vBulletin Reviews 52

VBulletin is full of security issues and bugs, there support blames something else other then there-self and the new vbulletin is horrible

Bug ridden piece of software that will drive you nuts trying to get it to work. Never get the mobile app add-on as it simply doesn't work at all. I've wasted so much time and energy on this software, a real regret.

bad technical support. the documentation only showing about api and class, but there is no such thing like how to create your own theme and your own custom modules. this is sucks!

After contracting the Cloud service I was able to notice the only available version didn't have a supported and/or third party translation to Brazilian Portuguese.

It wasn't 2 hours after confirming the purchase, I tried calling back but wouldn't get my phone calls answered (funny enough, they would answer almost immediately when I was having problems with the purchase part).

After insisting, Joshua G. (vBulletin Sales & Account Support), picked up the phone. He was very rude due to my constant calls, saying they were unnecessary. He proceeded to say that I wasn't eligible for a refund and that the request wasn't even negotiable.

I know the company is not breaking any laws or rights, but I would NEVER recommend it to anyone. Worst customer service I ever had from a company in the U.S.

I had much better results with their main competitor.

Used to be a great company but now they couldn't give two c*aps about you or their staff.

Total waste of money. Literally, I would have been better giving it away. Install didnt work. No refund!
Amazingly, I got an email from support saying that they had seen the problem before, that it was common, that they wouldnt be able to make the software work for me, but NO the would not give me a refund!
Criminal!
DO NOT BUY unless you are in the habit of betting $200 on the flip of a coin!

This forum software was just absolutely brilliant for my new company. It provided everything I wanted even more!

If I could give less then 1 star I certainly would. There should be a negative star rating IMO. I am not going to change a thing about a post I left on Vbulletin last night. Doesn't even matter that people don't know what came before. My post speaks for itself. I found this place from a link a forum member left in my forums today and feel rather justified now for my built up rage against Vbulletin;

Now my copy and paste special left last night at VB forums...

#2.1
Jayhan commented
Yesterday, 9:36pm

I am not sure what I am going to do to be honest. I am so frustrated and angry about this product. I feel I got totally ripped off. Just read their refund policy. NO REFUNDS. It would take me a full year and every moment of my free time just to fix the software so it even works.

All of my Admin functions which made me purchase Vbulletin to begin with have been entirely gutted by VB 5.0. My control panel is a joke because I have no control over anything. They took away every feature that mattered and replaced them with nothing. As far as I can tell there isn't even a way to remove the members list from public to prevent other forums from coming and trying to steal members which happens often.

Logins won't work, logins on my phone won't work. My members can't login. Tons of database errors. All URLs broken, like they didn't even care about their customers investment of time into their product and promotion of our websites. I could go on for an awful long time like this. It is an awful product and am hearing that VB 4 isn't a whole lot better except for the mods and plugins compatibility. 5.0 connect isn't even backwards compatible with their own previous versions. And they offer no disclaimers anywhere about all the problems and issues.

My webmaster who is very experienced has had nothing but problems each and every step of the way. He absolutely hates it. Installation was long, hard, difficult and drawn out, saying it was tedious would be quite an understatement.

I have been a loyal customer of Vbulletin for about 7 years or so and used to be a big fan until I just realized I gave a 209 dollar donation to vbulletin for 5.0 connect. I am uninstalling it, and probably going back to 3.8.7 or maybe 4.0 until they don't support it anymore. I have heard 4.0 is sketchy as well so will read all the reviews before installing it.

They even removed CC and BCC from the PM system, an unbelievably powerful tool for administering a forum, small or large. I am coming to the conclusion they just don't care. Not a single response to either of my two posts I made 15 hours ago.

VB 5.0 connect is not an upgrade and should not be sold as an upgrade. It should not be called 5.0 thus giving the impression it IS an upgrade. It should be called VB Connect 1.3 Beta. I honestly like the HTML 5 part of the platform. But it isn't a forum. It is a whole new creature with a watered down forum attached to it. It isn't even backwards compatible with their own previous versions, so in what way is it an "upgrade?"

It should come WITH STRONGLY WORDED DISCLAIMERS AND WARNINGS telling people that their SEO ranking in google will likely suffer badly if they have a lot of external or even internal links that bring traffic. They should tell people in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that much of the functionality of previous versions just isn't there.

