Reign vs Vanilla Forums.

Questions people ask before moving.

Can I keep my forum categories and threads if I move to Reign?

Yes, the structure carries over. Jetonomy organises discussion into categories and threads, with Q&A threads that accept an answer, voting and reputation, so your existing layout has a direct home. Members keep posting in the places they recognise, and the new parts, such as profiles, a feed and spaces from BuddyNext, sit around the forum rather than replacing it. Map your categories first, then decide which ones become spaces.

Is Vanilla not open source already?

The core is, and that is worth stating plainly. If ownership is your only concern, self-hosted Vanilla already gives it to you. The argument for moving is scope: you have a forum and nothing else, so the day you need courses or events you are maintaining two systems.

Can I import Vanilla discussions?

Yes. Vanilla's export is documented and its data model is conventional, so categories become Jetonomy spaces, discussions become posts and comments become replies. Budget the time for users and redirects rather than for the content itself, which is the straightforward part.

Will I keep my search rankings?

Only with redirects. Old forum threads are usually the most valuable pages a community owns, because they have ranked for years. Map each thread URL to its new post and serve a 301. Do that and rankings transfer with a short dip; skip it and you start from nothing.

What do I gain over a forum?

Member profiles, an activity feed and spaces from BuddyNext, badges and ranks from WB Gamification, and the option to add courses, events, a job board or a directory later without changing platform. All on one login and one database, which is the part that matters.

Does Jetonomy handle large forums?

It is built for it, with the usual caveat that scale is a hosting question as much as a software one. Indexing, object caching and a host sized for the traffic matter more than the plugin once you pass a few hundred thousand posts. Test with your real data before you commit.

Will attachments and images come across?

They can, but they need handling deliberately rather than assuming the export carries them. Pull the files down, upload them into the WordPress media library and rewrite the references during the import. Check a sample of image-heavy threads before you trust the whole run.

What about our existing SSO?

WordPress supports SAML and OAuth through mature plugins, so most existing identity providers can be reconnected. It is configuration rather than a switch, and it is worth testing with real accounts early because authentication problems surface late and badly.

Is there a size where this stops working?

Not a plugin limit so much as a hosting one. Past a few hundred thousand posts the deciding factors are database indexing, object caching and a host sized for it. Test with a copy of your real data rather than a sample, because forum tables behave differently at scale.

What does hosting actually cost?

Hosting is the running cost people forget to budget. A small community runs comfortably on shared or entry-level managed WordPress hosting on an entry-level plan. Past a few thousand active members you want managed hosting with object caching. The bill follows your traffic, not your member count, and unlike a subscription it buys you infrastructure you control rather than access you rent.

What happens to our oldest threads?

They come across, and they matter more than you might assume: on a long-running forum the decade-old threads are usually the highest-traffic pages you own. Import them, keep their URLs redirected, and check a sample from each era, because formatting conventions change over the years and the oldest posts are where an import breaks quietly.