Switching to XF from IPS - Advice

[Dopply]

Hey all,

I'm pretty set on a decision, but I could use a little advice. I'm going to reboot a long-time community from scratch (for various reasons... this community is 13 years old!). We switched to IPS ten years ago but with the reduced size and all the add-ons, it doesn't make sense to continue using this very bloated forum software that isn't cheap to renew.

I've tried several free forums to switch to (as noted in another thread, phpbb3 is the best of these) but my goodness, it's quite hard to go back to these, haha. I demoed XenForo and it's just amazing. The problem is the cost, of course, but I figured the renewals and whatnot against going with XF fresh:

• I have the blogs and pages addons. This brings renewal to 50 dollars every six months, a pretty huge price increase over XF.
• I also have the Videos addon from devfuse, a must for our community. This is 20 dollars to renew every six months as well.
• I had a custom plugin developer on staff who made an Awards, Shop, and dozens of other plugins for free out of love and hobbyist practice. I need replacements for these, which will run somewhere around 70 bucks plus 40 dollar renewals.
• Every comparable plugin I need for XF (Media Gallery + Core, Dragonbyte Shop) is far cheaper to renew. The only problem is the upfront cost.

Would switching to XenForo be prudent, or should I keep the same IPS license and enjoy what I already have, since it's worth so much? I am willing to sell my IPS license but I gotta make more posts here first (despite registering forever ago ). Thanks for any advice.

 

[Kyrie]

Hey all,

I'm pretty set on a decision, but I could use a little advice. I'm going to reboot a long-time community from scratch (for various reasons... this community is 13 years old!). We switched to IPS ten years ago but with the reduced size and all the add-ons, it doesn't make sense to continue using this very bloated forum software that isn't cheap to renew.

I've tried several free forums to switch to (as noted in another thread, phpbb3 is the best of these) but my goodness, it's quite hard to go back to these, haha. I demoed XenForo and it's just amazing. The problem is the cost, of course, but I figured the renewals and whatnot against going with XF fresh:

• I have the blogs and pages addons. This brings renewal to 50 dollars every six months, a pretty huge price increase over XF.
• I also have the Videos addon from devfuse, a must for our community. This is 20 dollars to renew every six months as well.
• I had a custom plugin developer on staff who made an Awards, Shop, and dozens of other plugins for free out of love and hobbyist practice. I need replacements for these, which will run somewhere around 70 bucks plus 40 dollar renewals.
• Every comparable plugin I need for XF (Media Gallery + Core, Dragonbyte Shop) is far cheaper to renew. The only problem is the upfront cost.

Would switching to XenForo be prudent, or should I keep the same IPS license and enjoy what I already have, since it's worth so much? I am willing to sell my IPS license but I gotta make more posts here first (despite registering forever ago ). Thanks for any advice.

First things first you can talk to TLChris to merge your other account assuming you can verify it's identity.

Okay now onto the thread at hand:

You want to switch from IPS, and from what I understand the main issue is the cost of renewal? This is a worthy reason to switch and I was wondering the size of your board? If you'd like to provide the exact numbers of cost for your XF needs and your current IPS costs I can toss it into a spreadsheet and compare and contrast the cost. The way I like to do this for myself is let's say I look at costs yearly (or in your case 6 months) and then if there is an up-front option I am considering I take the cost and / by 12. This'll get me what i'm spending "per month" to pay myself back for the cost.

Now when you say "prudent" I do think that IPS has some fantastic tools and I think that it does have a future but it seems your main issue here is cost.

Is that all there is, or is there some other reason for wanting to switch?

 

[Dopply]

Well, like I said, we're due for a restart. We've already archived the old posts and ready to move on. This is a five million plus post community with nine thousand members, but active members were more in the 1200 range at our peak. So it would be completely clean whatever I choose to do... I just need the necessary features.

Anyway, I would need a XenForo license with media gallery (media gallery will replace video gallery on IPS). This is $225.The yearly renewal on this is $65. The only third party plugin I'd need at first is Dragonbyte Shop (which is a huge feat, I love how many features are totally built into XF), which is $25. The yearly renewal on this is $35 (though I can purchase a lifetime renewal at a later date).

My current yearly renewal for IP Board is $100. The videos plugin renewal is $20 per year. To replace shop, I need Members Shop plugin which is $35, renewal is $20 per year. Awards replacement is $27 upfront, $24 a year to renew.

Another one of my motivations for switching is just the speed and less bloat of XenForo. But, you can see, it's a difficult choice to make. Thanks!

 

[Kyrie]

Assuming those numbers are all correct and I put them in right, you are looking a bit more per month (based on 12 month "payback") but after the first year you're saving about $7/mo



I can't put a price on bloat and speed, but you're absolutely right XenForo is by far the best in terms of that. I would suggest, again in my opinion, that you switch.

It's worth while when you see the difference in price per month, and overall a better user experience for your members.

 

[Dopply]

Glad to see my instincts confirmed! Haha. Thanks so much.

 

[Kyrie]

Glad to see my instincts confirmed! Haha. Thanks so much.

No problem at all, if you'd like assistance with the transfer my DMs are open anytime

 

[V0RT3X]

media gallery will replace video gallery on IPS

Are you using the devfuse addon for self hosted or embedded videos? If it's embedded YT stuff you might check out XenMedio, it's much better suited for this than XFMG.

 

[Joel R]

I have the blogs and pages addons. This brings renewal to 50 dollars every six months, a pretty huge price increase over XF.

Have you thought about simply removing Blogs and Pages from your IPS license? That would immediately decrease the renewal cost of your IPS license and you would get to keep using all of the items in which you've already invested.

 

[Dopply]

Have you thought about simply removing Blogs and Pages from your IPS license? That would immediately decrease the renewal cost of your IPS license and you would get to keep using all of the items in which you've already invested.

I honestly didn't know this was an option. I would renew separately if I could.

 

[haqzore]

I honestly didn't know this was an option. I would renew separately if I could.

Definitely an option. Just submit a ticket.

Keep in mind that once you do this, the products are permanently removed from your license.

Example: if you decide later to use Blogs again, you can buy it at full price (not renewal).

Not a big deal when you factor in the $$ saved by not renewing an unused product, but good to be aware of.

 

[Dopply]

Definitely an option. Just submit a ticket.

Keep in mind that once you do this, the products are permanently removed from your license.

Example: if you decide later to use Blogs again, you can buy it at full price (not renewal).

Not a big deal when you factor in the $$ saved by not renewing an unused product, but good to be aware of.

Thanks. This might affect my choice to switch after all. I appreciate it.