Paid VS unpaid

3 questions.

I have seen quite a few members in here that stated they would never go with an unpaid forum software.
There's no doubt there is one big difference; paid support *should* always be better. But some of the free forum scripts also offers extended help for a yearly fee, and some forums for free software just offers great support.

But besides the paid support, what do you see as the real big difference in paid VS unpaid?

If you could get just as great support for a free forum software, would that then be an option?

And to those who runs professional forums with free software, are you happy with your choice/support/forum features?

 

Free forum software has improved a lot over the years, because there is strong competition in that market also just like paid software today. SMF, phpBB, MyBB are prime examples. They tend to be much better bug free products now than previously. SMF work hard behind the scene for a long time before releasing a new forum version, making it very stable with few bugs for using right from the off. And when security issues are found they are fast to fix them as well.

Same with the likes of WordPress really, they don't hang around releasing new updates and work fast at doing it. So it depends how you look at it, free doesn't mean bad these days like it used too.

 

1) vBulletin.org
2) The amount of free/premium styles available

Now, my post was more of a vBulletin vs free software since I haven't used IPB for ages, but you get my point (hopefully).

 

If you were happy about any forum software, I asume you would also find even minded members in their forum.

 

I'm not saying I'd never use free forum software. In fact, I DO on a secondary site (though it's mainly just used as an arcade).

But I would never put my MAIN SITE onto anything other than one of the big two, and probably never anything other than vB.

There...I rarely link to my sites! Savour this moment, I'll probably edit the links out later!

 

And the answers to the questions...

There are a lot of big boards running free software. There's also quite a few changing from the "big two" to SMF and maybe other free forum software. And those I know of, were very happy with the change.

 

Thing is, people get used to things. They start off with a script and tend to stay with it. By the time they get huge, presumably, there is a paid tech person supporting the site to take care of things. Boards that size a few hundred $ should not be a big deal really.

The tiny sites can tolerate the major hiccups.

But the medium sized sites rely heavily on support from the script vendors, and cannot afford paid tech staff nor downtime from security issues.

 

Yet you happily run that site on Apache (free) and CentOS (free).

I often see the vB claimed as having the best support on these forums, yet go to a forum for people who run serious forums, for e.g. Big Board Admin - Private, Trusted & Experienced and you often see vB support slated for it's refusal to provide support to an modified board. Often this seems to happen w hen it is perfectly clear that the mod in question has nothing to do with this issue.

As for me, I couldn't afford to run vB, yes the software cost bugger all, the reality is, I highly doubt it could support the level of activity I get which is 700+ users active over a 1 minute period. Certainly not without investing in additional hardware.

 

Good info Bendo.

How big is considered 'big' for the purposes of that site? 1 million posts?

 

Good question, they don't really make it clear, from what I recall it was 500k but I may be wrong.

Of course, the definition of big is open to interpretation but then there has to be a fixed goal post I suppose.

 

Thanks Bendo.

 

Bendo:

 

If I wasn't I wouldn't be running it. Software licenses cost significantly less than hosting.

There again, professional forums, mines a fan site, does therefore is it a professional forum?

 

With "professional", I just mean larger, active forums. What's a large forum... +100k posts?
I'm really just trying to find out why the users of paid software wouldn't go with a software like SMF 2, which has - as far as I am told - just as many features, stability and sequrity.

Until now I saw a lot of posts saying "never free software", but they just can't seem to put a finger on why.

 

For me, there is no gurantee that a free solution will remedy and mitigate security issues. The developers our not bound to act. Support needs are not unequivocally granted.

A paid version guarantees a patch, inclusive of support feedback.

That is my contention for the difference between a free and a paid forum solution.

 

Sequrity holes are usually found when forums are hacked. I asume that goes for paid software as well. From that point, it's a matter of how quick the developers closes the gab and releases a patch.

 

For that site (Big Board Admin) it's 100,000 posts. You do have to apply, get reviewed, and ultimately get accepted in order to get in though.


To answer Alex's question: To me, support isn't that important of a factor. What attracts me to paid solutions are the following:

• Speed of development
• Quality of development and coding, as well as quality developers
• Available third-party support, modifications, styles and extras (both free and paid)

 

Are you a member Nick?

 

No, but when I was really curious about how to get in, I was informed of the process.

AA is my biggest forum, so when it reaches the requirement, you'll know when I'm in. :unhunh: