[Darvesh]

Hi,

I Just purchased Vbulletin license . i used to have an online community years ago . i was at Invison power board . after a years gap things have been changed a lot . after dong a lot of research i decided to go with Vbulletin since it looks much professional and well built software .

i am bit confused between Vb4 and Vb5 . can you help me in choosing the right one ?

i 'd also need help from you in installing addons

Regards

Darvesh

[In Omnibus]

vBulletin 4 and vBulletin 5 are like apples and oranges. While they serve the same basic principle of being a message board forum that's where the similarities end.

It really depends on what you want to do with your site. If add ons are your thing you may want to go with 4, as it has far more add ons that serve far more purposes.

If customization is your thing then 5 allows virtutally 100% customization of every page. There are a handful of add ons for 5 but not nearly as many as for 4.

The themes / styles for each are also very different.

Before we even discuss add ons let's talk about what you want to do with your forums.

You can always upgrade from 4 to 5 but you will lose any add ons from 4 as they are incompatible with 5. What is far more difficult is going back to 4 from 5 since that requires a backup of the database and the 4 files.

I've had great success with both versions but for different reasons. In my opinion 5 looks far more professional out of the box. 4 looks far more entertaining out of the box. But with time and patience (or with money) either version can be made to look exactly as you want.

So, again, it reverts to what you want to do with your forums. Are there add ons you actually need to operate your forums? Or are they less functional and more bells and whistles?

Give us some idea of what's important to your forums and we can give you a better idea of which version best suits your needs.

[ashi]

in my opinion Vbulletin 4.2.4 is much better .......easy to use ......and top of everything we can install tons of products ....MarkFL is a moderator here ......he is a super super nice guy .....he could help you alot in customization of your forum wish u all the best

[Darvesh]

Thanks In Omnibus & ashi for your help & recommendation . i installed Vb 5 & then Vb 4 . VB 4 is far better than VB 5 . playing around with its options .thank u again guys

--------------- Added 21 May 2017 at 18:16 ---------------

one quick question . where can i purchase VB paid add ons & Premium themes ?

[Dave]

In my opinion, if you want a basic forum with not many or any plugins/modifications at all then vBulletin 5 is the way to go.

[ashi]

Originally Posted by Darvesh

Thanks In Omnibus & ashi for your help & recommendation . i installed Vb 5 & then Vb 4 . VB 4 is far better than VB 5 . playing around with its options .thank u again guys

--------------- Added 21 May 2017 at 18:16 ---------------

one quick question . where can i purchase VB paid add ons & Premium themes ?

https://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/ for mods .....

http://www.vbstyles.com/ for skins

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by In Omnibus

...So, again, it reverts to what you want to do with your forums. Are there add ons you actually need to operate your forums? Or are they less functional and more bells and whistles?

Give us some idea of what's important to your forums and we can give you a better idea of which version best suits your needs.

I would say pretty much the same thing. It really depends on what your needs are.

The main site with which I am involved is a math help forum. We wanted to be able to provide an array of mathematics oriented tools to our users, such as tools for constructing/previewing LaTeX, the ability to embed TikZ code, live Desmos graphing calculators, and so it made no sense for us to upgrade to vB 5.x

If your community is going to be highly specialized in some area, and you think you are going to need a good deal of custom coding, then vB 4.2.5 would likely be your best choice. However, if your needs would all be met with the functionality of vB 5, then that would probably be the route you would want to take.

So, if you could give us some idea what you have in mind for your communbity, we can offer better guidance.

[Darvesh]

Originally Posted by MarkFL

I would say pretty much the same thing. It really depends on what your needs are.

The main site with which I am involved is a math help forum. We wanted to be able to provide an array of mathematics oriented tools to our users, such as tools for constructing/previewing LaTeX, the ability to embed TikZ code, live Desmos graphing calculators, and so it made no sense for us to upgrade to vB 5.x

If your community is going to be highly specialized in some area, and you think you are going to need a good deal of custom coding, then vB 4.2.5 would likely be your best choice. However, if your needs would all be met with the functionality of vB 5, then that would probably be the route you would want to take.

