Free vs Paid software

Do you prefer to use free or paid forum software?

I myself like the free software, as it has more of a 'community input' into what goes in, what goes away, what kinds of styles are made, 3rd party add-ons, and the list goes one. As where paid software, IPB and vBulletin namely, charge you for every little change that you want to make to make your forum better and stand out more in this every growing competitive world.

 

I tried SMF, I didn't like it as much as I love vBulletin. So I'll go with paid software on this one. My community has a lot of unique features/plugins implemented - so its great. But I've seen some forums be successful with free software, so I guess, it depends on what you want.

 

I prefer paid software as I feel there is a reason for it being paid as generally it is of much better quality and features, along with better support.

 

Free is always great quality, below is 2 of the best/worse software for forums

vBulletin 4.0 = crap and worthless
Xenforo = Worth its money

 

I prefer paid software whenever possible. They tend to have a much better feel to them along with an easier way of managing things.

 

They also have superior support but the main reason is their features... which attracts people.

 

True, support is superior as well (though I've only ever used vBulletin's support )

 

Xenforo's has been great so far. Brogan (Moderator) is a big help.

 

Hi all, why should we pay for a forum software while we have so good free ones such as myBB and phpBB? Ofcourse the paid ones have some advantages like all that is paid, but you can have a huge forum with a free software.

 

People pay when they have the ability to pay, if you cant afford it than off course there are great free solutions such as MyBB and phpBB. But overall I think Paid software is better, and made of better quality.

 

Depends on the software, in my opinion. However in general, I would go with the free software, I believe the community behind it is much larger.

 

I prefer paid software as it normally seems more stable and some better features. But free software, like you said Patrick is more of a community software, they add what people suggest and have a lot of support.

 

Yea I do agree to that, I actually enjoy the MyBB community much more than the xenforo one.. its more friendly.

 

All I see in the MyBB community is people helping. It's a very nice community to be apart of.

 

Yea it is.. Xenforo is all "Business". There are many rude members there as well.

 

In terms of being a member of either of the forums, I feel that paid far outweighs free.
Regarding the paid software, a staff team is going to feel the need to justify the cost of the forum and as a result work harder and trying to make the forum more successful and improve the community spirit.

 

Yea I agree with you, its the staff's job to get things going as well as like you mentioned improving/maintaining the community spirit.

 

Gotta go with paid software, free software is always great but paid software is generally better. Thats just my opnion

 

I agree to that. The support and quality is always better.

 

While I would prefer free to be better. Paid normally offers better features and support. Although free does not disappoint as often as paid does. Because when free software development goes south, you've typically not put much or any funds into it, as you will most likely do with paid software.

So I guess there are some pros and cons to both.