vBulletin vs. IPB

[Chazel]

To reply to the fact that IPB has more "known" customers than vBulletin:

Upon looking at their homepage, I did heavy searching and only found forums of two of the companies that they listed. One had already switched to another software.

[Comtech]

To reply to the fact that IPB has more "known" customers than vBulletin:

Upon looking at their homepage, I did heavy searching and only found forums of two of the companies that they listed. One had already switched to another software.

Yea, I noticed a few have switched over to an expensive software package. I've heard of this software before, but found it lacking in almost every department.

[MRGTB]

what software would that be

[l SKN l CHRIS]

As a former IPB license holder, I rather enjoyed the ACP, especially coming from vBulletin's rather lackluster acp. Nobody with tech "know-how" will ever have a problem with a nice ACP. If vBulletin 4.0.0 doesn't have a new & much improved ACP, then I will clearly be looking back at IPB for my forum needs. I would be shocked if the majority of vBulletin owners felt the way you do. I remember ACP's like this from the mid 90's!

That is how old the system design is...& that isn't a good sign. I hope vBulletin will be shaping up, continue forth with innovation, they can't afford to sit idly by while their competitors in both the premium and free forum software markets are surpassing them. I am amazed vBulletin developers never thought there was a need to update the system until a large group of license owners commented on how out of date the system was.

vBulletin is the best, but, only by features. The looks department needs a total overhaul & with any luck, we will see a few new hints of life for vBulletin 4.0.0 next year...if Jelsoft will keep a roadmap of some type or at least a developers blog where licensed, & only licensed owners can read. Perhaps a link to the blog inside our member area?

im with you 100% about the looks

[Chazel]

NVIDIA and AMD, the only two displayed by IPB that I could find a forum for, only nVidia is still using IPB. AMD has since switched to FuseTalk.

[Chazel]

I found Sony's EverQuest forum, but I can't tell what software it's using:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/forums/list.m

[MRGTB]

that FuseTalk is like £330 UK money, and it looks pretty basic (nothing special about it). God knows why they made the switch from IPB to that.

[Chazel]

To be honest, if I was a major corporation, my main concern would be looks; not modifications or anything to get people to join - if you're a major corporation you don't have to convince people.

That's probably why they chose Fuse Talk. It could be a PunBB ACP, but as long as it looks good on the outside.

Edit: Wow! Look at FuseTalk's pricing!

[Floris]

To reply to the fact that IPB has more "known" customers than vBulletin:

Upon looking at their homepage, I did heavy searching and only found forums of two of the companies that they listed. One had already switched to another software.

Just because IPS doesn't mind sharing with the world who their customers are doesn't mean it are more 'known' companies.

[SbyD_Salient]

Ipb rules

Vbulletin Admincp is plain

I will never buy it

Thanks for your well considered first post into the debate.

Not getting all the issues people have with either IPB or vB's ACP, how often are you in there anyways? Am a long term Invision user (from version 1.1.1) and have only just started using vBulletin this week. In terms of vBulletin's ACP have asked exactly two questions. Takes half an hour or so to get used to it and away you go. Still tinkering with the settings, some pretty cool stuff in there. Should I press that big red button or not.

1. Invisions permission system is a pain in the but, I prefer vBs.

Try restricting guest access or group access to styles, requires template changes. Should be a standard feature imho.

1. I like Invisions Community Suite, then again look at the 3.7 stuff coming out, its about equal now.

So Jelsoft will be releasing the equvalent to Nexus in the next upgrade?

1. I like vBulletins support, i dont have experience with Invisions tho.

A lot of people are currently complaining about Invision help desk support, vBUlletin's is pretty quick and knowledgable (some people in IPS circles will know exactly what I mean there).

1. I like Invisions WYSIWYG better, but vBulletin's is liked more by my community.

I actually prefer vBulletin's myself. Though I've just noted the list here has re-numbered itself Betcha I get a member reporting that as a bug

1. I like Invisions user profiles (Once again tho vB 3.7 is gonna be amazing)

As stated before they suck the life out of the Universe. I'm running a forum site not myspace.

[l SKN l CHRIS]

In my opinion, once Jelsoft revisits the templates and whole style engine vBulletin will be truly unbeatable.

[Vtec44]

Wow, this topic is pretty popular. I personally prefer to use vB. I also think phpBB default skin is more Web 2.0 than the default skin of my vB, but people forget how easy it is to modify the vB templates and completely change everything without even having to touch the code. Also, you can switch skin in a second.

Years back when I was looking to move away from UBB.Classic, I asked the same question and ended up with vB. IPB is a great software, but I personally didn't click with the support people on their forum. Maybe it's just a personality. I feel a lot more welcome here with the vB community and the staff. I even spent a lot of time helping with support questions because the staff helped me out a great deal, always courteous and helpful. One time, my forum was hacked at 1am in the morning. I requested help and got an answer back within 15 minutes. One of the staff even signed up to my forum to make sure that I'm taken care of. You cannot measure those kind of things, but they are the things that really make me feel that I'm important to this company. So, I never hesitate to renew my yearly subscription and will continue to do so. To me, it seems like this vB community and staff are the icing on the cake.

[MRGTB]

Popular is not the word, it's on fire.

[whitetigergrowl]

Actually I found it really usefull: I've just bought a new licence. And the reason really was in the end this very thread.

Why? Because a discussion here about the product is possible. Because I've got a good impression of old ipb and vb customers and some of the threads have gone really deep into details about pro and cons of the software.

So thank you for that, you'll see more of me and myself in this forum.

Honestly. This is ALWAYS a round and round type of thread. ALWAYS. These same topics have been beat to death in the countless other VB vs. IPB threads here and elsewhere. You can not honestly tell me you could not have done a search on these forums for VB vs. IPB threads and not yielded the same results as its most always the same discussions, points, debates, etc. over and over and over. And not just here but countless other websites that debate this. I swear, its almost a weekly thing here. Like the people here can't get enough of this debate. It's like VB's porn or something. The minute a VB vs. IPB thread goes up, people are all over it like white on rice.

[James McIntosh]

vBulletin is higher in the market, I believe.
IPB went like this.

IPB 1.0 -> IPB 1.1 -> IPB 1.2 -> IPB 1.3 -> IPB 1.3.1 (all for free, and possible to get with a free host, using a multiforum system)

Then they went IPB 2.0.0 (free too), IPB -> IPB 2.1 (paid) -> IPB 2.2 -> IPB 2.3.3 -> IPB 3.0.

You see they turn over to a next version every .3, if vBulletin did this, they'd be up to 6.8 now, and only 4 versions are paid. IPB is still free, practically.

First time in ever vBulletin is getting far beyond their 3.0 state. (mess)