What made you switch to commercial forum software?

For those of you who, like most of us here, started off using free software but eventually made the decision to move to a package like vB or IBP, what was it that finally convinced you you needed commercial software?

 

Well I naturally prefer commercial software because it is obviously better than any free solution. I knew when I launched my forum that I wanted to eventually switch to vBulletin - it was just a matter of time.

Since my community grew fairly quickly in the beginning, I switched a few weeks after launch.

I think the main reason I am glad I switched is because of the customization. Yeah, free scripts (like MyBB) offer everything that's needed to successfully run a forum, vBulletin just offers so much more functionality and customization capabilities.

 

I decided to move to vBulletin because I really like that forum software I was an member of several sites that used it and decided to check the demo and bought an leased licence.

 

For me it was actually the arcade. I knew it would be really popular, but the only option for phpbb was buggy. I decided to make the switch to vB and vBarcade, and I was right in my guess that the community would love it.

 

I moved from free to paid because paid offered a lot more than free could at the time.

 

When I started with communities, Open Source didn't really exist. You had Freeware which was mostly crap. After being online for a while, the Open Source movement picked up with the initial release of Linux in 1991. However until 2000 or so there were very few Open Source packages that were worth it. Even today many aren't worth the hard drive space to store them one but other packages are doing quite well. By 2000, it was too late and was committed to commercial software.

I use Open Source for some things but too old to completely change my habits. Not that I would want to. Linux makes a great OS for servers but its just not bag of tea for a local workstation. My main problem now with Open Source, whether community software or other software, is that my standards are too high. It really has to impress me to get me to use it. Very few packages have done that so far.

 

What got me going with vBulletin is being a member of communities powered by vB before starting my own board sort of spoiled me. I started my board with phpBB2, then went to myBB and still wasn't happy so bought vBulletin.

For me what drew me to vB was not only the support behind the product but the amount of modifactions available and generally all mods seems to be well support weather by their original author or someone else who takes over. That's not the case with phpBB a good number of the coders seem to be fly by night, and it's a patch work or sites with mods. vB has the vast majority all listed at vB.org with email upgrade notices.

 

I got tired of begging for support in those "free" forum software support forums.

I got tired of modifications that took hours to install.

I got tired of developers having a relaxed attitude about security.

I got tired of modifications breaking things.

I got tired of my pages not getting listed in search engines.

 

Ugh, that's always fun.

 

I was sold on vb based on the level and quality of community involvement I saw and what I heard about the support. I'm a satisfied customer.

 

Ever since I fell in love with vBulletin in 2006, I wanted my own so bad. I became a super moderator on a large vBulletin forum and this was my first time ever experiencing what it was like to have those kind of abilities on anything other than my phpBB forum. It wasn't long before I found out there was even a Mod CP that I could login to, which was my first time seeing what the Admin CP interface would look like. Later, I found out the vBulletin site has a demo system you can use. I tried this, and that was the end of it. I needed vBulletin after I saw how powerful it was. phpBB was pathetic and I knew it. My first vBulletin license and domain (with real hosting) was actually provided to me, all free, from Zoints.

 

Neat story, Savage! Why, (if you don't mind me asking) did you get so lucky to have a free license provided by Zoints?

 

Around that time (August 2006, I believe (because my forum was made in September)), Zoints had a thread on <:nono:>, stating that they were giving away free vBulletin licenses, domains, and hosting, provided you used their add-on and convinced them you were a faithful and dedicated admin via an e-mail of about 20 different questions regarding the forum you indented to make.

This was literally the happiest day of the week for me (:p). I think I even still have the e-mail I sent, sucking up and whatnot, to convince them I was a great choice (I wasn't the only one to get the offer).

It worked, he asked me what domain he wanted me to register, installed the forum, and never came back. He did all of this with absolutely zero enthusiasm, while I was barely able to sit still in my seat. I had no idea what was going to happen, but it turned out the domain was registered for two years (expired last September), and the hosting service never went down or had any problems (nor did the vB license).

