phpbb to vbulletin, is this an upgrade?

[thinkbig]

I have a phpbb system that i personally installed a couple years ago. It has around 400 members around 50 active members who post daily. The site has gotten hacked a couple times and i have lost many valuable posts. I like the look of the Vbulletin setup and i want to incorporate a banner setup and adsense presence on VB. I am in the process of hiring some via Elnce to do the php to VB swap for me.

My question is, is Vbull a solid setup for good growth and security. PHPBB got spidered well from G and Yahoo and i want the same from VBULL? Is this a positive upgrade for me?

[TheRookie]

Definitely a positive upgrade. However, just like with phpBB, you'll have to hack it up a bit to make it spider-friendly.

[Moparx]

Definitely a positive upgrade. However, just like with phpBB, you'll have to hack it up a bit to make it spider-friendly.

vBulletin comes spider friendly right out of the box..
A bunch of SEO related changes were added in 3.5.x, including the ability to use the archive as a site map.

[TheRookie]

Oh, didn't know that - thanks.

I'm assuming it doesn't use session IDs either (for guests)?

[Gibisan]

A member on a phpbb forum of mine asked if an upgrade to vbulletin was on the cards, I replied saying I know little about it.
What are the benefits of vbulletin over phpbb and why would I want to upgrade? Are there performance benefits? is it more user friendly?
(Hacking is not a problem)
I'd appreciate any info, especially from someone who has made the upgrade.

[Moparx]

Gibisan, vBulletin simply blows phpbb out of the water in terms of features.
here is the feature list: [vbulletin.com...]

you can also use the admin demo [vbulletin.com] to play around with vbulletin and see what it has to offer.

I'm assuming it doesn't use session IDs either (for guests)?

The session ids are removed for the major search spiders. (its actually been like that since 3.0.x.) :)