Paying for forum software?

I want to hear your opinions, do you find its right that some companies sell forum software? Such as vBulletin? I mean if someone can create great software like MyBB almost flawless with excellent stability then why should we pay for some type of forum software?

I understand paying to remove copyright trademarks is fine but paying for software as a whole is just completely mind blowing to me. I don't understand why people pay for it when they could get perfect forum software for non other than a penny!

 

Because it's simple...

With Mybb, SMF, Phpbb3...the software is pretty good for it to be free.
But at the same time with Paid Software you are guaranteed quality support.

Rarely ever do i look on IPB, Vbulletin or XF support forums and i see unanswered threads.
I remember using Mybb and later SMF and often seeing unaswered threads.

With free software, there is no obligation to help your fellow person out. You can generally expect quality support from most paid software.

Another thing,
at any given time...these open source free projects can stall or just die out completely.

I mean look at Phpbb3. It hasn't really evolved much since it's release.
Mybb has been talking about their newest upgrade for a year now and nothing substantial has come out.

And as much as I love SMF(which is my favorite free software), SMF 2.0 is even more out dated in most cases.

By paying for software, I can at least be rest assured that bug fixes will come at a reasonable pace and that the company's livelihood IS there software. IPB offers integrated chat software that they host, Ip nexus, Ip downloads and even offer shared hosting with their softwares. Xenforo is one of the most modern software and Vbulletin was one of the leading software based on what it provided.

I personally could never go back to Free software because at the end of the day, developers/3rd party support often is a bit subpar compared to the 3rd party support you receive with paid software

 

That's a pretty fair point you have there, especially the part about the updates. But for support and updates I am not willing to pay ridiculously high prices like $250 when I can just get free forum software with less support. I mean I would gladly use XF if its price wasn't so annoyingly high, maybe $50 and I'd purchase it.

But for now I'll stick with MyBB and continue to use addons and plugins to fix small bugs and exploits within the software.

 

But it's not like you have to CONSTANTLY pay 150-250 dollars everytime you want to renew.

$40 a year for Xenforo(I think) isn't too bad.

and you know you don't have to renew unless you really want to. If the license expires, you're still able to use the software forever without ever renewing.

I think XF beats the competitors with that. I am not sure of Vbulletin's renewal fees but I know with IPB as much as I love the software over xenforo, you have to pay every 6 months with IPB which i think is a bit uncalled for when competitors charge renewal fees once a year. Twice a year feels like they are just trying to make money off you for no reason.

 

Yes there is nothing wrong with buying a forum license, and supporting the developers. I plan to make money off my forum, and a lot of it. I'd expect the same thing if I developed a great forum software.

 

Every single piece of software will have exploits in it. XenFero currently has exploits that people are most likely unaware of, MyBB has barely any exploits since huge forums use it and they never encounter any problems. I wouldn't exactly say your paying for security since free software does that itself.

 

I simply use paid software for support reasons. Or in other words, I don't like relying on volunteers for mission critical stuff, since I've had a LOT of bad experiences with volunteer communities and friends not getting things done quickly enough or being too helpful. So having professional support staff and a ticket system to rely on helps with my peace of my mind.

It also means that employees have a duty to continue working on and improving the product. For open source, life gets in the way, people get bored and move on, people get a new job/go to university/fall in love/etc and spend less time contributing. Or they get into a bunch of personal tragedies like car accidents, death, illness, etc and the project stalls. I've seen this happen all the time in the fan game/ROM hack scene, and it's just as bad in the open source software one. Meanwhile, using paid software means that the people working on it HAVE to continue as long as the company keeps going. If IPB, vBulletin or XenForo's staff fall into personal trouble, then the company can keep going without them (or they have to continue to work to get their pay check). If an open source community falls into trouble, it's all too easy to just give up and disband the team.

