vBulletin License changes.. Dumping Forum for Suite

[c4smok]

I am just now seeing this, I may be months behind since I do not check on license renewals much for vBulletin but this is news to me.. I figure a lot of domainers/developers use this forum system.

Owned License for vBulletin is ending.. You can no longer renew your license. You can continue using your current version but you can no longer renew to keep your upgrades and security updates going..

Software type License is what they are doing now. They are also ending the vBulletin Classic Forums. You can upgrade for like 175$ to get further updates to your vb forum and not have the blog or cms. But with the new license your product will expire in a certain amount of time, then you will need to upgrade again and so on. I am sure at some point they will end this also and you will have to get the Suite.

vBulletin Suite is the new product which is just vB forums with a CMS and Blog system. Its a 250$ upgrade fee from your current Owned license which will die after you upgrade.

 

[Eric]

They're not ending "forum only". And they've gotten rid of license renewals since licenses will be good for a version's entire life span. A license for vB 4 will be good for as long as vB 4 is not EOL. Same thing for the Suite - it's license lasts over the life of that version, then when say.. vB5 is out, you have to renew it as well if you want vB5.

 

[cache]

I will wait until namepros upgrade first.

 

[sanne]

vBulletin was acquired by another company a while back and the new owners have a different idea of how to run their business.

 

[Alex P]

Im happy with 3.8 tbh, haven't felt the need to move to 4 and the people I know who have started new forums on vb4 wish they never and used 3.8. Im up for renewal in July but I really dont want to shell out $200 for it.

 

[commsskills]

this is one thing i did not understand - if i upgrade to vb4 by paying $150, then do i need to pay another $150 to upgrade to vb5? Seems like 'yes'. If so, i am looking at an 'ongoing' cost of $75 per year assuming a new version every two years. It would be quite dangerous to stick with an old version if its security had been exploited.

anyway, the gossip is that vb4 is still unstable and it is best to wait till the later part of this year or even next year if you intend to upgrade. Besides it is resource hungry and i am not certain how your shared hosting provider will feel - unhappy over the resource usage or happy that you will be upgrading to a vps?

i am exploring alternatives at the moment - punbb, smf, vanilla, phpbb3 (all free). I looked at ipb but the demo account i was given is quite slow, besides still have to pay. The phpbb3 skins look great.

however it is likely i will stay put at 3.8.5 as i am quite used to vb and not keen to begin a learning curve all over again

my two cents

 

[sanne]

this is one thing i did not understand - if i upgrade to vb4 by paying $150, then do i need to pay another $150 to upgrade to vb5? Seems like 'yes'. If so, i am looking at an 'ongoing' cost of $75 per year assuming a new version every two years. It would be quite dangerous to stick with an old version if its security had been exploited.

Basically, yes. Except there's no guarantee they won't raise the price for the vB5 upgrade.

 

[cache]

I wish the open source forums will be good enough. I bought many vb licenses, I may need another one soon. Anyone wants to sell me a transferable license?

 

[InvisionTech]

I have around 10+ vb licenses and I am NOT upgrading to 4.0. The pricing is ridiculous, suite option is useless as well (for $400+? )compared to much better CMSes like wordpress and drupal.

Cache, if you do buy someone's license, make sure their license is "active" before paying.

 

[SiberForum]

I have around 10+ vb licenses and I am NOT upgrading to 4.0.

I suppose you like 3.X view. The same here. I do not like new 4.0 at all.

 

[InvisionTech]

I suppose you like 3.X view. The same here. I do not like new 4.0 at all.

Yeap, plus I don't see the need/reason. The "new" look to "new" feature to "new" license price ratio just does not add up for me.

I may have upgraded if it was simple upgrade, but $200? Na'uh. vb would have made more money as more people would have upgraded if licensing and pricing model was left alone but who am I to say that? Some smartass marketing gurus at vb know better I guess?

"Hey joe, lets screw our clients in the back by totally changing our licensing and doubling/tripling the price of an upgrade/new license... and we can call this the "new suite."

 

[Underdog]

Anyone know what vbulletin sold it for to the new owners according to one of the posts ?

I believe vbulletin is the standard and should be used by everyone with commercial and serious intent. Im still not that happy of the new license rules but im just seeing it as something that need to be done. Still feels expensive doing an upgrade, hopefully an upgrade will last a good period until its time for another one.