IPBoard or vBulletin: Something to Chew on

Blog,Forum Platforms Reviews,IP.Board,vBulletin

Invision Power Board and vBulletin are considered to be the most popular commercial forum solutions. Both of them are great for running a forum on as they can offer you lots of possibilities. So, if you are looking for a robust discussion board application and you are ready to pay, then it’s time to pick up IPBoard or vBulletin platform to develop a forum on. What are the differences between these two platforms and what are you paying for – are those issues that we are going to bring to light.

IPBoard: Key Features

Let’s talk about IPBoard first. This software differs from vBulletin in many ways as it has lots of unique features. They are the following:

  • The users have an excellent opportunity to make forum posts by email
  • IPBoard can be integrated with lots of user account types, for instance Facebook, Windows Live, OpenID.
  • There is no need to worry about making a mistake while writing a post as this discussion board includes a free spell checker.

But we can’t talk only about the advantages of Invision Power Board as it comes also with some drawbacks. For instance:

  • If you want to integrate with other applications you have to pay for additional modules
  • It’s not always easy to install some extra skins or themes
  • Most IPBoard MODs work properly only with a certain Invision Power Board version
  • The visitors don’t have an opportunity to select their own theme.

Distinctive Characteristics of vBulletin

Now it’s vBulletin’s turn. This forum software has a lot of advantages, for instance:

  • Compared to IPB, vBulletin doesn’t require any license for integrated blogging feature;
  • This forum platform includes “related threads”, tagging features and lots of other free modules which can be integrated into the forum.
  • Moreover, it is possible for vBulletin visitors to choose their own theme;
  • 24/7 best-in-class support is a prominent feature of vBulletin forum platform.

vBulletin software has also the other side of the coin – the disadvantages:

  • It is a little bit more expensive than IPBoard;
  • It is necessary to have some coding skills while working with vBulletin as before installation you have to manually modify the config file. This might be a little bit confusing unless you have some PHP experience.

To find out more about similarities and dissimilarities you should check this detailed table:

Features
vBulletin
IPBoard
License
Paid Paid
Installation
Fast and Simple Fast and Simple
Plugins

Javascript

AJAX

HTML

Javascript

AJAX

CSS

Forum Style
Flat/Threaded Flat/Threaded
Forum Organisation

Forum Categories

URL Redirection Forum

Sub Sections

Trashcan Forum

Tags

Forum Categories

URL Redirection Forum

Sub Sections

Trashcan Forum

Related Threads
+
Detect Duplicate Threads
+
Instant Messaging
+ Plugin
Post by Email
+
The Possibility to
Choose Own Theme
+
CAPTCHA Complexity
Normal Hard
Languages
Official: English, German; Translatable into

any language

English by default, other languages available

via the community – or

translatable via Integrated

Language Editor

Support
24/7 – best-in-class Forum Support
CMS/Blog Bridges

Joomla

WordPress

Drupal

Joomla

WordPress

If you think that vBulletin is what you need then you can easily migrate from IPBoard to vBulletin. aisite service will make IPBoard to vBulletin migration flawless and accurate. So, try a free Demo Migration to make sure that this is what you need.

Estimate Your Migration Price

I want to migrate:
Please Enter the Number of Forums
Please Enter the Number of Forums Topics
Please Enter the Number of Forums Posts
Please Enter the Number of Pages & Posts
Please Enter the Number of Users
Please Enter the Number of Comments
Please Enter the Number of Taxonomy
Migration Price:

* The price of the full migration may change according to the number of entities

You might also be interested in these