Is vBulletin too expensive?

I honestly don't feel that vBulletin is worth the $249 it sells for.
Considering you can buy, say, XenForo for $140 including SEO.
vBulletin costs $249 and vBSEO costs an additional $149 to buy.
I understand that "you pay for what you get", but really...do you?
You get "more for less" from XenForo, which is made by VB devs.
Please tell me why vBulletin is valued at such a higher cost, thanks.

 

My opinion might be bias because I've used vBulletin for so long and have become a loyal client . It's like being an Apple fan boy, you get so attached to the company that you automatically trust any product that they deliver no matter what even if the price is somewhat unreasonable. I personally have never looked into the features of XenForo so I can't comment on whether or not their product is better than vBulletin. However, like I said, I've been using vBulletin for a very very long time (at least 5 years) and I can't say that I am not satisfied, it has been a smooth journey for me (maybe a few bumps in the road concerning security but most of them did not affect me as I am always swifty when it comes to updating my forum). Although, compared to other forum soft wares, I believe that vBulletin is priced the highest?

Also remember that vBulletin has always been valued near the price range that you mentioned and just because new competitive forum products like XenForo gets introduced, they aren't going to decrease the price of their product just for that (It kinda makes them look bad if they did).

All in all, I think both products are great and have its ups and downs. vBulletin - my experience and XenForo - from reading other people's review.

 

I don't think it's too expensive. I'm not a fan of vB5 but then again I haven't been keeping up with what's going on lately. More than likely I will invest in vBulletin 5 at some point after 5.1 or so. If you're running a site for profit $250 is a pittance to pay for access to all the vB has to offer.

There's free forum software packages out there so does that make XenForo to expensive?

 

vBulletin lost much of its value when other similar software gained hook systems. It has some nice moderation tools, but I can't imagine investing in it over IPB or XenForo. One would be better off picking a niche forum software or having a custom modification made if there was something specific needed.

 

It is now. It didn't used to be when a license was about 160 pounds and you could renew for fairly cheap, as well as when the software itself was actually decent (and coded well). But with Internet Brands take over, the higher prices and the poor quality workmanship of vBulletin 5, it's definitely too expensive now.

 

I think that it is on the pricy side, but you can do a lot with it. Though I have always stuck by vbulletin so I might be bias. I think that if it were about 49 cheaper a lot more people would buy it. vBSEO isn't worth the money as well IMO. But it is still worth the money especially to what they are lighting up with vB5.

 

vBulletin is the only product that comes with thousands of free product add-ons and template modifications. With it's chief competitors, XenForo and IPB, you pay for everything, in many cases annually. vBulletin also comes with 13 years of customer experience in fixing the product. You really can't put a price tag on that. I won't even get into the fact the XenForo is quite possibly a dead product.

 

Really?

IMO IB takeover changed everything

 

I have forums that have been using vBulletin since version 2.0. Those forums have thousands of members. Imagine for a moment the uproar of changing the software on the membership. Maybe if you're starting from nothing you have options. If you have forums with over 50,000 active members you do what it takes to keep them active. That means keeping the software to which they are accustomed. It means keeping every add-on, every template modification, and every customization. It means keeping the revenue streams by keeping the membership base coming back.

How I feel about the product personally doesn't matter. It's worth every dime whether it's the best product, the worst one, or somewhere in the middle. Whether it's the most expensive, the cheapest, or somewhere in the middle.

 

100% agree, but moving from >= vBulletin 3.6 to vB4 is like moving to an competitor.
Most addons needed a rewrite, the design wasn't the same...
Moving from vB4 to vB5 will break ALL addons and templates, also the UI is COMPLETELY different.

So where's the difference, except the price and lower quality (i mean they're proud of 5000 fixed bugs? https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/sho...Feedback-amp-Discussion?p=2373586#post2373586) Is this something to be proud?

Also check vB4! Do you think it's finished?
They introduced once again many halfbaked features in the last release and now people are waiting for the next vB4 update, but nothings happening...)
Instead of investing some time (IMO 1 week would be enough) to fix the biggest problems, they are ignoring the clients and working on the next major version...

 

Seems daft introducing new features now in vBulletin 4, when support will be getting phased out to make way for vBulletin 5 being the main product in the near future. You'd think they'd put a feature freeze on it from here on in. Should be bug fixes only for vB4 now, with on hands mainly on developing vB5 further towards being a quality product much faster.

 

I'm not upgrading to vBulletin 5 simply YET because of the major interface change. I know we already went through this with vB4 but It took me a long time to get used to the vB4 style and hell I still love the vB3 look more than both vB4 and vB5!

 

I am long time customer of vbulletin although I have switched completely to Xenforo. Still follow the development of vB5 though.

Slow, slower, slowest is my conclusion browsing vb5 forums and its again not a step up from the previous version I fear.

 

I don't believe it's too expensive considering we also have free forum software that's available. It takes money to make money and some prefer spending it on a vBulletin package.

 

Of course you could always build a forum with SMF ...

 

the next phpbb versions are getting really cool

and a new forum star will also arrive in 2013