vBulletin vs Invision Power Board?

Well lets talk about vBulletin vs Invision Power Board in this thread.
Wich one do you prefer?
Why do you prefer that one?
Do you hate one of thoose?
Why do you hate it?

And everything else you can discuss about thoose two like cooming versions and why to choose one of them.

 

I prefer IPB. I've always felt that it is cleaner than vBulletin and just more refined in general. vBulletin, on the other hand, is a mess.

 

I feel the exact opposite. I love vBulletin but i can't stand IPB. However the new IPB3 is atleast nice looking at first sight. Haven't looked into it much more but still i think vB is looking better.

 

I think my choice is clear with my current employer.

Not a great fan of tables but the gloss and style can be changed easily enough. The power under the hood though, that is why you purchase web application software. Even if I didn't work for Jelsoft, I don't think that IPB just has what it takes for the long haul. At least at this time and what I have used.

In the end though it all comes down to choice.

 

I actually started out on IPB1.1 back in the day. Even before phpBB or any other.
By 2.0 I was getting a little disapointed both by the fact that they were going propriatery and by the development. Sure it looked better than 1.3 in a way, but in another way it didn't (am I making sense? probably not). So I switched to phpBB and then after a year or two I went for vBulletin. And I gotta say - yes, at first the vB admin CP is a bit overwhelming.
But I find it a lot better structured than IPB's. Late last year I had the chance to look at IPB 2.3 (I think) when installing it for a friend and I gotta say, things haven't changed much.
I remember thinking that placement of some of the navigation points in the admin CP just didn't make any sense to me at all. I would always have to look in 2 or 3 places before I found what I was looking for.
With vB I didn't have that problem, not even in the beginning.
I plowed through the main vB settings page - which is big. But then I knew what I could and could not do there. Everything is very straight forward.
As for the front end, look & feel I also prefer vB.
What I also like is how easy it is to install Plugins and Add-Ons. I was shocked to see last year when I was installing IPB that in order to install a hack/mod/plugin you actually had to edit core-files. That is just so phpBB.

So yeah, my choice is vB hands down. Even though I started out on IPB and liked it a lot back then. I think that vB simply moved in the better direction over the last 5 years.
How I will feel about this after the new licensing plans are announced, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see.

 

I LOVE vBulletin. I love the way it works and everything. But I LOVE the way IPB looks. Hence why my forum is running vBulletin but looks like IPB.

I win?

 

To be honest, I can't make a clear choice between the two of them. I use both scripts extensively, and they both have fantastic interfaces, powerful administrative tools, and excellent feature sets. I've always preferred the look of IPB's administrative interface, but there is something about vBulletin's front-end look that is wonderful.

But like I said, I can't choose just one of them.

 

The first forum I ever joined was powered by IP.Board. I was used to it and loved it, not that I knew much about forum scripts other than phpBB which I later used myself on my first forum. Then I came across my first vBulletin forum and absolutely hated it because it used the horizontal postbit which I had never seen before. I don't think I even knew it was the forum script, I figured it was something the forum did to be different. But after I got used to that it went all uphill from there with vBulletin and I haven't looked back since.

 

vBulletin all the way.

vBulletin is highly reliable and its performance is like no other.. A prime example is Offtopic.com

Another great feature of vB that IPB lacks is the ability to add fonts. In vB, you can add any font that you'll find on the web, unlike IPB where you come with a default pack of fonts and cannot add any extras. I know fonts are not an important factor, but afterall, it is something IPB lacks.

In a nut shell, vB has speed, support, a more innate Administrator's Control Panel, modificating the forums are easier, and the price. IPB is way too expensive for its limitations.

In the long run, though, the inquirer must choose the software that best fits its needs.

And if it's IPB, so be it. But vBulletin is still the better buy.

 

What about the Inision Power Board Back-End with vBulletin Front-End? Would that be anything for to use? They could call it Invision vBulletin Power :p

 

I find vB is awesome. That's one of the reasons why AA is awesome!

 

We are awesome, aren't we?

In response to John: something like that would be superb. That script would be quite the powerhouse.

 

To bad it is never going to happen. But soon we might get an new Admin Control Panel in vBulletin so it doesn't need to happen. It would not be in the next version vb4 but next release after that one it might come

We can only hope.

 

I'm not saying that I don't like vB's current administration panel, but visually, it does look a bit "old" when compared to Invision Power Board's current appearance. Both back-ends are equally as powerful.

 

vBulletin vs Invision Power Board, is about like asking:

ford vs chevy

chevy vs dodge

dodge vs ford

apples vs oranges

superman vs the hulk

thor vs hercules

doom vs quake

doom vs left 4 dead

fortress forever vs team fortress 2

cats vs dogs

men vs women

this is a topic that can be debated almost forever.

But my personal opinion:

Toyota > all others
doom > quake or left 4 dead
thor > hercules
Fortress forever > team fortress 2
apples = oranges
Women > man
Vbulletin > IPB

 

I prefer vbulletin when it comes to styling but there's two elements of invision power board I think surpasses vbulletin and that is the permissions system and the multi-moderation feature.

I've never come accross a script that anyone developed that comes close to the multi-moderation feature which is a shame and surprising.

Community wise I prefer the IPB community hands down. They somehow embrace the graphics side than vbulletin do when it comes to the official forums but purely on overall software it has to be vbulletin.

 

Shelley, great post! The permissions system of IPB is great as is the multi-moderation feature. However, I am sure the vB guru (Paul M, in my opinion) can make a hack..

Also, you're right about the graphics side. The default vB style is quite bland and old-looking as opposed to IPB's modern, more sleek default style.

Great post, again; better said than done!

 

Moderator Tools in MyBB are quite similar to IPB's multi-moderation feature. In fact, I'd say it's more extensive than IPB's multi-moderation feature, because it allows creation of both thread and post tools. It's definitely quite a useful feature.

 

I'm surprised I didn't say that!

That just goes to show Justin S. IS a MyBB Guru!

 

Considering I created the mock-ups for most of the 1.4 ACP, wrote the wiki documentation for the Admin CP, and updated all of the wiki documentation for the front-end, I think it's safe to say that I know the ins and outs of MyBB's interface.