Do you have an owned or leased vBulletin licence? Explain why. I have owned licence because leased is just expensiv.
Leased is more cheap than the owned license, ya know. However, the owned license has a great value. You don't have to pay license renewal fees or any thing.
If your planning on having the licence only 1 year then yes its cheaper but if you planning on having it more then 1 year then it is not cheaper.
Leased licenses are cheaper only if you don't intend to have a license for more than three years. I charted it out on vBcom a while ago. I'll see if I can find the post. If you intend to renew for more than 3 years, an owned license is cheaper.
When I bought the couple that I have, they were much cheaper than they were now LOL . But yeah owned is the way to go. Plus, with a leased license when its up you have to deal with removing it from the domain and all.
I started my site by buying a leased license. At the end of the year when it was obvious the site was gonna be around for a while, I bought an owned license.
I always recommend that people purchase the owned license. I have since the dawn of vBulletin. Its much easier to manage for the user, it can be resold and/or transferred. Just a better overall license before you even get into cost. Over two years, the Owned license is $20.00 more than the Leased if your renew on time. For your third year, you are saving $60.00 per year with the Owned License. So yeah, Owned has a higher upfront investment than a leased but it costs less over time. Now... Say your site bombs and you want to sell the license. With an Owned license you can sell it. Third-party Owned license range between $100 - $140 dollars. You just recouped most of your initial investment. With a leased license, you cannot recoup that because they cannot be transferred. If you sell your site, the new owner will have to buy a vBulletin license in their name. Or the site gets really popular and some VC comes in and offers you a lot of money for it. With an owned license you can transfer the single license, even if you have multiple licenses in your customer account, and they are happy and you get to retire. With a leased license, you would either need to purchase a new owned license for them to keep them happy or explain why they have to buy a new license.
Owned: We have enough to deal with every month with our business to worry about paying some misc bill. So I either buy a lic when I can or pay well in advance for something. As it stands, all those misc site and hosting fees are paid up for the next 5-7 years. So all I have to pay is the electricity bill and misc site work with my IT guy.
I would never get a leased license. I'm a forum addict, so it seems pretty understandable that if it isn't one forum, it's another that will be running on the best script ever. So yeah. Owned it is. Besides, I want to plan on my communities lasting a few years, not failing.
I'd buy an owned license even if I wasn't sure the forum would succeed; you could always use it on another site or sell it.
First of all I can not believe how many polls are on this part of the website lol seems like hundreds - secondly I go for an owned license as I plan to be around alot longer than 1 year
I started with a leased license only because if it bombed I would only be out $80. When I first started I didn't realize I could resell a license if I didn't want it. From there my second license I bought leased but converted it to owned before 60 or 90 days (I forget) so it cost the same as just buying an owned license outright. Then I sold the second one for a steal to a buddy of mine but I wound up buying another leased license. Somewhere down the line I sold another one and bought another second hand license.
Likewise. I do have an expired leased license in my members' area, though. Leased licenses will stay there, even after expired, which is nice incase you want to renew it (instead of buying a new one).
