Is Invision worth its price? Why or why not?

[Shawn Gossman]

Invision Forum is $55 to $620 a month if you pay monthly for the Cloud service.

Sign up for Invision Community

invisioncommunity.com

Otherwise, it's $500 for the self-hosted software.

Invision Community Classic

invisioncommunity.com

How do you feel about the price? Is it worth it? If yes, why is it worth it? If no, why not?

I'm especially interested in seeing what those who use it thinks about the price.

 

[Tracy]

I've used it in the past. For a full featured suite, it's not outrageously priced. It has native functions that you will end up spending about the same on other scripts to get.
I'm already almost $1000 into purchase costs of just a few add-ons and the XF script that I run, so the $499 purchase price and getting basically what I have now (albeit with some work from me needing to be done) is not that bad of a deal.
I always laugh my arse off at those people that try to compare the cost of XF itself (just the forum) to the price of the suite of Invision. If you need what Invision offers, you end up paying more with Xenforo frequently.
My issue is the questions that still hang around about the stability of self-hosted with it. I know they have said through version 5, and then claims that will be 5-10 years. I doubt that it will be around that long honestly as it's more about financials. It is one of the reasons that Invision when to the new license model where if you don't renew at least once every 2 years you get to buy it again.

 

[JoelR]

The open ended Pages application, where you can build databases of content such as articles, dictionaries, recipe sections, etc. is very powerful and doesn't quite have the same match in other platforms.

IPS is an acquired taste. They don't pretend to cater to the freewheeling legacy forum admins like XF, even though that's their historic base.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

The open ended Pages application, where you can build databases of content such as articles, dictionaries, recipe sections, etc. is very powerful and doesn't quite have the same match in other platforms.

I think that might be their coolest feature yet!

 

[Tracy]

Pages is the best thing about the script.
There is so much you can do with it, and if you are accomplished in HTML/CSS and have familiarity with databases you can really extend it. No matter what some might want to claim though, you cannot get to the point of something like XenAddons RMS, CAS or link directory 3rd party add-ons for Xenforo.
But it is an amazing package and one of the only reasons I'd even contemplate going back to Invision.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Pages is the best thing about the script.
There is so much you can do with it, and if you are accomplished in HTML/CSS and have familiarity with databases you can really extend it. No matter what some might want to claim though, you cannot get to the point of something like XenAddons RMS, CAS or link directory 3rd party add-ons for Xenforo.
But it is an amazing package and one of the only reasons I'd even contemplate going back to Invision.

Maybe Invision is becoming the WordPress of forum software!

 

[Neo]

Invision is a very good package if you need an entire suite of products for your site. It is one that I would probably use.
I personally choose not to use an SaaS solution as I do have several sites and it is easier having them on one hosting package. The exception is the site that I currently volunteered to administer, but I do not have to deal with the hosting portion of it. With SaaS solutions you have to pay for each one of them and usually if you run several different sites, by the time you are done you could have a decent dedicated server of your own.

Too often site admins are stuck in the forum is the main thing attitude. That is not actually that relevant generally in the wants of the internet users of today. They look for more than just a place to post, which are already a dime a dozen. Most of them are consumers, so they want the information already there for them to be able to access. It is hard getting them to help generate content now unless it is on something like Tik-Tok or YouTube or something like that. Getting them to get involved with in-depth discussions seems to be beyond a lot of society. Whether that is because of lack of desire or inability I have no clue.