Traditional Forums Software: XF or IPB?

IPS is very easy to use and the Admin Panel is also probably the easiest one out there.

As for the best board, well, that depends. They are both good, one might prefer Xenforo, another might prefer IPS. You need to use both and choose the one that fits best your needs.

 

Have you considered discourse? It's free and super easy to use. Has nice moderation tools and it great on mobile. It's simple so you don't have to worry about some box on the sidebar, etc. Just add your logo and start to content and have discussions.

You can get cheap digital ocean hosting and one-click install. A ton of people use the software - I see it everywhere.

They have a huge responsive community to help with issues.

Discourse - Civilized Discussion

Discourse Meta

Xenforo and IPB are great. I own several IPB licenses and 1 Xenforo license. If you don't think Xenforo and IPB are getting complex... they are. Plus you have to start buying plugins for stuff which works sometimes and doesn't others.

Discourse from what I've seen really provides what a community needs.

I don't run discourse because it's not advert focused, which is good for you because you don't want that.

Downside, you can't convert discourse to IPS or Xenforo currently if you change your mind in the future.

Good luck!

 

Try Discourse or Flarum.

I have small forums on Discourse, super easy and full pack with features.
Flarum is lightweight, features are basic and can be hosted on CMM.

 

The way Discord, Telegram, and the likes are popping up, becoming popular and successful... means you'll be using Xenforo for about 3 more years.

 

I'd go with vb.

N1CK{C4N0} on Twitter

 

I think you've made a good decision. As the spiritual successor to vBulletin, I think you'll find it the most agreeable for your needs in the long run.

I've been running it for six years now (after having been on vB for 12 years) on my large forum and while it's not perfect and doesn't do everything I want, I have been very happy with it.

 

Final thoughts...

From what I see, IPB focuses development on its larger customers leaving some obvious fixes that smaller customers request ignored vs. Xenforo who just tries to improve the product overall with focus on all customers large and small.

IPB is more modular. Meaning, I don't even have to purchase the forum app if I don't want too. When you purchase IPB you must purchase CORE and 1 app. If you would decide to purchase CORE and COMMERCE, you can. I have several licenses which don't include the forum app. I use another larger app that a developer created. So, if I wanted let's say just a links directory, I could purchase CORE and COMMERCE from IPS and the Links Directory from a developer in the marketplace. Or if I just wanted to run a blog, I could purchase CORE and BLOG and nothing else. More options to choose from with a fully modular layout.

More scripts are moving to being modular. Not to say that this is something you want for your use case, but I believe it's more advanced in thinking of the script overall. I don't believe you can buy Xenforo without the forum.

Xenforo is a great script with plenty of people who recommend it. If a forum is all you want, it'll serve you well.

 

Too add my 2p, I use IPB for a <small-ish> 5m+ post site. I looked very hard at converting to XF a while back 24+months.

Mostly for the support and approach to it, also the approach to the software, i.e. XF didn't write files to disk... IPB I feel I have to have a tussle each time I ask for help, so I don't that often...

I also tend to run mod free after a bad day with VB-seo many years back. XF would of meant a few mods, possibly... IPB has a lot of features and a lot of IPB-isms.

For example I have to update the store template every time to change the postal address from the right to the left. The little things. In context it is a very little thing

As mentioned above a few things they are just not interested in sorting. S3 storage is on a public bucket, making it private behind cloudfront only is bugged, I sent them a fix and they binned it.

This is also a handy resource, impartial-ish as members are from many sites of different brands and scales: The Admin Zone.

I also looked long and hard at Woltlab. There isn't a huge amount of 'english' support/topics but the actual software looked dam solid and 'traditional' in appearance if not underneath. Probably the most performant to be honest.

I discounted discourse. I am a ruby developer and use ember, i.e. what discourse is built from. There wasn't a tool to migrate, there is now. Arguably I could of done that too, but it's too radical for my members, 17 to 90years.

If it helps IPB are about to release a mobile app. No idea if XF are. Tapatalk - avoid it imho. Devices web rendering is good enough now and it sounds like you have a designer on board who cares for the details too.

The convertors are great, if you stick to the core, i.e you can't migrate paid subscriptions.

I was spinning XF up on docker last week, maybe I'm thinking about it again

 

I have to say there hasn’t been anything that I couldn’t hire a coder to change about XF. The developers have made it very easy for coders to code addons. What about XF couldn’t be changed??

 

I'd also add, start of easy. I go through phases, the more mods/changes you make, the more hassle it is to upgrade.

A sec patch might be held back due to a mod not supporting it.. I mean I'd uninstall the mod first, than hold the sec patch back.

I think I'd roll with XF now, if I had a blank canvas. Anything you don't know today, you'll have it figured out by tomorrow.

If the community is with you, they will tolerate a change.

I also basically have a put up or shut up, I do phrase it better, constructive criticism welcomed, the rest ignored.

I've swapped three times over 16years, each time is a large outcry then it finds it's feet and the 'better' for it mood emerges.

No one likes change, but change is the only constant in this world.

I'd echo @eva2000, finding the right community to support you in your admin/how do I helps. I found that adminzone most helpful while I was swinging the bat between XF and Wolt etc. I still in part wish I'd had the courage to Just Do it.

Throw the dart, not everyone will like it, they will either come around or do something else. Get the community on board, get your leaders or key participants on board in the test env. I actually have a public lic for my test site so I can show users significant changes, dump and restore the db, they can login and experiment on there own familiar content/ experience. If only a handful do, there feedback will forewarn you of the larger impact.

HTH.