What are the benefits

[ravenfire]

I currently have IPB with a mambo portal and my yearly license is nearly up on my IPB. I am now trying to decide whether to stick with that or goto VB. Can anyone tell me where VB is better than IPB.

Also, is it easy to integrate the VB with my mambo portal?

Many Thanks

[M3NF]

Ok hard one to answer for mambo itself, thou yes you can intergrate it into the older version 3.0.7, Version 3.5 which is in beta at current will be updated in time i would say to run with it.

vB has alot more option within the admin contreol system and with the newest version 3.5 has improved in many more ways, there are so many extras that IPB need to have as mods to do, I see it as what vB has as standard, IPB needs mods to do, thats if there are mods to do it.

The coding on IPB is mad mainly by one person, so its kinda of slower i feel to get large updates, on vB there is a true company there, they have many staff to work on it, vB is a company, which i see IPB as a new comer to a company feel, and sorry to say feel they not doing to well with it.

IPB limit end users on some issues, which vB do not, you can freely post in vB these type of posts, which is something thats very helpful, but IPB you just get the post closed.

Thou do remember that posting on these forums (IPB + vB) you will get slighty bias views, we thou like to think of ourself as a middle man :) We used IPB and vB and many other forum softwares, and ended with vB, there support will always be there most important part, customer service is just the best, and i think i can say that this is something IPB lack in, support report have taken days with them, while vB is less than 30 minutes most of the time, and normally less than that.

At the end of the day its whats best for you, your forums, and what you want to do with it, vB forums will hold more members than a IPB forum, some of the biggest forums around are vB which IPB is just not up there at the top.

[Derek]

Ya, go with vB. My hosting partner has it and it rocks! I am getting it soon also for my new site. The support is excellant and there are also many mods for it too. You can post on their forum for support too and usually get a response really fast either way. They also release an update within 24 hours is a security threat is found. Like Mat said, the biggest forums use vB because its very stable and can handle more users then IPB can.

Derek

[C_P]

I've used many forums (ask Mat and Stel), if you choose a forum, choose one because you have read about its features and reviews on each site Invision and vB. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

Then, post a couple of support questions at both sites and see which is answered honestly, quickly and with ease of understanding. With all the BS of Invision lying to their customers and changing the game mid stream and the cruddy support, they are a good board and am sure they can support your needs.<o:p></o:p>

My personal experience with both these boards has been great; my personal experience with the support on the other hand has not.<o:p></o:p>

I can honestly say you should read some of my posts including a similar one at vB here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114510 (http://www.vbulletin.com/) I posted some initial questions and concerns before I made the move to vB and each was responded to quickly professionally and they ALL welcomed me with open arms there. I would refer you to some of the same at Invision but they banned me for asking about their support and stating opinions about the lack of response there...<o:p></o:p>

[Quillz]

Where is the proof that vB can hold more users than IPB? Just because vB is more popular doesn't mean it's automatically superior in every way. I'd like to see some sort of statistics, facts, pictures, etc. that show that vBulletin is absolutely better than IPB in every way.

[M3NF]

Where is the proof that vB can hold more users than IPB? Just because vB is more popular doesn't mean it's automatically superior in every way. I'd like to see some sort of statistics, facts, pictures, etc. that show that vBulletin is absolutely better than IPB in every way.

My personal view would also agree that vb can hold more users, mainly because from my person views is when we used IPB for our forums it was causing some issues when it got a 300-400 members, on vB we have had that many without to many issues, again this is something i just found myself, no real facts.

[Quillz]

Alright. I wasn't trying to be a smartass, I was seriously wondering if it was true about vB being better built for large boards. I've found some really big IPBs, though, such as http://www.idolforums.com and http://www.neowin.net that seem to have up to hundreds of users online at times, and there are no problems.

[M3NF]

oh i agree, there are many around, i just found personal taste that vB handled things a little better, and freedom of speak, no offence taken here, we like to have a good rant at each other. :)

[Derek]

http://forums.devshed.com/ uses vB and has 158,826 members. Also http://www.aximsite.com has 93,080 members. There are also many more big sites that have vB.

[Ash]

I prefer IPB as a software, but some of the IPS staff can be abrupt at times.

[wimpie]

there is no way to judge the server load based on the number of registered members a forum contains, only the number of users online and what they are doing is importand.
there is no good way to compare a vB board and a IPB board having both lets say 500 members online, they are on different servers, and can have load balance on the one forum to spread the load between several servers, and the other maybe running on 1 server.
don't forget big forums can use a separate server for images, seperate for the database etc.
only way to make a decent test is doing a live test with both forums on the same server, a week running a vB forum, and a week later the same forum with IPB.
but there is no big community doing such test, its a hard job to let a big forum run smooth, and to experiment with it is out of the question for them..

i think both boards works fine, its a matter of what you feel yourself what is best for you, you can use trial for IPB, but the vBulletin got no trial version, only demo at their site.
for a admin one board maybe easier to manage, but for just members the other maybe more clear, so my main point is, you can't make a choice just based of what others think, they all think different depending on what they use themself ;)

[Derek]

I'm buying a vB license for my new site hopefully next week :D My hosting partner has a license for our support forums for our hosting and it rocks.

[Corvette]

Ravenfire, swich to vBulletin and you'll get hooked. Skinning vBulletin is one of the greatest things in the world, and it's real fun! vB has much more options and skinning options, and you can even customize the Admin CP with their own seperate themes!

Also, you can intergrate Mambo with vBulletin, the offical forums run on vB now so it is possible.

[Derek]

Yeah I bought a license on the 9th and I'm real happy with it. It's worth the money!

[ravenfire]

Thanks I decided to go with VBulletin in the end, can I just ask, the skins on this site are there for 3.0.8?

[wimpie]

no, we are in the process of updating the skins

[Derek]

They will still work with vB 3.0.8. We are just updating them to fix bug fixes that vB fixed...