Vbulletin Connect or Cloud

[horsegoer]

How do I decide which one would be best for me? Thank you?

[Mrs.T]

It probably comes down to your ability and what you want to be able to do with your site.

Connect on self hosting: Are you confident hosting your own site? You would need to make sure you purchase the right hosting, not all are suitable for forums. You need hosting with a database option, plus other things - check the vbulletin requirements before you buy hosting or you could waste money.

Are you confident managing a database and uploading files to the server? There is great support on here but at the end of the day it is down to you to do the work and understand what you are told to do. Do it wrong and your site breaks and it's hard to find someone to help you.

You need to know how to take back ups of the database. Occasionally the database might have problems you need to understand instructions on how to fix them.

You will need to upgrade your site yourself when new versions are released.

You will have full access to all the files for customisation and add ons

Cloud: You have no worries over uploading or maintaining the files, database, doing backups and upgrades, it is all done for you.

You can't used hacks and add ons so if they are important to you then cloud probably isn't for you.

We've done both, self hosted for over 10 years and now on cloud.

It was sometimes stressful as we are not that confident with coding and databases. (Give me a knitting or crochet pattern and I'll create you something beautiful, try to make me understand PHP and it's like a foreign language )

Having run the site for 10 years out of the blue the hosting said our database was now too big and we must move to a dedicated server, they looked so complicated to manage and beyond our capabilities, plus the cost was high. Cloud options made the decision to move very easy.

So, it had to be your decision on what you expect from your site and your confidence in managing it.

If you do self host you can always change to Cloud later and vice versa.

[BirdOPrey5]

It's hard to advise without knowing more about your situation. Are you trying out forums or are you absolutely certain you're in this for the long run? If you just want to try it out you won't beat a single month of vBCloud for the price, but if you know you are in it for the long run and want to have the most options/abilities with your site, including ability to alter code, then you might be better off with the download (Connect) version.

If you don't want to worry about the hassle of backups, installs, upgrades, and server maintenance than vBCloud is for you.

If learning some PHP and some installing PHP software and figuring out some technical things doesn't scare you, you might prefer the download version.

If your budget is small the month to month vBCloud is relatively cheap with little risk.

[horsegoer]

It's hard to advise without knowing more about your situation. Are you trying out forums or are you absolutely certain you're in this for the long run? If you just want to try it out you won't beat a single month of vBCloud for the price, but if you know you are in it for the long run and want to have the most options/abilities with your site, including ability to alter code, then you might be better off with the download (Connect) version.

If you don't want to worry about the hassle of backups, installs, upgrades, and server maintenance than vBCloud is for you.

If learning some PHP and some installing PHP software and figuring out some technical things doesn't scare you, you might prefer the download version.

If your budget is small the month to month vBCloud is relatively cheap with little risk.

So you can customize more with connect version?

[glennrocksvb]

So you can customize more with connect version?

In Cloud, you don't have access to the server and no permissions to edit the templates. You can do those in the download version.

But you can still customize the style in Cloud using style variables and custom CSS.

[horsegoer]

In Cloud, you don't have access to the server and no permissions to edit the templates. You can do those in the download version.

But you can still customize the style in Cloud using style variables and custom CSS.

Thanks....so would I be able to go with cloud for the time being and if I noticed there were things i wanted customized and changed that could be done with the download then somehow take my current cloud site and transfer that over to the download version?

for instance...see link to v bulletin forum below. Too left where it has buttons for forum and what's new. would cloud allow me to add a few buttons next to those?

http://forums.mikeholt.com/

[Mark.B]

You can add navar links yes.

Please be aware that site runs vB4. You cannot run vB4 on Cloud, you can only run vB5.

[horsegoer]

You can add navar links yes.

Please be aware that site runs vB4. You cannot run vB4 on Cloud, you can only run vB5.

Ok thanks. What about transferring my forum as I mentioned?

[glennrocksvb]

Yes you can request for a copy of the vBCloud database and then transfer it to a download version.