Is vBulletin Worth It???

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  • junh
    New Member
    • Jul 2002
    • 2

    Is vBulletin Worth It???

    Hello there.

    I'm in the process of choosing a BBS for my website and this is the first time I'll be using a BBS. I would like to inquire whether vBulletin is worth shelling out the extra cash.

    I'm actually contemplating in choosing the following BBS for my website:

    1) PHPBB - Free
    2) XMB Forum - Free
    3) vBulletin - Purchase

    Since vBulletin comes at a rather steep cost, I'm wondering if there are any real and definite advantages an adminstrator can have using vBulletin.

    Appreciate any answer you can give me. Thanks.
    43
    PHPBB - Free
    6.98%
    3
    XMB Forum - Free
    2.33%
    1
    vBulletin - Purchase
    88.37%
    38
    Other
    2.33%
    1
    Last edited by junh; Thu 1 Aug '02, 12:00am.
  • Mark Hewitt
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2000
    • 1195
    • 4.1.x

    #2
    You really think you will get a definite answer, here on the vbulletin forums.

    All I'm saying is that I don't think the cost of vBulletin is steep at all. You get what you pay for.

    At least I know that when I pay for software then the money is going into further development and support.

    How to do the free boards fund themselves?!
    Motorsport Forums

    Comment

    • Floris
      Senior Member
      • Dec 2001
      • 37767

      #3
      In 2000 I have been using my hobby time to search for several boards and have registered on a few web sites and read reviews etc. It was already clear to me then that vBulletin was the best choice, but the costs were a bit steep for me too, back then.

      In 2001 I have been starting my online community, because I had the time finally. I installed almost each other board software out there, found out after 1s that ubb/threads is out of the picture immediatly, and so were all flatfile boards and those not driven on php. For the freeware, phpBB2 looked promising but just didnt have what I noticed on vbulletin.com after checking the lite version and online demo out. We tried to even create our own stuff, build on the lame skeleton of blazeboard, but eventually we just couldn't let it do what we wanted. And the code was horrible. Big loads etc. Eventually I found someone to 'sponsor' me and I was able to purchase vBulletin in december 2001, I went online in 2002 with it, and since then my site has boosted, the traffic went down and the server load was much better. The support is just unbelievably great. It is almost as if you know them all personally and they stay friendly and to the point. The community behind it is great too. All questions are awnsered by at least one person.

      vBulletin was one of my proud purchases and I hope to stay with them for many years.

      Since I have vB, I know why freeboards just don't cut it.

      And if you keep having doubts, go check in a few weeks on the public beta release of their vBulletin version 3 which is due to be released within a year. It will impress you what is possible with their product and how development is going.

      If you purchase vB, you get one year free of updates/upgrades, this means that when vB3 gets released within the 12 months, you can get it for free. And otherwise just renew the access to the members area for 30$, so you can get a 160$ worth product very cheap, and again a whole year of upgrades. I dunno about you, but I wish microsoft and companies like that have such license types!

      Comment

      • okrogius
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2001
        • 1149

        #4
        If you care about your community and you want it to get big vb relaly pays off.

        Comment

        • Wayne Luke
          vBulletin Technical Support Lead
          • Aug 2000
          • 73976

          #5
          To me vBulletin isn't expensive. It is less than the cost of 30 cups of gourmet coffee. Or about the cost of 4 trips to the movie theater.
          Translations provided by Google.

          Wayne Luke
          The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
          vBulletin 5 API

          Comment

          • TotalBS
            Senior Member
            • Apr 2000
            • 138
            • 4.2.X

            #6
            Free is good.
            Always hard to compete with that.

            But, to get the free boards to do a lot of the things vB can, you have to spend a lot of time hacking and stuff. What's your time worth? Do you want to spend time re-creating features that are already streamlined?

            Wouldn't your time be better spent on content and marketing?

            Go with the annual license. Look at the cost as how much time you are saving not having to hack a board to get the same functionality.

