Vortex vs. Nexus Mod Manager

The following answers a frequently asked question of why we created Vortex from scratch rather than continuing Nexus Mod Manager.

Why did you create Vortex instead of continuing Nexus Mod Manager (NMM)?

The main reason why we decided to create a new mod manager from scratch, rather than to continue on with Nexus Mod Manager is that the latter is based on code written for Oblivion (Oblivion Mod Manager) and Fallout 3 (Fallout Mod Manager) - games that are now over 10 years old.

Since then, we’ve been working hard to bolster the functionality and scope of NMM despite being constantly stymied by code that is long past its prime written by developers who have long since moved on from the community and their work on the mod managers.

As our community has massively grown since the days of Oblivion and Fallout 3 (from half a million users back then to now almost 18 million), both the standards for the code base of our designated mod manager as well as the standards for its functionality have evolved.

Maintaining and updating Nexus Mod Manager meant carrying over inherent flaws in its code from revision to revision and adding functionality to it - such as mod packs, which we are aiming to do in the not too distant future - became akin to building on top of a crumbling foundation. The longer users stuck with NMM, the more likely it became that it would cause issues such as corrupted mod installations, all without notifying or alerting users to it.

Therefore, in 2016 we brought on a full-time developer with a proven track record of making mod managers to create from scratch a new, modern mod manager with the simplicity of NMM paired with high-end functionality that would further work with a vast number of games (at this point almost 70). In many regards, Vortex is the amalgamation of now almost 10 years of our joint experience in making and maintaining mod managers. Not only that, but we are also distributing it with a GPL-3 license, meaning Vortex is open source and based on extensions which gives avid programmers the ability to extend its functionality through plugins.

In essence, rather than having to work around and with flawed code from 10 years ago and keeping on patching NMM, starting fresh with Vortex and now two full-time programmers working on it enabled us to build exactly the mod manager we wanted from the ground up.

That being said, while we could have forced a switch for all users from NMM to Vortex, we chose not to because we think that if you are happy with NMM and have a working setup - by all means - you should stay with it. Just bear in mind that we are no longer providing support for NMM (i.e. helping you trouble-shoot issues with NMM). You can, however, still download the community-maintained version of NMM on our site and get help from users who are familiar with it and/or willing to assist with issues NMM might be causing.

If you are curious to try out Vortex, starting a new playthrough, a new mod setup, or simply want to start over due to issues with NMM or other mod managers, you can download the latest stable build of Vortex on our site.