I have spent probably 35,000 hours of my time over the last 12 years, 7 of those with Vbulletin, building up my website and becoming numero uno on google. WE OWNED google rankings for our research topics. WE OWNED google image rankings for our research subjects. Then a few weeks ago I was forced to make a decision in haste, went to VB connect 5.0 and all of that work was flushed down the toilet. Millions of links across the web, email, Facebook and Twitter all flushed down the toilet because of this URL issue.

I have over 400,000 tweets on just two of my twitter accounts, nearly all of those made manually. Do you have any idea how much time and big a portion of my life it took to do that? Then VBulletin does the unthinkable. They forced a NEW URL down my throat like they own it. They decided it was ok to change our URL's and now force the /forum after our URL. The word forum is already in my url, so it really looks stupid when reading the url at the top.

I appreciate the fact they want a new HTML 5 platform. I understand the need for change. It happens. But what I do dislike is the fact they are dishonest about their product, making it sound to the average Joe that it is a continuation of the great VB forums of the past. It isn't. Nothing works and they gutted everything good about Vbulletin out of it. It is a nightmare. Naming it 5.0 gives one the impression it is an upgrade, a continuation, adding more good features and security to the old. Had it been properly marketed with disclaimers and warnings to people then I would have far less issue with this. Plus there is little to no plugins or mods available for it, so we can't even improve upon it.

In my opinion VB 5 is not ready for market. It should be renamed to a 1.2 or 1.3 version and strong warnings given to each prospective buyer informing them of some of the more dire consequences. And they need to put back all of the functions and functionality previous versions had, test it some more, then release it. To force us to change our url and thus break all links on the net is something which should happen only with our full knowledge and consent and come with explicit warnings. It was a really poor decision and from all of the bad reviews and bad feelings here about it I have read in the last week or so, would have to say I am far, far from the only person who feels this way.

I will probably be going back to 3.8.7 or 4.2.2 and unless Vbulletin fixes this lemon, will be taking my business elsewhere when support for those products wanes. I'll be watching. I hope they fix it because I am a huge former fan of Vbulletin. They need to make a product their customers want, need and will love. VB connect 5.0 isn't any of those.

Cheers-
Phil

This company is so terrible, I don't even know how to express it in writing. I purchased Vbulletin 3.0 in 2003 and recently had to purchase the mobile add on. When I tried to activate it, it did not work so I submitted a ticket. I got no response, but within 1 business day I got a message from the piracy department claiming we did not have a license. I emailed back and she said it was a mistake, but then they complained because the copyright notice wasn't on the site. I added that back, and she emailed back and said everything was fine and she was closing the piracy complaint that also "claimed" was filed anonymously. REALLY? The site's been up since 2003, and you expect me to believe it's coincidence all this happened the next business day?

About two hours later, support emails me an unprofessional dramatic and as we know erroneous message and says they are closing my ticket because-
I'm sorry, until your site is license-compliant, we are unable to provide any support. That is, and always has been, company policy.

Please send us a new ticket once this is sorted.

So then I call, and they don't even apologize for the mistake. Obviously very poor leadership in this company and employees that don't care or realize the customer is why they have a job.

We will NEVER use Vbulletin or recommend them to our clients.

2018 update: after switching to another forum software our forums have exploded with new users and traffic! Really sad how VB went downhill.

2020 update: our single competing forum who still uses VB has hardly any activity other than a small group of the original people from over a decade ago! We are absolutely dominating the search engines. The best thing that ever happened was the poor staff here that prompted me to search for another forum software! Also, the competitor's VB site had been hacked at least twice over the past year!

2021 Update: Competitors VB site got hacked again this year and the entire member database was sent messages soliciting Dero crypto donations from the hacker!

I've used vB since 2001 and it still works fine as it has been. Most folk think the customer services suck, but that's maybe because they haven't used the vBulletin Online Manual or had the knowledge on MySQL or PHP. Using and hosting vBulletin does require webmastering skills for javascript or editing templates in HTML to enhance the site. I had to read and learn the basics on using vBulletin near 2001 when I bought the 1 year leased License near January 2004, which you don't get the 1 year leased License anymore - to work out the functions and to gain practical experience on using vBulletin.

If customers don't find the Live Support or using the Private Support Ticket useful for their convenience use the Support Forum and don't be shy to post in public, as long its not against the Forum rules.

