What happens to XenForo updates after a year
A self-hosted package includes support and all updates released within twelve months of purchase. After that, the forum keeps running but no longer gets new releases, security fixes included. XenForo ships them often: 2.3.13 included security fixes and was followed by cumulative patches for every version from 2.2.0 to 2.3.12. Over three years, a bare license costs $315 before tax, or $595 with all three add-ons.
XenForo license pricing
The license grants lifetime use of one installation on one URL, registered in the customer area before deployment. Test installs are allowed if password-protected and closed to the public.
| Product | Price | Yearly renewal |
|---|---|---|
| XenForo license | $195 | $60 |
| Enhanced Search | $60 | +$10 |
| Resource Manager | $70 | +$15 |
| Media Gallery | $70 | +$15 |
| Branding removal | $350 | None |
| Installation service | $60 | None |
Volume pricing drops to $185 for three to five licenses, $175 for six to ten and $165 from eleven. Servers need PHP 7.2 (8.3 recommended) and MySQL 5.7, MariaDB or Percona, plus ElasticSearch 2.0 for Enhanced Search.
XenForo Cloud plans
| Plan | Per month | Monthly page views | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $60 | 400K | 50 GB |
| Standard | $100 | 1M | 100 GB |
| Business | $250 | 4M | 240 GB |
| Enterprise | Custom | 5M+ | Unlimited |
Every plan includes the three add-ons, daily backups and a choice of data center. Branding removal adds $30 a month. Fees are paid in advance and are not refundable. Third-party add-on use is reported to XenForo, which can block some. The uptime target is 99%, and your content can be requested for two months after cancellation.
What XenForo’s agreements ban
Both agreements, license and cloud, ban the same list: illegal activity, violating third-party rights, defamation, discrimination, harassment, hatred or harm of third parties. Moderation is up to you. Self-hosted installs report usage to XenForo for license checks. There is no built-in age verification.
Importing an old forum into XenForo
XenForo imports users, forums, threads, posts and private messages from other software, from the browser or the command line. Some importers ship redirection scripts that keep old URLs working, which protects an established forum’s search rankings.
Strengths and limits of XenForo
Strengths
- A paid developer and support.
- Hosted plans with every add-on.
- Importers with redirects.
Limitations
- A yearly renewal to keep security fixes.
- One license per URL.
- Non-refundable hosting.
- No age verification built in.
XenForo vs Discourse
Discourse is free on your own server, and its hosting starts at $100 a month. Its free hosted plan can be closed over automated flags. XenForo costs a license or a hosted subscription. For a hosted forum without your own server, XenForo Cloud is the more direct of the two.
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