Member Avatar for woolly911

I currently run a fully modified phpBB forum and I like it. I do have lots of errors though and its starting to annoy me. Im thinking of switching to vBulletin but I need to know some stuff first. How easy to install is it? Is it as easy or easier than phpBB? Also if I switched, how difficult is it to install modifications. I have over 400 on my phpBB board so my members would be looking for them if I switched (at least the major ones like an arcade, etc.). Also do you have to pay for mods and skins? Sorry if I sound like a vBulletin noob but I really am. Also would I be able transfer all my posts from my phpbb board to the vbulletin via backup? If someone could help me I would appreciate it.

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For a heavily modified phpBB board like 's, treat migration as a staged engineering task: inventory what matters, preserve content and uploads, validate account behavior, and protect search visibility. Quick “install-and-import” attempts commonly stall on custom features, large attachment sets, and password-hash differences.

  • Create a prioritized feature list (top 10) and map each item to: native vBulletin, existing plugin, or custom porting.
  • Snapshot the live site: full database dump, attachments, avatars, and template backups.
  • Stand up a staging server that mirrors production PHP/MySQL versions and test there first.
  • Run a trial import on a small dataset to confirm threads, user mappings, and attachments.
  • Prepare a fallback for logins (password reset or one-time token) and an announcement plan for members.
# example backups (adjust names/paths)
mysqldump -u dbuser -p phpbb_db > phpbb_backup.sql
rsync -avz /var/www/phpbb/files/ /var/www/staging/phpbb/files/

Install vBulletin on the staging box, create a fresh vBulletin database, then use an importer/converter to migrate posts and users. After import, verify totals (users, topics, posts), spot-check threads with attachments, test logins, and rebuild search indexes. Note that some custom phpBB mods will require manual reimplementation as vBulletin plugins or template edits.

Watch for character-set mismatches (latin1 vs utf8), incorrect file permissions on uploads, and broken internal links. Keep the old phpBB instance read-only during the cutover and put 301 redirects in place for important forum URLs to protect SEO. This practical, staged approach echoes points raised by , and and keeps the security caution from in view.

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Member Avatar for guideseeq

You could really do all of these, but you need time to do it. First do it on your local machine, after all customization is done with, import posts from phpBB2 and make it available to people. Many skins/mods of vBulletin are free but not all like phpBB2.

Member Avatar for Emancipator

I started out with phpbb and after getting savagely hacked 2 or 3 times in a month i moved to vbulletin. I to had a ton of modifictions and updates. Vbulletin although not free it far superior and very easy to use especially if you know a thing or two under the hood with php. I strongly encourage going to it!

Member Avatar for dojo

Switching a fully modded script to another can be indeed a pain. Try to figure out what are the features that are so important and try to have them installed on your new script. Then little by little go there. Anyway. It's hard and tedious, but it will be good in the end.

I would install VB on a folder in the site and then play with it "secretly". See the problems you'll encounter, try to search for the mods you think are important and so on .. afterwards move people and posts ...

Member Avatar for Scribbller

Thing is you wouldnt even need 90 percent of the modifications you have to install in phpbb because vBulletin is feature rich, besides installing new modifications in vB 3.5.x is a piece of cake as you dont even need to edit the php files just simple hooks and plugins which can be attatched to your vBulletin.

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