Most users think vBulletin doesn't have good 1st party addons, which is maybe why they focus on Security vulnerabilities and less on non-prepaid support, as keeping the Forum Software secure takes time and money to make the efforts.

If you want the vBulletin website to do more functions or make it more interesting, go to vB official modification site, (external reference) and check the information and be aware which mod is supported, wisely. Don't use too many addons or mods as that will use up the MySQL datatables, especially if your site is not running on a rental Dedicated Server - as using the Shared Hosting package have limited storage for MySQL and Maximum Bandwidth.

My recommended 3rd Party Mods for vBulletin is DragonByte Tech Mods for vBulletin like DragonByte SEO and Optimiser, as those can boost your website speed and traffic. And for Anti-Spam mods use Spam-O-Matic.

Read more, don't try those mods until it is legitimate to do so.

And when you are ready and have some colleagues or relatives who know on vBulletin, buy it and give it a go, but don't get mad or disappointed if it doesn't look as you expect it to work, as it is a complex and robust system.

...and as some have already mentioned, vBulletin WAS a good company! I've owned very version of their software since v2.

I have been considering purchasing vBulletin 5 Connect to host a new interactive website I intend to launch. Today, before acting on that thought, I did a quick Google search to get an idea of what other vBulletin customers have to say about their newest release. I was disturbed, to say the least, to have found this thread.

I've feared for some time now; probably since IB purchased the brand, that vB was going downhill. After reading the reviews here and at a couple of other sites, my suspicion seems to be confirmed.

I would contribute more to the conversation, however, those things would only reiterate many of the points already made. I also own multiple prior releases of vBulletin software, which I plan to use until they discontinue support. Meanwhile, perhaps something will happen to make them "see the light" so to speak.

I gave vBulletin 3 stars, based only on past performance. Perhaps I am an eternal optimist, but I believe they still have a chance to make a comeback.

I am curious to know if others have found good alternatives to vBulletin, and, if so, what they are?

no support

no error debugg

we paid for software that doesn't work....no fixes or support offered.

Not even worthy of 1 star .....
What was once a great company back when Jelsoft owned the product, has gone down hill sense they where acquired by Internet Brands. An interesting side note is that ever sense Internet brands took over, they have never released a working product. Every single one was more of an alpha release then anything stable you could use on a public facing site.

Purchased my 1st lic in 2002 and just like vBulletin's parent company, I still use the old version 3.8.x (funny how the parent company does not use the latest vB product(s)). It's interesting because they have released versions 4 forums and suites, 5 Connect and now 5 Cloud.

After several years, version 4 does not support the latest PHP release or WYSIWYG editor, 5 is missing more parts then I can remember and they still don't have a working CMS. If you where running version 4 with CMS you can't upgrade, and when they do release version 5.1 most features of the version 4 CMS will not be ported over.

Then there is the upgrade path, talk about taking short cuts. If you run version 3.x you can't simply upgrade to 5. You have to upgrade to 4 then 5. It should be noted that upgrading to 4 is a disaster and then upgrading to 5 is even worst. Importers from other scripts (if you're dumb enough to move to vB's platform) starts at 3 or 4 then you upgrade again to 5. Have a large site, then vB will tell you 5 is not for you.

But wait, while you can't buy version 3 or 4, you do get them when you purchase 5 (can only use one not all three) 3 is still being supported because IBs sites run on it, 4 is dead, no developers are working on said version. 5 is some type of misery as now they are pushing their cloud version of 5, god only knows if or when they will resume the full download release of 5.

Demo, when it's up you can try it out but it's been down more time then up. If you like slow buggy, inconsistent flow vB 5 is for you.

Then there is the lack of any communications from anyone in charge. All you have is rude and arrogant support staff going around to all the forum admin sites trying to convince everyone it's the customers fault. The main forums (which is only a hand full of site actually running vB5 is slow as hell and you should clear your cache at every page load - as every error is met with support telling you to clear your cache.

Road map - nope
Using standard software development practices and terms - nope
Knows what the customer wants - nope
Uses their own latest and greatest (their term) - nope
Product managers that interact with their customers - nope
Have a problem or bug, let customer support know - nope (you have to submit it to Jira)
Want a refund when you find out the software and support is total crap - nope

There are much better and cheaper solutions out there from both free and paid competitors. That will also listen to your issues (and fix them asap) as well as provide updated road maps, and actually listen to their customers.

