Invision Power Board

I support a website for a small organization that needs a web presence.  The site was built in 2000 using FrontPage.  They want to make the site current and add a few features including a discussion forum.  I did a lot of searching to find bulletin board software that had a “news” feature and could be updated fairly easily.  A photo gallery was a plus.  I was pretty well settled on VBulletin, but I didn’t like that I had to pay for software that hadn’t been released yet.  I kept looking around and I started paying more attention to Invision Power.

I recently purchased Invision Power Board and their add-on apps (IP Content, IP Gallery, and IP Downloads).  I couldn’t be happier with the results.  Invisions software met my requirements perfectly.  I was able to build  a front end website with a private board, photo gallery, and download section for forms and documents.

There are two things that make IPB 3 special and unique.  One is that all the software comes from Invision.  I don’t have to purchase unreliable and sparsely supported 3rd party mods.  The other is that the admin tool is very easy to use.  From navigation to configuration, IPB’s admin tool is sophisticated without being complicated.  I feel like Invision has thought about the many requirements of a modern discussion forum, and included them in their software.

IPB is also extremely configurable.  I have been able to change every single setting that I’ve needed to.  Users can also create new settings when needed (though that’s way over my head). 

A lot of people ask the VBulletin vs. IPB question.  In fact, I was one of them.  I tried demos for both VBulletin 3.x and IPB 3.x.  I chose IPB because they had more features that I needed, the IPB admin tool was much better organized, and there was no drama.  I couldn’t be happier now that I’ve seen it in action.

I do have one criticism of Invision.  Their support needs improvement.  They have a 2 day turnaround time for tickets for people with standard contracts.  That’s far too long.  They try to prioritize incidents where the system is completely down.  Invision probably needs to roll out more support options for those that need it.

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