vBulletin’s visceral price structure angers clients

For years vBulletin has been a growing community because the forum software was inexpensive, easy to install, focused on creating great forum experiences for members right after the installation, and because a community of developers added to the product.

Internet Brands, the owner of vBulletin, now believes their new product is worth the risk of introducing a price increase, new upgrade pricing structure, and new licensing terms for the vB forum software and the new Suite.

The reaction is extremely negative. Developers have threatened to stop working on vB. Licensed owners have discussed no longer upgrading. This is the challenge of a business based on keeping consumers happy.

Worse, there is a disconnect between value and product(s). This is summed by one poster’s question.

I guess I am misunderstanding leased v. owned. Which expires in 1 year?

And the reply

If you have a leased license, when you hit that expiry date, you can no longer run the software period. With an 3.x owned license you can continue to run the software forever. Both license have always had expiry dates, the difference was one allows you to continue to run the software and the other does not.

[Update]: After publishing this story, I ran across complaints that vB is banning members from protesting or complaining about the price structures.

Licenses and new pricing structures aside, vB forum software is a great product if a hobbyist is interested in creating a website focused on community content. The problem is the introduction of a new Jelsoft product, known as the vB Suite and is a content management software (CMS), is vaporware. The vB Suite software is vaporware because it does not exist for installation today. A consumer must purchase it on the hope that the product will be good.

Upgrade or Not?

Consumers of the vB products are being offered an upgrade price for a product unseen, except what is installed on the vB site. The look, the feel, and the increased features appear to be minimal. I’ve concluded that the price increase does not match an increase in value.

vBulletin employees disagree and have attempted to reply that the product will be worth the price increases.

What are your thoughts? Will you upgrade?