VBulletin vs. XenForo vs. ??

Six of one; half a dozen of the other.

Both have their fan boys.

Xenforo hands down. It's cheaper compared to vBulletin single installation license and takes half the resources than what it takes to run a VB forum.

DigitalPoint forum was also migrated to XenForo, checkout his experiences here:
https://forums.digitalpoint.com/thre...nforo.2637721/

I used both and saw that vbulletin is easy in controlling forum than xenforo.
I'm owning a webmaster forum http://www.webmastersun.com using base on Vbulletin, you can check it for references. As you're seeing, our Warrior Forum's also using Vbulletin. Of course, the decision depends on you.

Vbulletin is easier to control than xenforo but lower secure and appearance.

I've been developing plugins for and servicing vBulletin license owners for many years, and I am still doing it, so what I am saying is 100% from real-world experience.

vBulletin 5 is garbage; don't use it. Look at the modification site -- nobody is developing add-ons for it, and customers who got it are trying to port back to 4.x.

If you must go the vB route, use 3.x or 4.x (but you'll be forced to pay $250 for the 5.x license). vB has halted vB 3.x and 4.x development trying to coax people into using vB5, more here.

XenForo got off to a slow start due to vBulletin not wanting a viable competitor and trying to sue them out of existence, but vB lost and XenForo has been eating away at vB's marketshare very rapidly since.

IIRC it's $140 for a XenForo license. XenForo is better than vB from 3.x to 5.x in terms of both SEO and Security (because of how XF is coded), and there are many add-ons for XF already.

XenForo is the superior software of the two, and vBulletin has the large brand and end-user familiarity behind it. It's not a simple decision to make, as you can see.

Many vB installs have been hacked recently and as part of my security services I see the effects of this first hand, forums of all niches and sizes. Weigh your needs against all this.