Hari's Corner

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vBulletin admin panel demo review

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Tue, Jan 3, 2006 at 19:05 IST (last updated: Fri, May 8, 2009 @ 17:36 IST)

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I recently went window-shopping for a new bulletin board solution for LiteraryForums.org as I indicated in this article. Although I have chosen MyBB as the forum solution for now, I have been looking with great interest to vBulletin. For those who are not familiar, vBulletin is a professional forum software written in PHP with MySQL as the backend database. It is powerful, jam-packed with features and is an absolute delight for any forum administrator. It's admin panel is one of the best in the business. I had also tested out IPB admin demo and quite frankly vBulletin comes out as the better of the two by quite a distance. In fact, with vBulletin, almost every aspect of the forum can be configured and gives complete power to any forum admin. I guess many people will find it hard to resist such a rich offering. The only catch is that it comes at a price tag of USD 160 which is pretty hefty if you are running a non-profit website. Is it worth the price? I think it is. But whether you will use all the features that are available is another question you need to seriously consider. It will take you a couple of days just to navigate through the admin panel and get a feel of it. Is definitely not for the technically challenged although you do get support through their forums and also telephone (for US and Canada customers). To use it effectively though, I guess you need to have a clear sense of how it works. It definitely requires a bit of learning unlike phpBB which can be mastered within an hour.

One of the first things that I liked was its templating and theming system. Unlike phpBB it stores the templates in the database and it is easily editable without having to use FTP to upload files. It also has an easy to use theme editor with integrated colour controls to quickly select commonly used colours for CSS elements. This allows you to quickly get a site to look the way you want it to.

I glanced through the permissions system and I must say that one will quickly find that permissions are a lot more configurable than the rather elementary system used by phpBB. It will take time however, for you to get the settings right simply because of the array of choices available. I was also confused by the "user ranks" and "user titles" system. To many forum admins, there isn't much difference between the two. Again, I only had a brief look at the usergroups system and it will take a bit of time for anybody to get used to.

All in all, I was thoroughly impressed by this complete package. I didn't go through each one of the options because I simply didn't have the time but I will probably go back to give it another go simply because it impresses one at a mere glance. It holds a lot of promise for forum admins by providing such a rich array of features and there might be a time when LiteraryForums.org can probably migrate to vB. But for now, I cannot see the justification for paying the price of USD 160 (for the owned license. It doesn't make sense to purchase a leased license which costs USD 85 for a year. After the year is up you have to stop using the software or pay for another license which is quite a ridiculous thing to do considering the price).

Final thoughts? Even if you can afford it, it might be worthwhile considering the pros and cons carefully before you take the plunge. For a large forum vBulletin will definitely score because of its admin features. But if you are still new to the business of managing a forum, you might prefer a simpler system to start with. The advantage is that you don't lose much out of starting off with free solutions like phpBB or Simple Machines. You can always migrate later if you find the need.

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5 comment(s)

  1. I agree, 160USD is far too high for a non-profit. Especially one which generates very little revenue. Maybe if there were a way to generate revenue, some sort of deal with a publishing house perhaps, then it may become worthwhile.But definitely something to keep in mind for the future.

    Comment by ray (visitor) on Tue, Jan 3, 2006 @ 21:45 IST #
  2. Especially since there are some quite good alternatives in the form of free Bulletin boards like SMF and MyBB. :)

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Tue, Jan 3, 2006 @ 22:07 IST #
  3. Exactly. Go free for now. :)

    Comment by ray (visitor) on Wed, Jan 4, 2006 @ 02:08 IST #
  4. ^^ As above!Both MyBB and phpBB are very nice (and free), so I think that unless you're looking for the power and extra functionality offered by vBulletin there's not really much point. And - personally - AdSense and other affiliate programs like CJ.com don't generate a lot of revenue unless you've got a lot of traffic, so it's best to stay free until LiteraryForums really picks up ;)

    Comment by J_K9 (visitor) on Wed, Jan 4, 2006 @ 02:35 IST #
  5. Yes, you're right! Thanks for your opinions J_K9 and Ray! :)

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Wed, Jan 4, 2006 @ 08:07 IST #

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