Note that you only get 30 days support with your purchase and when it takes months before they fix even the smallest bugs/issues you're out of luck because the rest of the product is falling apart, that you won't be able to get support

While I still run my forums on vB3.8, I also have a lic for 4 that I could never use because just when it was looking like they where turning that product around (granted it took them over 2 years) they moved all devs (whats left of them, last count is at 4) to version 5connect. Now that 5 cloud is out, who knows when they'll have time for version 5 connect.

Stay far far away from anything vBulletin does or at least wait 2-3 years for it to become somewhat workable, then again by then they will pull the rug out from under you and move all their devs to the next disaster.

VBulletin basically does the job of a forum software, but leaves issue undetected at first, that should be revealed before purchasing. Most of the issue cannot be seen by the general public, as they are hidden in the password protected user area. None of their software will validate via the W3, which to me, clearly means that the programmers are not concerned with testing their software to make sure it is written to standards and does not contain basic underlying errors.

Much much worse, is that the forum produces page after page of duplicate content, because every page can be addressed in many ways. Your Google webmaster tools account will very shortly be filled with duplicate Title tags and Duplicate Descriptions and there is literally nothing you can do about it. VBulletin's response was to create a new version 5, instead of fixing the issues with version 4 first. To their credit, they do seem to be continuing to work on V4.


The support team seems to be working hard to try and help, but they do not appear to be supported by the programmers, so any issue that has any type of complexity to it, will not be solved. At least that has been my experience.

If VBulletin were cheap software, I would not complain to much, but it is quit expensive, so you would think it would be very well written as such. Unfortunately it is programmed more like cheap software, with obvious and seriously written flaws.

I cannot recommend VBulletin, nor can I advise against it, since I cannot recommend any other software that might be better, although I would think there would be. Should you decide to purchase, be aware of the duplicate content issues, that you will face. I would run any of there forum pages through the W3 validator, so you can get a feel for the quality or lack there of, also.

I just need a simple forum for my website, and I thought vBulletin would be a good idea since it's very popular.
When I tried to order the forum and I paid $400 for the full package, as I wanted mobile users to view the forum as well ... then all the troubles started.

Firstly, I used my debit card and it was declined but the charge was taken (I am not sure if it will be authorized or not but the screen showed the card was declined). So I tried another card and it also got declined .... I tried it again ensuring all the details are there but it got declined .... so I used PayPal even though it costs me more to convert to USD but I said PayPal would be the solution, and it worked.

Now after the payment was made, I followed the installation step by step and I couldn't get to install the forum on my website!
So I contacted the support through their ticket system and I barely got answers that helped me! I am now left frustrated after being their customer for barely a few days and I see their refund policy states once you download the software you can't claim a refund - that is so disgusting!!

I am so so upset with this company!!

Let me preface by saying that I've been a vBulletin customer for over 10 years.

vBulletin, at one time, was the pinnacle of forum software. Gradually however, it has completely lost its way among other forum software competitiors. In my opinion, the fall started when it was aquired by Internet Brands a few years ago. Most of the original vBulletin founders and creators left the company, leaving it to careless corporate management and incompetent developers.

That said, the problems started with the incarnation of VB4, which debuted under the new management and developers. It was basically an update of previous software code written by the vBulletin founders. That's when the problems started however, when the new incompetent developers started adding to and mangling the original code. It has gradually became useable forum software, but is still very server resource intensive and bug riddled. Not to mention, no major updates have been made to it in almost a year. Coincidentally, development seemed to cease on VB4 around the time VB5 development came into full force, thus customers using VB4 were left in the dark.

That brings us to the newest vBulletin incarnation, VB5. Needless to say, VB5 is shockingly awful. Seemingly written by coding amateurs, it's buggy, slow as molasses, server intensive and lacks a tremendous amount of features that VB4 offered. Also lately, new versions seem to be rolling out at a snails pace, with little in the way of improvements. It's basically a shell of what vBulletin once was.

To add to the fire, vBulletin employees also seem to have issue in dealing with their paying customers. As one myself, I've personally been treated very condescendingly by the staff/moderators. They seem to have no professional regard for what they say, with little to no common courtesy. Posts in the vBulletin forums that don't praise them or the company seemingly either disappear or are closed by the staff, thus leaving hardly no way to give advice toward improving the software. Also, often very snide remarks are made by staff before a thread closure.