Finally, the companies behind paid scripts have to listen to their customers. Okay, they technically don't (see, Internet Brands and vBulletin 5), but a company that doesn't risks going broke because of it. So it means if the customers want more community features or new things, the company provides it regardless of personal ideology. For phpBB/MyBB/SMF/etc on the other hand, a lot of features get turned down because they're 'optional' or 'best left to plugins' or 'unneeded', and the elitists can basically shut up those with different opinions on what's needed. It's why a lot of open source communities and people in the 'hacker' community tend to never get anywhere, because there's an attitude of 'the developer/programmer from the 80s/90s is more intelligent than joe average and shouldn't care for his opinion or demands'. But a commercial operation has to, in order to keep going. So by using scripts like XenForo and IPB, I know that they'll develop based on customer feedback and keep up with the times rather than shut down constructive criticism.

So that's my view on why paying for forum software is fine.

 

I must agree when it comes to support paid software is at a much higher quality but I think a one time payment of $150 is still too much, I could understand where you are coming from if only the payments were not too much otherwise I'd probably use paid software myself.

 

Well some forum software are more advanced, sure mybb is great and free but vB for example is much more advanced and the developers want a pay for their hard work. I'm a huge fan on mybb forums and glad they're free and don't mind that some software cost money because I understand 100%.

 

Understood but my point is if someone can design a piece of software like MyBB and release it for free why should there be such a price tag on vB? I guess the support is a reason but other than that there is really no point to it.

 

Well, thats the developers choice and that's that. Also on vB even though I'm not a big fan of it I've used it before and it's far more advanced in my opinion.

 

Compared to a lot of things, 150 dollars is extremely reasonable.

Heck, want a shock?

Jive Forums originally cost up to $19,950.

Lithium cost about 10 grand a month.

vBulletin, Invision Power Board and XenForo are absolutely bargains by comparison.

 

You must be joking

mybb has a much higher quality then vB5
it has even more essential features and less bugs then vB

 

For my, vBulletin has always been the best software because it's provided me with the functionality/modifications I desire in a forum. I also am familiar with the software. I don't earn a lot of money, but when I realized the license cost is now one-time only and that I could sell off the license if necessary (I think?), I decided to go for it.

MyBB and phpBB are good software and I wouldn't discourage anyone from using it. I'd say that you pay for what you personally value, and I valued vBulletin as a product.

 

I don't think its right if i'm honest, i don't see ipb or xenforo being as good as mybb to be honest, xenforo is a amazing piece of software but is not worth how ever much you pay for it but in a way your paying for good support which again i think is wrong.

 

Free things are great but some one has to pay the bills one way or another. If the paid ones like Vb did their job in a professional manner then a reasonable fee is to be expected and is understood.

What gets people upset is when they have paid good money for a service and receive crap in return (VB5) When customers are criticized for being stupid for purchasing VB5 BY VB staff and support, then it is time to look elsewhere.

While some of the support staff on say VB.org are helpful, others seem to be on an ego trip and appear to be more interested in showing how they can use the big stick than actually helping the customers.

As for security, ANY website can be accessed by those in the know.

 

To me, I don't see anything wrong with paying for forum software. Quality often comes with a price. Although I often see a lot of forums use MyBB, I've also seen a lot of those forums easily get defaced and hacked. Now I'm not saying that since they're using MyBB that they will get hacked or anything, no of course not. Every software has it's cons and exploits. However, since MyBB is probably one of the most popular forum software, mainly because it's free and easy to use for the most part, more people will be able to figure out exploits, if this makes any sense at all. It's like, the more the software is used, the more vulnerable it can be since a lot of forums will use it, and a lot of forums will have their own enemies who may find an exploit that can be used on all MyBB forums .. if that makes any sense again.

 

If you are not a professional or not running a company and just want use a forum software as an additional feature then you can go with the free software but there you have issues and limitations like copyright issues, you can only use the features those are available in the free software. In other case as a professional and company owner you need to use your own identical software and can use as your requirements that can only happen with the paid software.

 

mainly for better support and faster developing