I enjoy talking about this because these were happy times for me. And this was also my largest and most prided forum I'm talking about, so it brings back good memories.

 

Great story, Savage! Let's see... when did I decide to go "commercial".

Shortly after creating my first online community (which was music-related), I decided that using Simple Machines Forum was simply not cutting it. At the time, it was a feature-less, horribly designed script that was a pain in the rear to manage (and deal with). I then decided to take a look at an up-and-coming forum script that was similar (feature-wise) to vBulletin. I am, of course, referring to MyBB. After using this for a bit, I still was not satisfied. While it was a great script, it was simply not fulfilling my needs (or those of the community, for that matter).

That's when I found vBulletin. I immediately purchased an owned license, uploaded all of the necessary files, and installed the license. I was in heaven - I had never seen a forum script that was so beautiful. So clean. So professional. Keep in mind, this was years ago - vBulletin was beautiful even back then.

Since then, I've purchased many owned vBulletin licenses in addition to the IP.Board licenses that I've held over the years. Don't get me wrong: free forum scripts are quite nice. I just prefer to use those that are of commercial-grade.

And now, I'm addicted to both (vBulletin and IP.Board). :devil:

 

Ugh, the worst part of this is when you post your problem, half a dozen people chime in to say "me too", but no one can solve the problem.

 

I started my first website about six years using phpbb as the forum software - at the time it did the trick that was needed - at that time I was 17 more or less had no money and was doing everything on the cheap.

After investing so many hours in hacking phpbb and setting up my website some hacker came in no more than two weeks later to hack it. I decided not to waste the time rebuilding everything.

In late 2006 I dislocated me neck while playing sport and at first was told I may never walk again, after two months in hospital and painful physio therapy I walked out of hospital (despite still being in a neckbrace for another 6 months).

Upon hearing this news and the fact I would never play sport again being a Sports nut and wanting to be involved in sport I started planning my sports network, it took two years of planning the website and I knew from day date I wanted to have a forum and the best software there was.

After looking at numerous boards like this I decided vbulletin was the way to go and brought an owned license this year for when my site launched. Although it is not overly successful at the moment I have had many sporting officials comment on how good it looks and how they think it can be a success and will support us in anyway they can.

 

I actually started out on IPB in 2000 or 2001. I think it was still 1.1 or something like that. Either way, they were free back then of course.
Then just before 2.0 was released I left the only forum I administered (or is it administrated?) at the time.
When I opened my next (and so far biggest) forum, I would have liked to go with IPB, but they had turned commercial and I didn't have the funds for a license.
So I went with phpBB which I had a little experience with from helping other forum admins.
I wasn't really impressed, but I didn't know of any forum software that could compare.
After a while I had the chance to go commercial. I made the mistake of going to IPB (2.1 then 2.2). Basically I had the choice of either IPB or vB and I think IPB was a little cheaper back then and it was "the devil you know."
But I had the feeling that addons weren't supported as well as they could have been. In addition my main forum was bilingual and I felt that IPB and especially addon authors weren't doing much to facilitate that sort of thing.
Then there was the problem with support. I live in Germany and so office hours in the USA weren't exactly office hours here and calling support was pretty expensive. I also had a number of "can't help you there and can't tell you who can" moments with support and once even a rude support agent.
So after a while I noticed more and more the strengths of vBulletin when compared to IPB. The addons, the community, the support...
So I went ahead and switched.
I bought my license at vBulletin-germany.com and I gotta say that support has always been world-class.
And the community of coders (be it on vBulletin.org or the German or the other international sites) is incredible.
The addons are very well supported for the most part and it's just a whole different world from phpBB and IPB (yes I did just put these two in the same sentence - deal with it lol).

So yeah, that's my story. I'm Paul and I'm a forum-aholic. :lol:

 

I love reading these stories!

 

I'm going to break the norm here!
After years and years of using vBulletin, I decided ,after the release of vBulletin 4, to go back to using an open source free forum script.
I am so glad I did because , in my opinion, MyBB is just superb and now I use the money saved on each license promoting and customizing MyBB for each project.

 

...