Starting a niche forum (help)

[prebillionaire]

Hello BHW again,

I am thinking of putting in some resources to start a niche forum for a brand that is currently making waves in the market.

I was thinking of using bbPress on WordPress for creating the forum - but I would like to hear everybody's thoughts and experience on what platform is the best and user-friendly? I don't mind paying for a good service/platform.

I have knowledge with WordPress, hence my decision to use it. Any suggestions or tips?

 

[ReverseEngineering]

If it should be a real forum, you should choose xenforo.com for it.

 

[seothatranks]

Hello BHW again,

I am thinking of putting in some resources to start a niche forum for a brand that is currently making waves in the market.

I was thinking of using bbPress on WordPress for creating the forum - but I would like to hear everybody's thoughts and experience on what platform is the best and user-friendly? I don't mind paying for a good service/platform.

I have knowledge with WordPress, hence my decision to use it. Any suggestions or tips?

Use vbulletin. It is easier to manage and also good from seo point of view.

 

[achiever2011]

If it should be a real forum, you should choose xenforo.com for it.

Xenforo is costly. He should first work with a free option to get used to running a forum . He can always upgrade if there is traction.

 

[Deleted member 752298]

Hello BHW again,

I am thinking of putting in some resources to start a niche forum for a brand that is currently making waves in the market.

I was thinking of using bbPress on WordPress for creating the forum - but I would like to hear everybody's thoughts and experience on what platform is the best and user-friendly? I don't mind paying for a good service/platform.

I have knowledge with WordPress, hence my decision to use it. Any suggestions or tips?

You can use Discourse, which is free and one of the best free forum software available.
The platform has also a very solid connection between WordPress and Discourse.

 

[ReverseEngineering]

Xenforo is costly. He should first work with a free option to get used to running a forum . He can always upgrade if there is traction.

I totally agree with you regarding the costs of XenForo.

The problem is that there are X to XenForo converters/importers available, to start with XenForo somehow in the future. But these converters do exist only for a few forum products, and some of them are also far away from being complete. Example: MyBB to XenForo

 

[achiever2011]

I totally agree with you regarding the costs of XenForo.

The problem is that there are X to XenForo converters/importers available, to start with XenForo somehow in the future. But these converters do exist only for a few forum products, and some of them are also far away from being complete. Example: MyBB to XenForo

The costs are not about Xenforo but you need a good dedicated manager to do modifications to the forum who will charge a lot.

 

[ReverseEngineering]

The costs are not about Xenforo but you need a good dedicated manager to do modifications to the forum who will charge a lot.

Also true, because the top add-ons for XenForo are also not free of charge. And if you look at BHW (running XenForo also) they use a lot of custom coded extensions.

And the next big challenge for the XenForo add-on developers will be 2.3 followed by 3.0. ;-)