Wordpress w/ Forum integration, or vbulletin?

[imoz]

Can anyone reco a forum module that integrates with Wordpress and "just works" with decent features? Or am I better off looking at it from the other angle and go with something like vBulletin plus add-ons? I know Wordpress pretty well so that direction would be easier for me. And of course Wordpress requires no monetary investment since its free. I'm willing to pay for an off the shelf plug-in if it is good.

Awhile back I looked around for forum modules for Wordpress and it didn't seem like there was anything "advanced", with integrated security. I remember also looking into BuddyPress but it really had not gone anywhere and seemed to be dead.

I've got a few ideas for some brands I want to build up, with an ecosystem of products around them. But I want to get my platform down first.

 

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[aptohosting]

Vbulletin- You will not find anything else as stable/robust/easy to skin/scalable and at a great price..

(I have no affiliate with them, nor any affiliates links)

But I have used them in the past, and it just works..hell this forum runs Vbulletin.

 

[imoz]

Yeah, thats actually what started me thinking about vBulletin...this site and how its been extended. The features are pretty close to what I want to achieve, but not quite. Although I was reading about the vBulletin Publishing Suite and that seems to be what I want.

I guess the only question in my mind now is about licensing. If I want to have a locally hosted QA server and then the public website, I don't want to have to buy 2 licenses but it seems this might be the case particularly if it phones home.

Eh, I think I convinced myself vBulletin is the way to go. While I am an experienced software dev, I really don't want to mess around tinkering and tweaking code, I just want a platform that works and worry about branding it and the business and marketing end.

 

[austinjeff]

If you've done your research and vBulletin is what you need, don't second guess yourself. Get the publishing suite. If your site is successful, the money you spent on this will be trivial. If it's not successful, at least you know you gave it your best shot and it didn't fail due to an inferior platform.

 

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[Corys8646]

I've been a vbulletin admin for several sites for the past 7 years or so. It is a powerful system with a great community behind it and loads of plugins.
However, i've been becoming more and more frustrated with the lack of attention put into the back end and admin of the suite.

The Content Management system the released with version 4 is a mess, not intuitive at all IMO. You don't see many vbulletin sites using the CMS features.

I've been playing around with Vanilla recently. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of vbulletin, but if you are just looking for a basic forum, it would be worth looking at. They also have Vanilla embed that allows you to embed your forum with a simple js tag. Just drop it into a page in your wordpress install and you have a forum.

Best part of the embed is you don't have to manage two different styling platforms

 

[Larry]

Simple Press is plug and play with WP and is a good option

Larry

 

[fasterthanfast]

If you've done your research and vBulletin is what you need, don't second guess yourself. Get the publishing suite. If your site is successful, the money you spent on this will be trivial. If it's not successful, at least you know you gave it your best shot and it didn't fail due to an inferior platform.

vBulletin publishing Suite is the worst piece of junk I have seen in a long time. Take it from me and dozens of other vBulletin license holders who have become fed up with the garbage that company has put out ever since being purchased. I hope you didn't even think of using vBulletin as a content management system because you'd be better off doing so with a pen and paper. It's a terrible mess.

The forum is usable but that's where it ends. Customizing it is for the insane and every few months they require upgrades that aren't worth it. They are already working on another version since their vb version 4 flopped so badly. The company that owns it doesnt even use that version on most of the vbulletin sites they own.

If you want a community get Invision Board. Xenforo is much better and Vanilla is a pretty awesome free solution. Do yourself a favor and stay away from vbulletin. If you really feel like punishment, go buy a license on the market. They are cheap for a reason.

 

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[zachonaboat]

There are many WordPress forums out there that will give you the basics that you need. Then any edits can be done by a developer at a low cost to you.