Benefits of vBulletin compared to Ning

[Grover]

Apologies for more or less double posting, but I decided this subject could use a thread on it's own.

Earlier in another thread I asked this :

Would somebody care to explain to me what the benefits of vBulletin are over a Ning powered platform? I am just in the process of recommend vBulletin to a potential (very big) client and one of their employees just setup a Ning community for them, whereas I believe they should choose vBulletin. How to convince them to go for Jelsofts/IB's solution?

Ning is a social networking site. It looks to me like a MySpace clone. So I'm not sure if vBulletin would give you the exact same functionality. I do think your client should be aware that with Ning, the data belongs to Ning, and there is no way to get a copy of it. So you are dependent upon their site never going down. Hosting your own data is a unique selling point of vBulletin.

Thank you very much, Feldon. I always appreciate your insightful contributions. If there is anyone else who can also shine his/her light on the benefits of vBulletin compared to Ning I would love to hear it aswell!

It is a client with a very big audiance really and a newly produced platform has the potential to skyrocket in the future. So, what other unique selling points has vBulletin over a Ning Community?

Thanks in advance,

This client currently has more or less a static website (powered by on old version of Drupal) with mainly the goal to provide information to its visitors. It does include a shopping cart however, so that's the way they make some money. I adviced them to make their site more interactive so it will become more interesting/popular/bigger etc. A comminity driven site will result in more interest in their site and generate more income for them in the long run. So, since I have 8 years of experience with vBulletin and with the new CMS (so I can re-create their current site and give their employees the permissions to add articles and so on) coming out I adviced them to go for the Jelsoft/IB solution.

One benefit of vBulletin compared to Ning is that -I believe- it is much easier to monotize a vBulletin site then a Ning one.

Anymore insights in the benefits of having vBulletin power your community instead of Ning would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

[Grover]

I just received this link from someone:

http://www.thecommunityarchitect.com/2009/06/01/ning-review/

Very interesting and I think this definately will help my client to make the decision to not go for Ning, but choose vBulletin instead. If only vBulletin would offer a shopping cart that is...

Anymore suggestion on the Pro's of vBulletin compared to Ning?

[Zachery]

I cannot stress enough, having control of your data matters more than anything else.

[nexialys]

can i stress that this is the Pre-Sales forum?... Chit-chat would be a more appropriate place for this...

[Grover]

I cannot stress enough, having control of your data matters more than anything else.

Thanks for your response Zachery. Could you maybe elaborate more on this why control of the data is important?

can i stress that this is the Pre-Sales forum?... Chit-chat would be a more appropriate place for this...

Yes, I was in doubt where to put it but I think the Pre-sales forum is most suited for a question like this. Because it can convince potential vBulletin buyers to go with vBulletin (Suite) instead of competitors.

[nexialys]

hum, not sure if anybody here is willing to hear about ning, as it's not a known product anyway...

your goal is good though...

[Tigurius]

Not to bash the product but Ning looks pretty cheesy... almost as bad as phpfox was. If your only concern is for an integrated shopping cart, you forget how customizable vBulletin is and how many add-ons have been developed for it in the last decade. There are many sites out there i've gone to not realizing it was vBulletin... and I've been using vB for 5 years almost and thought I'd recognize a vB site when I see oen...

[IBxAnders]

Not to bash the product but Ning looks pretty cheesy... almost as bad as phpfox was. If your only concern is for an integrated shopping cart, you forget how customizable vBulletin is and how many add-ons have been developed for it in the last decade. There are many sites out there i've gone to not realizing it was vBulletin... and I've been using vB for 5 years almost and thought I'd recognize a vB site when I see oen...

Agree the flexibility and customization. Actually someone on this forum has my favorite example of a non-vB looking vB site - http://allnurses.com

[Wayne Luke]

Thanks for your response Zachery. Could you maybe elaborate more on this why control of the data is important?

Would you rather create content that you have control over or do you want to create content that is ultimately owned by Ning?

[cellarius]

Would you rather create content that you have control over or do you want to create content that is ultimately owned by Ning...

...and might be lost to you forever overnight if they go out of business?

[Mizuware]

To be honest, Ning is crap. Plus vB wins hands down just on the fact of flexibility.

[Trevor Hannant]

Agree the flexibility and customization. Actually someone on this forum has my favorite example of a non-vB looking vB site - http://allnurses.com

Another example of customisability:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/

[Wire]

So, the reason I am here might help you out with your Ning vs vBulletin comparison. I am a co-admin on a Ning site and starting in July Ning will no longer have free sites. The starting rate is $20 per year, but they cut off so much that we would have to go with the next rate up, which is $200 per year. Since I already have a pretty decent hosting plan with 1&1 Internet for my websites, I am trying to find a piece of software like vBulletin to put up in place of what Ning has. I figure the onetime fee of $200 is worth it compared to a yearly fee of $200… plus, what other crap are they, or a site like facebook going to pull on us, when if I am paying for my own servers, I have a little more control over it all.

[davidmoon]

I've very recently made the move over from Ning to VBulletin. I was paying $600 a year in services. The new plans save me money, but ... frankly, their software is not optimized for building a proper community. Even with the larger communities, activity is no where near big communities built on VBulletin. Ning is more about the member count, and not the conversion of ongoing conversation and member interaction.

I was very thankful for Ning in the beginning, as they featured my site twice - which is unusual. I did find their turn-on-a-dime business decision-making without consulting their customers annoying. But, they've improved over this past year. Frankly, I think their future is short - unless someone buys them out. The recent decision to turn off all free communities this July will be hurtful to their image.

I'm taking a gamble switch ... but I think I'm on the right track.

[davidmoon]

So far, so good. I'm really enjoying vBulletin! Visitors are a little confused, but they are putting in the effort to learn - which is encouraging.