So, if you could give us some idea what you have in mind for your communbity, we can offer better guidance.

Thanks Sir , our community indeed gonna be highly specialized . its a religious community representing shi'a islam . a discussion forum . i did some research & find out most of VB mods/plugins/products support VB 4.x . there is very little available for Vb 5.x .
i would like to seek your advice Mr Mark . you guys are highly qualified & posses much more knowledge about VB .

looking forward for your advice

Regards

Darvesh

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by Darvesh

Thanks Sir , our community indeed gonna be highly specialized . its a religious community representing shi'a islam . a discussion forum . i did some research & find out most of VB mods/plugins/products support VB 4.x . there is very little available for Vb 5.x .
i would like to seek your advice Mr Mark . you guys are highly qualified & posses much more knowledge about VB .

looking forward for your advice

Regards

Darvesh

Hello Darvesh,

What kinds of custom features (the things you will want that vB doesn't do out of the box) are you looking to provide to your community?

[Darvesh]

Originally Posted by MarkFL

Hello Darvesh,

What kinds of custom features (the things you will want that vB doesn't do out of the box) are you looking to provide to your community?

there is no doubt comparing to IBP or other forum softwares VB provides its users a wide range of features such as blog CMS etc . i am a bit concerned about its compatibility with social media apps . as we know social media is dominating web . secondly i would like to install some cool VB features on our forum

1.post like/dislike option

2.Multimedia supported Mods (Youtube/dailymotion/vimeo

3.top poster/ thread mod

4.user group legend

5.SEO (i found one on dragon byte web site .again that supports only 4.x not 5.x)

i find a wide range of VB mods/plugins on this site .i can check them out later .above ones are my top priority

Regards

Darvesh

[ashi]

Originally Posted by Darvesh

there is no doubt comparing to IBP or other forum softwares VB provides its users a wide range of features such as blog CMS etc . i am a bit concerned about its compatibility with social media apps . as we know social media is dominating web . secondly i would like to install some cool VB features on our forum

1.post like/dislike option

2.Multimedia supported Mods (Youtube/dailymotion/vimeo

3.top poster/ thread mod

4.user group legend

5.SEO (i found one on dragon byte web site .again that supports only 4.x not 5.x)

i find a wide range of VB mods/plugins on this site .i can check them out later .above ones are my top priority

Regards

Darvesh

Mark could help you with those installations .........but one thing i would like to suggest ......get a good hosting first ......we have had a horrible HORRIBLE experience with hosting providers .......i ended up simply giving up LOL

[Dave]

I would always go for a VPS these days. Price wise it's getting very close to shared webhosting and the performance difference can be significant.

https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/#droplet and https://www.linode.com/pricing both provide a VPS of $5/month

[Paul M]

In addition to the above, there is also Vultr : https://www.vultr.com/pricing/

[Darvesh]

Originally Posted by ashi

Mark could help you with those installations .........but one thing i would like to suggest ......get a good hosting first ......we have had a horrible HORRIBLE experience with hosting providers .......i ended up simply giving up LOL

i have installed all products on my forum . Mr Mark's products are awesome . thank u sir shared web hosting is nightmare i am gonna run my forum on cloud

Thank you all . you guys are great help

Regards

Darvesh

--------------- Added 22 May 2017 at 02:17 ---------------

Originally Posted by Dave

I would always go for a VPS these days. Price wise it's getting very close to shared webhosting and the performance difference can be significant.

https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/#droplet and https://www.linode.com/pricing both provide a VPS of $5/month

VPS & cloud are the best options

Regards

Darvesh

[romaine]

Originally Posted by Darvesh

i am bit confused between Vb4 and Vb5 . can you help me in choosing the right one ?

You should read these threads first

https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=288046
https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/foru...in-3-vs-4-vs-5

There are differences between vB 4 and 5, the decisions is yours.