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What is your go to premium software

· 6 months ago · 5 replies · 1K

if you are starting a forum today and want to use a premium software for your forum, what would you choose? I have used only Xenforo and I like it so if I am to start a new forum with a premium software, it would always be Xenforo. I like to use Xenforo for two reasons, one it is easier than most software and it also is cheaper.

5 replies

· 6 months ago

I love Xenforo due to it's simple admin panel and that it's easy to install add-ons on.

· 6 months ago

My favorite is Woltlab Suite these days. It's the cheapest one to get and it comes with a free CMS out of the box. I also like vBulletin, but it's certainly not as good as it used to be. Xenforo is good too, I used to have a Xenforo powered forum but wanted to switch to a different one since it's a bit oversaturated lol. I ended up merging that forum with three others and went with Woltlab Suite.

· 5 months ago

I have used XenForo a lot on the past. It's my first choice, but I am also impressed with Wolt Lab, but I haven't used it yet as an admin.

· 5 months ago

I’ll admit that XenForo has been my favorite for a long time too; it’s clean, fast, and the admin panel is hard to beat. But with Invision Community 5, the gap has closed a lot. IC5 added a ton of quality‑of‑life improvements and modern features that really changed how I look at the two.

These days I actually lean toward IC5. For my actual sites, I’ve been on Invision for quite a while because their full suite gives me everything I need without having to piece together multiple platforms. With XenForo, I’d end up pairing it with WordPress or other tools to get the same level of functionality, and that just adds more moving parts to maintain.

So while I still respect XenForo, and I totally get why people love it, IC5 has become the better fit for what I’m running today and I also perfer their forum now. Plus most of my sites rely on the CMS side, and Invision's Pages app is truly a pleasure to work with.

· 5 months ago

I with the consensus on this one, XenForo is by far one of the best, visually pleasing, and easy-to-use forum software I've come across. It's incredibly modern, can be customized to no end with all the available themes and addons they have available, and there's no learning curve for most new members who join as it's been around for so long. It has gotten more expensive, I remember when the software (self-hosting version) was around $140 a few years ago, now it's up to $200. It's definitely an investment but the capabilities it has is really worth it in my opinion.

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