To sum it up, if I were in the market for forum software, I would NOT use vBulletin. There are many great alternatives out there for much cheaper prices, a ton more features and staff who care and aren't flat out rude...

Was a long time user of this software. Version 3.x was the premiere software at the time it was released. Since then, with new owners, new developers, and (just as important), serial departures of staff- developers, customer service reps, project managers, and marketing folks, this software needs a post-mortem. Not only does the current software version (5.x) not work in a production environment, but they never fulfilled their promises about what would be delivered in 4.x (after promising many features, when new staff came on board, they disavowed ever making the promises).

In short, the current state of vBulletin is a mockery of what it once was. If the phrase "Buyer Beware" ever had a more applicable meaning than for those who might buy this software, I can't imagine what it might be.

If you buy this software, understand that they will not guarantee that it will work, and if you want a refund, they will deny it as they have a policy that once you download it, you bought it (though, this seems to fly in the face of consumer protection laws...some have reported success with disputing charges with their credit card issuer).

If I could give a lower rating than one star, I would. If you have the misfortune of buying this software, I feel bad for you.

What was once considered the gold standard is not one of the worst products being sold on the internet. Not sure where to start, but if you do buy this software, do you're self a favor and read the licensed feedback section (hidden unless your a customer) on their forums before you download the software. The reason being is once you download the software you can't request a refund and if you're not a customer you can't read about all the unhappy customers they have until you buy their product.

I would also highly recommend you try and use their own forums on the official vBulletin site before you buy. It should also be noted that their own parent company does not use the latest on any of their own forums, let alone most of their own sites are still running the old Jelsoft version (3.x) because for some reason they don't have confidence to use their own software. Granted they will tell you that those forums are heavily modified and can't be upgraded. Which brings us to the next point, if their own forums are heavily modified you can never upgrade them. I say it's a company not willing to eat their own dog food.

Then there is their current management staff and developers (those who are left). Sr. management doesn't have a clue on running or using a forum. Why else would they not frequent their own support forums. The one Product Manager who actually asked questions in the forums has left or been fired. However staff will say he was not management (confused so are so many others). Try and find his thread asking for suggestions on what to fix next...... yes asking what to fix next. you could start with all the bugs you're required to post in their bug tracker. They don't accept bug posts in their forums. They will tell you it has to go in the tracker or they will not be fixed.

Did I mention you should try their support forums yourself? That's, when the server they are running on, is not down because of broken hardware. Seems those SSD drives don't help with the speed of their site or the longevity of the server itself. You have SSDs on your shared or dedicated server don't you?

What about support, you're 30 day ticket support starts when you download the software. You may not have it installed yet, might be waiting for all those features that where promised (hey we now how that worked out with vB4x) or for the software to actually work. Can't get it installed, then their professional installation may help. Underline "MAY". But before letting them download it for you, make sure if they can't get it installed (as long as you meet the requirements) make sure they will refund you both the installation fee and the software fee.

Don't want their latest half working, slow and feature missing product called vB5, and would like vB 3 (recommended and still unofficially supported from them - really a unsupported product but seeing as all their sites still run this version they still release fixes and updates when they need it) or vB4.x (granted does not work with the latest ie and php and still missing all those features) you're in luck.. well not luck but vB can only sell you the full vB5 but you can downgrade (price not software) your purchase by installing one of the lesser products. confused again, welcome to the wonderful word of vB

My advice stay far away and look elsewhere.

As far as the software goes, go ahead and try it out yourself at vBulletin.COM. You will see how slow, buggy and SEO unfriendly this software is.

If this software is so great then how come NONE of the other Internet Bands owned forum have upgraded to vBulletin 5?

If you are searching for opinions of vBulletin 5 on vBulletins site, you won't find any if you don't already have a vBulletin license, as anyone who gives their opinion about the state of vBulletin and their software has their post moved to the hidden Licensed Customer Feedback Forum.

Why are they hiding the feedback?

If you look at the posts below the 5 star posts are written by vBulletin employees... yet if you went to any of these employees own personal forums, I doubt you would find a single one actually using vBulletin 5. Why is that? Yet they come here and say all these glowing things about it?

If you take a look and see the games these clown are playing and they way they are treating their customers, you would never want to give them your money.

If you are looking for forum software, I would take a good hard look at Xenforo or IP Board. Again I wouldn't waste my money of vBulletin, which is sad as a few years ago, I would have told you not to think twice about getting vBulletin.