Is XenForo Really Worth the Price

[Shawn Gossman]

Do you think the price of XenForo is worthy?

Now I'm referring to the forum software itself, not the official add-ons. Just the forum platform and the features it provides.

If you think it's worth the price, why do you say that?

If you disagree with the price, what would it actually be worth to you in your opinion?

 

[Tracy]

If you like XF and have the money then it's worth it. As a forum offering it remains one of the cheaper ones available and has a renewal policy that is license holder friendly. But this can also be a negative if the developers are not adding features and functions regularly to their script offering as there is no real encouragement to pay renewals when you go months between updates. I just updated my license into 2027 to try and help finance them even though have not really gotten anything that I use from the last few updates.

The good thing about Xenforo is since it is used on a lot of sites, the end users are more likely to be familiar with how it works. That is always a plus as if you are running a different script than other larger sites in your niche, users coming to your site have to adapt to a new way of doing things, and for many that is off-putting. And I have gotten several members comment to me about that.

But there are other options out there for basic discussion areas that I think are comparable and in some cases are free. Discourse is one of them.

 

[frm]

If you think it's worth the price, why do you say that?

Because it has a pretty solid framework to do just about anything.

I'll be getting around to developing my older (and first) MMORPG text-based game on the XenForo framework.

I know that you can disable the forum, but I wish they made it the "Xen" framework — decoupling it from the forum — and forced you to buy the Foro 1st party add on that you can choose to install or not. I think that would invite a lot more developers to the scene to bring life to X(F), perhaps being a contender to even WordPress as developers could make better use of Pages, etc.. But, what do I know?

That said, I'll probably use the forum with the game for in-game discussion, and perhaps to boost the gamification of the game.

Although the forum for discussion may be disabled, different thread content types will be used such as a "Map" to easily plot out a 1000x1000 navigational map (arrows up/down, etc. to move your position) that has, at first, randomly generated, say, discoverable items to picking up in-game currency, which with the framework for user groups, can make plots easily moderatable to add, remove, or change items on that plot. If, I choose to use the forum's thread types over add ons for different content types.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I know that you can disable the forum, but I wish they made it the "Xen" framework — decoupling it from the forum — and forced you to buy the Foro 1st party add on that you can choose to install or not. I think that would invite a lot more developers to the scene to bring life to X(F), perhaps being a contender to even WordPress as developers could make better use of Pages, etc.. But, what do I know?

THAT,,, That is really interesting.

I've never thought of XenForo being used that way.

Even though I use it for the forum feature, I could see it being a CMS or WordPress contender as you said.

That would be really interesting. Will you disable the forum for your game, then? Tell me more about that!

 

[Tracy]

I know that you can disable the forum, but I wish they made it the "Xen" framework — decoupling it from the forum — and forced you to buy the Foro 1st party add on that you can choose to install or not. I think that would invite a lot more developers to the scene to bring life to X(F), perhaps being a contender to even WordPress as developers could make better use of Pages, etc.. But, what do I know?

That was one of the things I found so attractive with Invision... before you had to buy their package deal.
I believe Woltlab is the same way, you have a core and then start stacking components on top of it. Some of those might require the forum portion to have certain abilities work.

 

[Cpvr]

It's like this, is Mcdonald's worth the money? Is burger king worth the money? Is going to a new restaurant worth the money? Is buying an angus burger worth the money?
Is a cup of coffee worth the money? Is a new book worth the money?

The way I see it, if you like the software and the features that come with it, it's worth every penny. It's the same thing with going to a new restaurant. If the food looks good, you'll eat them and go there a lot.

The same applies to software, if it gets the jobs done, works well, then it's perfect for you. If you'd rather pay more money to for a different piece of software, then that's your opportunity to do so, there's plenty of variety out there.

To me, I like Xenforo, so I'll continue to use it, and pay for it. I'm not switching software anytime soon. It's one of my favorites. I've used other softwares in the past, and they're not so much my cup of tea as an owner.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

To me, I like Xenforo, so I'll continue to use it, and pay for it. I'm not switching software anytime soon. It's one of my favorites. I've used other softwares in the past, and they're not so much my cup of tea as an owner.

I'm in agreement with you here.

The Invision platform looks good, but XenForo is working for me and my users. I'll likely stick with it and keep upgrading as they release new versions.

But if I ever launch another forum, which I'm trying hard not to do (LOL), I might try out another software like Invision. I did that with vB6 and while it's not a bad software, it's just not as good as XF is in many aspects.