August 26, 2011 | Posted in:Reviews and Links
Hello guys, this month we decided to review various community and forum softwares, but due to lack of time we were only able to review vBulletin, Xenforo and IP. Board. The review is independent without any interference of any type of external factors. All the softwares / scripts has been tested in the same server and environment. We tested the softwares without any additional plugin or mod, thus we tested only the lastest version plain installation under similar environment.
[box type="red"]vBulletin vs Xenforo vs IP. Board[/box]
| vBulletin | Xenforo | IP.Board | |
| Latest Version | 4.x | 1.0.4 | 3.1 |
| Price | Publishing Suite: 285$ | 140$ | Standard: 149.99$ |
| Forum Classic: 195$ | Business: 349.99$ | ||
| Mobile Suite: 199$ | |||
| Demo | vBulletin Demo | Xenforo Demo | IP. Board Demo |
| Documentation | Excellent | Excellent | Very Good |
| Installation | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Community Support | Very Good | Very Good | Good |
| Mobile Interface | Yes (via Mobile Suite + 3rd Party + Ap) | Yes (via 3rd party product or App) | Yes (via 3rd party product) + App |
| Styling Ease | Excellent | Very Good | Very Good |
| Addons / Plugins / Mods | Excellent | Very Good | Good |
| Admin Interface | User Friendly (**) | User Friendly (****) | User Friendly (*) |
| Front End | User Friendly (***) | User Friendly (****) | User Friendly (***) |
| Security | Very Good | Excellent | Very Good |
| Forum Style | Flat + Threaded | Flat | Flat + Threaded |
| Future Prospects | **** | ***** | *** |
| Chat | Yes | Yes via Plugin / Addon | Yes via Plugin / Addon |
Thus from the above table we can easily conclude that if you need a simple community forum with less licensing cost and most of the available features then Xenforo is the best choice. In our test, Xenforo has the best Admin Interface which is very user friendly, although vBulletin has loads of features in their backend but they might be confusing for a novice. Thus if you are a pro and has a dedicated team to manage your forum then go for vBulletin, but if you are a person living in ease like me then Xenforo is the way to go.
Xenforo has the fastest loading time while vBulletin was slowest of all with default theme and no addons, mods or plugins.
In this test we did not compared the features of the softwares because all the products have all the minimum required features, although these can be enhanced by using addons and mods. vBulletin has a wide variety of mods available in the market, with Xenforo in the run. As Xenforo is new in the forum market, I can assure that Xenforo has a bright future with loads of addons and mods coming in the market.
[box type="blue"]In nutshell, combining the features, price and ease of use, Xenforo secures the first place with vBulletin chasing at second and IP. Board at third. Don’t forget to share your experiences as a user or as an admin of any site that runs on these community forum softwares.[/box]
Sarami
Admin is the Founder and Administrator of Tech Blog. He love to explore the tech world. He is a part time dedicated blogger, coder and designer of Xinz.
Jenny
August 26, 2011
Thanks for the share Ashish. I am with vbulletin from many years, I am using it early from version 3. Although I am quite comfortable with vbulletin, but xenforo seems more promising now. I will have a look into it. I hate vbulletin only because of its cost
Vinay
August 27, 2011
Xenforo is sleek and better than others…
vienteePrielm
December 2, 2011
How to buy Host Gator web hosting, does it have any coupons freshly, and are they valid?
christian louboutin
March 16, 2013
Does your site have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d like to send you
an e-mail. I’ve got some ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it grow over time.
JakeyT
April 6, 2013
important. cheers
michael
April 6, 2013
Build it up!
Jennifer Rofl
April 6, 2013
Awesome!
Ricky Cheeze
April 6, 2013
I keep having issues with vBulletin and now I am changing. Thanks.
AustraliaChick1
April 6, 2013
bookmarked it.
ArmyWify
April 6, 2013
NAW VB is better
Noe
August 16, 2013
i hope viesa includes a good time from the kennel! i would die
if i had to leave my baby that long