I have a love and hate relationship with Xenforo

[Croc]

I truly consider Xenforo the most feature rich and extensive paid forum software out there. It's really the best at what it does.

However, it's also the most complex CMS to develop both themes and add-ons for. It doesn't help that the official develop documentation is lacking. Not as bad as Xenforo 1.X was, but it could be much improved and expanded still.

Thoughts?

 

[Cedric]

In my opinion, it’s actually much easier to develop themes and add-ons for. I'd argue that Invision is more difficult in that regard. That said, I also believe Invision is a much more feature-rich premium CMS. It's more expensive, sure-but in many cases, it's well worth the cost.


I originally switched from IPB to XenForo back in 2015, and just recently made the switch back-so I'm very familiar with both platforms. While XenForo is cheaper upfront, once you start customizing with third-party add-ons (and let’s be honest, the XF core lacks in several areas - not to mention development), you’ll often end up spending more than the cost of an Invision license.

Honestly, Invision V5 just blows it out of the water in areas like content discovery, drag-and-drop, the theme and page editors, and overall usability. It’s much more modern and streamlined, especially from an admin or content creator’s perspective.

 

[Croc]

In my opinion, it’s actually much easier to develop themes and add-ons for. I'd argue that Invision is more difficult in that regard. That said, I also believe Invision is a much more feature-rich premium CMS. It's more expensive, sure-but in many cases, it's well worth the cost.


I originally switched from IPB to XenForo back in 2015, and just recently made the switch back-so I'm very familiar with both platforms. While XenForo is cheaper upfront, once you start customizing with third-party add-ons (and let’s be honest, the XF core lacks in several areas - not to mention development), you’ll often end up spending more than the cost of an Invision license.

Honestly, Invision V5 just blows it out of the water in areas like content discovery, drag-and-drop, the theme and page editors, and overall usability. It’s much more modern and streamlined, especially from an admin or content creator’s perspective.

Wow, I'll have to check it out. I was looking at the Invision site earlier today and really couldn't find any documentation and finding the self-hosted version of the software was difficult. It's almost like they would rather sell you the commercial hosting subscription.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I agree with @Cedric, Invision (IPB) is years ahead in terms of development while Xenforo has an easier path for 3rd party extensions.

I do agree that Invision is moving towards a SaaS/cloud computing model which is understandable. It's easier to support plus it provides the infrastructure for powerful features that would not be practical for self hosted sites.

 

[TPerry]

I truly consider Xenforo the most feature rich and extensive paid forum software out there. It's really the best at what it does.

However, it's also the most complex CMS to develop both themes and add-ons for. It doesn't help that the official develop documentation is lacking. Not as bad as Xenforo 1.X was, but it could be much improved and expanded still.

Thoughts?

Actually it is probably EASIER to develop add-ons for than most other scripts. The reason is that the Xenforo developers go out of their way to make their script open to outside developers since in many ways it is very dependent upon them since many items are lacking in core that it takes those 3rd party developers to provide.
Generally.... the script has historically been well documented in the code itself and those that get used to developing for it don't have a major issue.

I have heard others complain though that their actual written documentation is lacking. In fact, in several aspects their provided documentation for admins for Xenforo has not been updated to reflect recent changes, either to the core code or the requirements that third parties mandate for interfacing with it (FaceBook comes immediately to mind).
But that is not really Xenforo's fault for that aspect as Meta changes their requirements more often than most folks change their undergarments.
But the sloppy/lacking written developer documentation is ultimately a Xenforo issue and they should not expect everyone to dig through their source code like was common back in the mid/late 2010's.
Sometimes a company just gets used to "that's the way we always have done it" and never think about moving forward to what is now expected. Sometimes they do make an attempt, but those attempts don't turn into a solid hit and they struggle to figure out why (lots of times because they don't want to hear complaints/criticisms).
Xenforo may have gotten better about their developers documentation.. but it doesn't sound like it. Which to folks that have been around awhile dealing with XF, that's not really a surprise. Slow is not always good.