

Well in my case we launched with vBulletin CMS already a year ago and I can say yes we are already dead although we offer really good content but our competitors using WordPress even new ones get more visitors even if they post news after is by few hours.

I haven't seen many talking about vBulletin 5.1 SEO yet. Do you advice me to move to vB 5.1? I still have a valid vB 5.1 license.

Also finding themes for vB 5.1, they are fairly limited, where do you recommend I can get themes for my 5.1 even if paid?

Thanks in advance.

[beishe8]

I am currently using vBulletin 4, and vBulletin 4 CMS...
...

Do you advice me to move to vB 5.1?

From bad to worse?

[M.Rizk]

From bad to worse?

That's scary... Now I am disappointed

[beishe8]

That's scary... Now I am disappointed

Don't be.
Set up a vB 4 test forum with your current database copy, password protected.
Prove me wrong by upgrading it to vB5.
Give access to it for a few of your staff.
Listen to their opinion about vB5.

[napy8gen]

Also finding themes for vB 5.1, they are fairly limited, where do you recommend I can get themes for my 5.1 even if paid?

I do vb5 themes :-)

[M.Rizk]

Don't be.
Set up a vB 4 test forum with your current database copy, password protected.
Prove me wrong by upgrading it to vB5.
Give access to it for a few of your staff.
Listen to their opinion about vB5.

I already did this, It looks difference, but I don't feel like anything changed except the location of some few tools and controlling the website became just easier. I still can't judge it though because the native style is so bad when viewing CMS.

It also looks really bad on mobiles, because you can't control what modules show first, making all modules show above the article itself which really makes it look bad on smartphones as users will have to scrolls a lot to read the article.

[M.Rizk]

I do vb5 themes :-)

Yes, I found your website yesterday while searching on Google. Your themes are amazing, but they don't really work with my website category. My website is a tech news based website, along with a small discussion forums. I need a theme that got only one solid color not many colors, having so many colors in one page won't make users happy reading a news article. I really wish I have something similar to the style I currently have on vB 4 (http://themeforest.net/item/metro-a-...-suite/3555714)

[Mark.B]

The whole "vB4 CMS SEO" thing is rather over hyped IMO. There are plenty of sites that used the CMS with no difficulties whatsoever, my own included.
If that's the only reason you are looking to upgrade, I'd frankly stay where you are at this time.