XenForo over saturation?

[John]

It's obviously over saturated. Seemingly every forum is running basically the same theme, layout, and software - and they're all on XenForo. Following the collapse of every forum software during Covid, they were basically the only option left that was affordable. Now, everyone uses them. In time someone else will make something at the same price point that's better or as good, but that is pretty far down the line.

 

[Katrina]

It's obviously over saturated. Seemingly every forum is running basically the same theme, layout, and software - and they're all on XenForo. Following the collapse of every forum software during Covid, they were basically the only option left that was affordable. Now, everyone uses them. In time someone else will make something at the same price point that's better or as good, but that is pretty far down the line.

Very true! It would be nice if someone would built more themes that are at a decent price, or even free, just to make the sites stand out a bit more.

 

[saoussen5765]

Very true! It would be nice if someone would built more themes that are at a decent price, or even free, just to make the sites stand out a bit more.

I do not think anyone built themes for free because they spend a lot of time building them so they will offer them for a fee maybe.

 

[Liturgist]

I am actually happy that many run xenforo, as I think it's an amazing piece of software. When I noticed big boards moving from VB to XF, I was happy, since I always liked this platform more than the previous ones.

Indeed, my only regret is that it is proprietary.

By the way, are any of you running XenFora on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD or Illumos/Solaris? I am increasingly disastisfied with the present state of the Linux distros, and for forum use would really like to avail myself of a different webserver, such as OpenHTTPd on OpenBSD.

 

[Liturgist]

Oh for that matter, I suppose I might as well ask, do any of the forums mentioned work with PostgreSQL and with a web server other than IIS or Apache, such as Lighttpd, Nginx or, of particular interest, OpenBSD’s new OpenHTTPd?

 

[cpvr]

Very true! It would be nice if someone would built more themes that are at a decent price, or even free, just to make the sites stand out a bit more.

Dohthemes and Themehouse both have a lot of nice themes. I’ve been seeing a lot of forums using their themes lately.

 

[CTS]

If you are going to pay for software, xenforo provides the best value imo.

I think "over-saturation" is the wrong term for a widely accepted product.

 

[fdk1971]

It does seem that an awful lot of forums use XenForo nowadays, but I think that just reflects the fact that it's the best software package available out there at the moment, is really user-friendly for admins who are less experienced or perhaps starting their first forum, is relatively cheap, and offers great support, plugin & customisation options.

 

[Bryn]

I've been plenty of forums running XenForo, and it doesn't bother me. It's obviously one of the best out there.

 

[TPerry]

There are other options out there. But the herd follows the lead of others. If someone decides to start a site up, generally they will use what they are comfortable with using as a visitor/member on other sites.
That's one of the reasons I like to try out other software. Currently running sites on NodeBB and Discourse in addition to the XF site. They each have their benefits.

 

[WebHostVoice]

I also noticed this, but I love posting on XF forums.

Some forums use the ones you mentioned, but I don't like Vanilla or Discourse. Its hard to post because of they have different posting format.