Considering switching from Forumotion to VBulletin....

[raiderneal74]

Hello,

I recently built a forum using the free software Forumotion. However, I'm considering purchasing VBulletin, as I assume there are some advantages with using this software.

I am building this website as part of an online presence for our in-house magazine "Colorado Outdoors." Additionally, we are a state agency (Colorado Parks and Wildlife), so I wanted to find out if there are any special licenses or restrictions required for gov. use.

Also, I like the look of the site I've created with Forumotion:
http://coloradooutdoorsmag.forumotion.com/

Is this look, or something very similar, possible with Vbulletin. I like having the images for icons and the header at the top.

I guess I'm trying to determine if I need to use Vbulletin to avoid hacking, security issues that may be associated with using a free site. I assume you can host your forum directly with Vbulletin??? I'm also interested in hearing if there are any other advantages as well.

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions,

Jerry

[Hartley]

Hi there, your forum looks really great !
I'm not sure that you have more security with a paid software, or more advantages.
I guess you should review your choice, unless if you have good reasons to do this. Forumotion's definitely one of the best and, above all, build a new forum with an existing one is a really hard work

[[email protected]]

hi i started on forumation and it was the worst thing i ever done yes it never went down on me but it is so limited to what you can do compared to getting your own software.
allso if your goin to change to it sooner than later as they wont give you a database backup as i found out when i moved i lost all my posts and members so had to start from scratch and get my members to sign up again,if you move you`ll need to get your own hosting package,install vb on your server then set it all up,you can customize the look of the site and icons as on most forum software. i moved to mybb software when i moved from forumation witch is good for free software but i`m moving to vbulletin the end of next month. how i see iit alot of big forums are on vbulletin so it must be worth the cash,check out the vb demo and you`ll soon see how much more you can do on vb than forumation just from that.
i learned the hard way that if your starting a forum do it right the first time,get your host and software so you`ve got total control over your site