vBulletin vs Invision Power Board?

For this I would like to say vBulletin. I love the way of its working and everything.

 

I own both licenses, I enjoy both software but vb has more to offer.. for example:

Blogs come integrated in vb where as IPB requires you to pay 75 dollars for theirs

 

I own both as well. Here is a brief overview that currently stands out to me on the two and what they have to offer besides the forum platform itself. I've posted my reasons in their forums over the years. So, I won't go into great details here.

They both lack notifications of comments in their apps. This is the biggest downfall for both of them, IMHO. End-users want to be notified of content relating to them on a personal level.

For me, I find VB stylevars system and files a down right pain in the hiney. Took forever to take out all the extra shadows, pillows & puffy stuff, etc. to work with something clean. Way too much to edit out!
As for IPB, I work with one main css file and the globalTemplate. Huge difference when trying to make your own style or trying to integrate your site's overall style into the forum. It's just easier for me.

VB gallery is excellent for end-users & profiles, but not so much for a shared community gallery. End-users will appreciate the permissions, the ease of use, etc. right from their profiles.
IPB gallery is excellent for a shared community gallery, but not so much for end-users & their profiles.

VB Blog works fine.
IP.Blog works fine. But, IP.Blog allows importing of rss feeds, group blogging, etc.

VB CMS is good for just an articles system.
IP.Content is more powerful than the article system it includes. There is just so much more you can accomplish and create with it. Custom databases, custom pages, custom styles per everything, etc.

VB Downloads...N/A. You must use a third party.
IP.Downloads is pretty slick. With the ability to use IP.Nexus with it, there's no comparison.

VB Store...N/A. You must find a third party.
IP.Nexus is full of features. From selling ads, to selling tangible goods, to selling digital files in the IP.Downloads, to using it as a support ticket system, and to using it to sell webhosting packages.

VB Groups are pretty decent but very basic. The permissions on them are great. They include a gallery, forum, etc. They lack integration with the calendar.
IPB Groups....N/A. You must find a third party.

VB Profiles allow the end-user to customize the style of their entire profile.
IPB Profiles allow the end-user to customize the outside background only.

As far as finding a third party developer, there are many out there that offer a lot of great addons to help enhance VB & IPB.

There are more things that stand out & more to consider. These are the main ones off the top of my head.

 

What do you mean? I get notification of comments for most every application we have. Gallery images, Blog Entires, Articles, My Profile, etc.

https://skitch.com/ryanashbrook/ebwjg/user-cp-admin-addict

 

Ryan, I really didn't want to post details here because they are already posted on IPB in several threads.

But, because you asked what I meant...here are just a few I found within minutes of looking. There is a lack of some notifications that customers feel are important.
(Add the board url "community.invisionpower.com" before the topic links. I don't want to post a lot of links here.)

Calendar:
/topic/272822-calendar-moderator-notification/
Blog:
/topic/358353-suggestion-notifications-on-blog-comments/
Gallery:
/topic/358354-suggestion-notifications-on-image-comments/
/topic/361737-ip-gallery-its-driven-us-away-from-ips-to-the-competition/page__st__80#entry2278125
Etc:
/topic/360812-comment-notifications-put-it-in-the-core/#entry2255461
/topic/350144-suggestion-notifications-for-ipdownloads/#entry2188689

 

vbulletin is easy to moderate but loads slow compared to IPB.

 

I was just curious as to what you meant, was all.

 

I absolutely LOVE IPB. Such an awesome software.

I am playing around with VB for a new forum(deciding between it and Xenforo) and the admin panel for VB is just such a hard experience to grasp.

As of right now, I'll say that IPB is the best so far but only because i have only been working with vbulletin for about 2 weeks vs the few months i've had with IPB

 

Slight bump here, but I'd definitely go with IPB out of the two. I've wanted a license for a long time and recently bought my first one. I really can't fault the software at all. When I was with vB4 when it was first released I always felt like I was missing that extra "something" without knowing just what it was.

 

I'm preferring IPB currently due to the poor quality of support of vBulletin and their horrible new policies.