vB5 vs vB4 vs vB3
 

Its great to see the vBulletin Solutions team working hard on vB5. Based on that, my perception is it will be the best ever. BUT I have never tried it so I honestly don't know.

Based on the opinion of those who have tested vB5, which is the best vB to date? Is it still vB3 (seeing these forums still run it)?

Is vB 5, even in it's beta, better then vB4? is vB5 more server intensive than vB4?

vB5 doesn't have a lot of the features that you get in vB4. If I were to start a new site today, I would go with vB4. (vB5 is in beta, you may try it here - https://www.vbulletin.com/vb5demo/ )

I havent been reading up on it too much, but I heard vB 5 focused on customization(templates, themes, ect)? So we can make a much more attractive and smoother running site. I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask you about that Lynne? Let me know if Im completely off base on the rumor mill.

Sorry I haven't read much on it, nothing I have heard has blown my socks off and caused me to jump on and start looking it up. When vB 4 came out the built-in and integrated front page and CMS caught my ear. But vB 5... meh.

Well, as I said, you can try the demo to see what it looks like from a users point of view. You can also try the site-builder, which is what allows you to easily customize pages, here - http://www.vbulletin.com/vb5-trial

Lynne thanks for responding! I am only interested in the forums not the CMS and all that extra garbage.

Which forum is better? vB4, vB3, or vB5?

Also is vB4 more or less resource intensive then vB5?

There is no CMS yet in vB5.

As I previously said, there are several features you will not get in vB5 that are available in vB4. Only you know which will be useful/needed in your community. You should try the demos and see.

I too would start a new forum with VB 4 at his point. No idea which is more server intensive but VB5 is clearly feels more browser intensive. Hopefully it gets better before it goes gold, it's much better now than the early betas.

vBulletin 4 is the best choice, VB5 isn't really a finished product so I wouldn't run it until it's officially up to date. I know the VB team is working hard to fix all the bugs, but for myself personally I'm not comfortable with it's high server load and other issues.. If you elect to run vBulletin 3, make sure it's 3.8.7 Patch Level 3, currently what I plan to use myself for a new install. (Even though it's older it's my favorite) Just acquired another license again.

god, not had to pick, VB3.8.7 all the way.
VB4-VB5 Junk. no offense.

As you can see, it's really a matter of opinion at this point. vB4 had a rocky start, and that stigma has stuck with it with a lot of older vBulletin owners who took issue with it's initial problems and never really forgave them for it. Others choose not to upgrade because of the certain types of mods that weren't migrated to 4.x. Now that seems to be slowly changing, and 4.x is seeing a lot of modification activity. Newer vB owners who don't know or care about all that mess seem to be having no problem using vB4. As has been said, it really just depends on your needs.

And as was mentioned, vB5 is in Beta. That means it isn't finished. Can't really say it's better or worse until it goes Gold. (Which hasn't stopped anyone, but still.) What can be said is that it's different. And for people coming in from the last two versions, just by nature of being different makes it bad.

Works great for me. If you ever give it a try again, let me know. I can help you figure it out.

Hi - vB4.2.0 is the very best after my opinion..:)

I agree ...

vb4 and (specially) vb5 are not optimized at all ...

I think I have to go with XF or stay with my (super) customized VB3 for ever....

Agree, vB3 or XF, vB5 looks horrible.
I will import my vB4 to XF for $140 rather to vb5 for $209.

Can't say that I'm with those who think going from vB4 to XF is best. vB5 has a lot of features that have been requested for vB4 and I for one am anxious to purchase and upgrade. Can't do that until April but I will be glad to upgrade. I love XF but vB5 will provide me with a lot of features that will help me in the long run.

vB4.2 has been extremely solid, I like it a bit more than 3.8.7.

........

yeah it works great for me too running vb4.2.1

in high loads of traffic vb4 is awful ... and you should get a expensive server plus doing so many server enhancements to be able balance the load ...

vb3 is so much better than vb4 , and XenForo is SO much better in handing too much traffic.

Personally I have 1 vb3 and 3 XF powered forums ... and I won't ever never switch to vb4 ... and at the moment I have no plan to test vb5 since XF is so stable .

i checked the vb5 demo out last night and to be fair i like it but they just need to sort the issues out and add all the features missing from vb4

vb3 absolutely.

I love vB3, I've ripped it up & customized it many times but I'd say go with vB4 without a doubt. There is a reason most of the largest communities are on vBulletin 4.

vBulletin 5 is garbage and needs so much work, vB4 is stable and capable of doing anything you want.

I Love vB3 And its Simply Great :)

I won't switch over vB4 or vB5....

vBulletin 3 all the way for me, it's fast, reliable, stable and it's my favorite from both an admin perspective and from just a regular members perspective.

vb 3...

vBulletin 3 series all the way. <3

I plan on getting vbulletin 5.0 connect very soon. I will be paying a company to migrate my site to this platform. I see that previous vbulletin licenses are included in the software should I buy it. If this is the case, should I tell the company to migrate the site to an older version of vbulletin?
Thanks

yes i`d say use vb4 untill vb5 is better prob 6 - 12 months

You should sign up for a demo of each VB4 and VB5 (for free) on www.vbulletin.com and decide what you prefer.

i like vb3... much easier to customize

never used vb3 so cant really comment but i do like vb4 more from a end users point of view but never used vb3 admin

vB4.2.1. is your best option at this point in time.

Kym

If you're going to participate on this site please keep the language professional. If you're not going to answer a question or provide a valuable response then better to not post at all. There are other places you can post just to post.

Thanks.

In fact I wil go so far as to say you appear to be posting just to spam your domain name, so any future senseless posts will be treated as spam and you will get infractions. Get too many infractions and you will be banned.

We purchased a VB5 Connect licence back in April, with a view to choosing between VB4 and VB5 depending on the merits of both.

After a lot of research and discussion, we decided to go with VB4 for the following reasons:

1. We were previously on VB 3.8.7... VB4 was better suited to what our members were used to, and had a lot more options at the time when it came to add-ons and hacks.
2. Our server required a kernel upgrade to allow us to upgrade the backend (PHP/SQL) so we could run VB5. We decided we weren't feeling that :D

Personal opinion... if you're coming from VB3, you might find VB5 a long way away from what you're used to... best to go with VB4 at this time.

what to vb4 or vb5 ?

Hello.

Which is vBulletin TODAY (topically) the better choice? I consider the only 3rd and the 4th version and in each case the newest version.

Personally I prefer vBulletin 3 but since you should do so much things to make it look updated I strongly suggest you to go with XenForo which is being developed by the vBulletin 3 main developers.

unfortunately vBulletin 5 looks awful and my users hate it.

vBulletin 4 is so much better than vB5 (at the moment at least ) .

I started out in 2008 with vb3.X and really didn't like having to use vba to get the site like I really wanted it. Along comes vb4 with everything I wanted in order to have my site just like I wanted it. I love the cms, I love the style generator, and I love the ease of customization.

I think I'll buy now XenForo.

only 13 mods released in 2014 for vb5 and its already october.. :(