            Again, free is good. And those free boards are getting better and better. But, without monetary support, the incentive to continue working on something 'for the good of all geekkind' starts to wane.

            Buy it, and then estimate the time you saved by not hacking... and go to the beach or something with that time... all the while thinking that you could be hacking instead. worth it.
            Brian Shea (G+)
            FallenBrothers.com and SevenSages.com

            Comment

            • Cary
              Senior Member
              • Apr 2002
              • 4433
              • 3.6.x

              #7
              Originally posted by wluke
              Or about the cost of 4 trips to the movie theater.
              How much do movies cost where you live? or... How many movies do you watch each time you visit the movie theater?

              Comment

              • okrogius
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2001
                • 1149

                #8
                Originally posted by Cary


                How much do movies cost where you live? or... How many movies do you watch each time you visit the movie theater?
                Wayne is a married person with kid(s) (not sure). 3-4+ tickets and popcorn, etc will easily be around 40 bucks.

                Comment

                • Cary
                  Senior Member
                  • Apr 2002
                  • 4433
                  • 3.6.x

                  #9
                  oh yeah... I forgot he had kids... and I forgot about popcorn and drinks too

                  Comment

                  • Scott MacVicar
                    Former vBulletin Developer
                    • Dec 2000
                    • 13286

                    #10
                    Its about 3 trips for me to, me and girlfriend.

                    You got petrol, tickets, popcorn, drinks.

                    Works out about £20 a time

                    vBulletin leased license is about £55-ish

                    so its actually about 3.
                    Scott MacVicar

                    My Blog | Twitter

                    Comment

                    • Wayne Luke
                      vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                      • Aug 2000
                      • 73976

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Cary


                      How much do movies cost where you live? or... How many movies do you watch each time you visit the movie theater?
                      Well we go to the matinee's only where it is $5.00 a person. So that is $25.00 just to get in the door. And then add on $5 for popcorn and then another $15 or so for drinks and it adds up. Heck we only go to about 3-4 movies a year since it ends up being a $100 trip once lunch or dinner out is included, $75.00 or so if we just go for Ice Cream Afterwards...
                      Translations provided by Google.

                      Wayne Luke
                      The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                      vBulletin 5 API

                      Comment

                      • Cary
                        Senior Member
                        • Apr 2002
                        • 4433
                        • 3.6.x

                        #12
                        I go to the cheap theater whenever I go. (which is rarely) $2 a ticket

                        Comment

                        • junh
                          New Member
                          • Jul 2002
                          • 2

                          #13
                          Thanks for all your replies!

                          Thanks for replying to my questions everyone, especially to xiphoid for that honest and excellent explanation.

                          For those who weren't able to post a reply, thanks for casting your votes (I guess you can say that vBulletin has a vote of confidence from the community here)

                          This has also made it easier for me to purchase the vBulletin BBS. Despite me being a newbie here, I hope to learn more from all of my 'mentors' here at vBulletin.

                          Thanks again for all your response and best regards to everyone and more power to vBulletin.

                          Comment

                          • Floris
                            Senior Member
                            • Dec 2001
                            • 37767

                            #14
                            Re: Thanks for all your replies!

                            Originally posted by junh
                            Thanks for replying to my questions everyone, especially to xiphoid for that honest and excellent explanation.

                            For those who weren't able to post a reply, thanks for casting your votes (I guess you can say that vBulletin has a vote of confidence from the community here)

                            This has also made it easier for me to purchase the vBulletin BBS. Despite me being a newbie here, I hope to learn more from all of my 'mentors' here at vBulletin.

                            Thanks again for all your response and best regards to everyone and more power to vBulletin.
                            np

                            Comment

                            • DWZ
                              Senior Member
                              • Jan 2002
                              • 985
                              • 2.2.9

                              #15
                              Originally posted by wluke
                              Or about the cost of 4 trips to the movie theater.
                              It cost me 18 trips to the movies here for me

                              Comment

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