Why use premium software?

Sometimes people don't properly explore each option before making a choice. The problem with free software today is that some forum owners feel they have less control and thus would rather a paid version. I'm essentially working with free software and it's been great - and I still have the option to use paid perks.

I own licenses for a few paid software solutions, Mainly Xenforo and IPB with a few add-ons. I ultimately decided to move away from paid software because the cost to run these softwares with software upgrades and active support got too expensive for me, since this is just a hobby for me and not a means of income, it's not something I wish to put any more money into than the essentials.  I don't think a forum is any more successful if it's on paid software over free software though to be honest. I've seen plenty of forums on Xenforo, vBulletin or IP.Community die off and forums on free software still thriving to this day.

Posted by: Smokey

I own licenses for a few paid software solutions, Mainly Xenforo and IPB with a few add-ons. I ultimately decided to move away from paid software because the cost to run these softwares with software upgrades and active support got too expensive for me, since this is just a hobby for me and not a means of income, it's not something I wish to put any more money into than the essentials.  I don't think a forum is any more successful if it's on paid software over free software though to be honest. I've seen plenty of forums on Xenforo, vBulletin or IP.Community die off and forums on free software still thriving to this day.

Software that isn't upgraded can still work though.  In fact, it can possibly work for many years.  Nonetheless, it does seem like XenForo 1 - simply won't work with any hosting nowadays.  I could be wrong.  Probably I just haven't configured something right.

Anyway, I assume you're wanting to sell your licences. 

Posted by: TheJason

Posted by: Smokey

I own licenses for a few paid software solutions, Mainly Xenforo and IPB with a few add-ons. I ultimately decided to move away from paid software because the cost to run these softwares with software upgrades and active support got too expensive for me, since this is just a hobby for me and not a means of income, it's not something I wish to put any more money into than the essentials.  I don't think a forum is any more successful if it's on paid software over free software though to be honest. I've seen plenty of forums on Xenforo, vBulletin or IP.Community die off and forums on free software still thriving to this day.

Software that isn't upgraded can still work though.  In fact, it can possibly work for many years.  Nonetheless, it does seem like XenForo 1 - simply won't work with any hosting nowadays.  I could be wrong.  Probably I just haven't configured something right.

Anyway, I assume you're wanting to sell your licences. 

Yeah. I would like to sell off my IP Suite license and one of the Xenforo licenses if possible, but i've been trying for awhile now to no avail.

From what I understand, its just a wanting of control over what they have. Which  I can understand but it does become costly.

While I agree Skeith, when you use a service such as Jcink, that allows you to take backups of your database at will, you still technically have control, because you can then take that database and convert it to something else if you wanted to down the line. 

I've just always preferred using premium over free alternatives..

I tend to find them easier to customise, but maybe that's just because of the length of time I've spent with them comparatively. I think many look better out of the box too.. 

For me, I always stuck with the free software (MyBB was my choice) at the start of my forum-ing career and only moved up to a paid solution (XenForo) when the forum was generating enough activity to for me to 'authorise' such a purchase in my own head. I can see the pros and cons of each situation to be fair but at the end of the day for me, a forum software is a forum software.

It's just a desire to control what they have from what I know. Which I can understand, but it becomes expensive. So yes, premium software is a good option to use. 

Premium software has a dedicated team to take care of the issues, but free software has lot of users who out of their busy time help and contribute in the development.

To each their own. Some people do their research and some hope into the bandwagon. 

For me, I won a free Xenforo license so I tried to give it use. Many don't know what they are getting into when they come from free alternatives. When I moved my community from MyBB to XF, I found the addons less buggy, but a lot of free addons in MyBB are paid in XF. 

Right now, we're using Woltlab which is cheaper than other options and the customer service has gone well beyond to help our needs. We don't need that many bells and whistles so this works really well.

Premium or free, it is about knowing what you want and what you can expect and stay inside your budget. That you pay or not won't doom your forum or guarantee its success. The software is just the structure, the community is what makes the difference.

Free solutions are always good for people who want to DIY.  I mean, you need to be quite independent - because there might be a chance  - even with free support - you won't get the answers.

Anyway, with MyBB, I found that implementing MyAlerts with certain themes to be a challenge - and without running into a developer on MyBB who did it for free - there simply wasn't a chance!

Posted by: Kaynil

but a lot of free addons in MyBB are paid in XF. 

This is probably my main complaint about XF, a lot of the add-ons I wish to integrate are paid. I've probably spent about $500 on add-ons alone!

I wouldn't mind so much, but generally speaking the support for these addons aren't any better than their free counterparts from my vBulletin days.