vBulletin reviews

How are they in business?

I placed an order and payment was taken. (confirmed by my credit card company).

vbulletin emailed me to say payment was declined and no reason give.

NOT TRUE

They then emailed to say they were refunding the payment and wait 7 days.

09 April 2013

Reply from Vbulletin

Hello Andy, your order was automatically declined by our system due to information that was left blank; in your case, the name field was left blank. A refund has been processed for your order.

Absolute no idea what customers want and untrustworthy

I have been a customer with this company for some time now. With the release of vBulletin 4 people trusted the company completely, but at the moment it seems that this trust is gone now even with me.

It all started with the releases 4.0 to 4.0.8 does releases where not so good they tried to fix stuff but there was no logic into the fixing done. The biggest example is the style system including the stylevars. The fixes where spread into 2 to 3 releases so that meant people needed to adjust the template system a few times if you where unlucky. In that time period many style developers left the vBulletin scene. After 4.0.8 it got a bit better but fixing the issues concentrated on forum only parts the CMS, Blog, Album and Social Groups where for the most part ignored. At the same time a manager Fabian (Vice President of Technology) presented a plan what was coming for vBulletin 4 a very long list and impressive list was presented vBulletin users where impressed, but after a year only a handful of items where done we asked but nothing at all no comments where made. That all changed when Fabian stopped working for vBulletin the next manager came and just said flat out that Fabian could not have given does items because it was never made in a official announcement and he was not in a position to ever make such promises. So we asked what is an official announcement then well with company logo's etc etc etc, to this day all announcements made by vBulletin is without those logo's.

The vBulletin 4 software is not stable at all there still flaws in the CMS if you use it you will get penalty on SEO because of duplicate content on the website. After 3 years its still not fixed. If you use special chars in a line you can also run into trouble (same in the new vBulletin 5). The software is slow its not fully optimized by vBulletin.

The only thing what vBulletin has is support staff they are very good in what they do, but they are in depended contractors. Without the support staff that they have now vBulletin would be in much trouble.

No hope left for vBulletin

Oh I wish that vBulletin would just be a good company that makes a good product. Because if they succeed, then I succeed. The fact of the matter is though, I have experienced nothing but a headache with vBulletin starting with vB4. The CMS is totally crap and needs to be fixed on many important levels. Sure you can post a article and edit an article. But when you create an article, it automatically creates a forum thread and a CMS URL for that same article. This results in a duplicate URL and Google penalizes your site's SEO. Therefore, your CMS articles don't show up well in Google. This can be crippling for a site. Wordpress is lightyears ahead of vBulletin in this regard.

I've created multiple instances in JIRA (vBulletin's bug reporting program) and nothing has been done to fix anything. It's been almost a years since the last update.

I've also had vBulletin support argue with me over my suggestions to fix the issues I've been experiencing. I feel like they are working against me all the time.

If you are considering getting any vBulletin products, I would advise against doing so for at least a couple years. Al least until you can see whether they are able to turn themselves around or not.

3.x was amazing, 4.x was workable, 5.x is utter garbage by any measure

As a long time user of vBulletin software, 3.x was a dream... it was an amazing peice of software (especially for it's time).

vBulletin 4.x was okay... it worked, but it wasn't a big upgrade.

vBulletin 5.0 is hands down the worst piece of software I've seen from any point of view. Their "showcase" website takes 30 seconds or so to load after upgrading to 5.0 and not a single part of the site works right. It's a complete joke now and we were forced to migrate our site away from vBulletin software because of it.

Adam Dresch found this review useful

Was the best until 2009, but then the developers left and it's been rubbish since

We are still using vBulletin 3.8 having been a vBulletin customer since 2001.
It used to be the market leading software with good reason,
but in 2009 the original development team left (all but one) and the replacement coding and management team has been very poor.
What was needed in 2009 was a complete rewrite.
However vBulletin 4 was vBulletin 3 with code 'updates', and vBulletin 5 connect is vBulletin 4 with code 'updates'.
It took years before vBulletin 4 was considered a reasonable forum solution, and vBulletin 5 is truly terrible. Way too many queries and css definitions. Full of bugs just like vB4 was on release.
We're migrating away from vBulletin as soon as possible, having seen that vBulletin 5 is not a viable product.
In summary. vBulletin used to be the best. Now it's terrible. AVOID.

Adam Dresch and David Dotson found this review useful

It's all about trust

Would you trust a company that instructs its staff members to submit fake reviews?

There was a time when vBulletin arguably provided the best forum solution out there. Unfortunately those days are long gone. The software in its latest incarnation, vBulletin 5 Connect, is truly dreadful, undoubtedly the worst forum software on the market today. There are free to use solutions such as SMF which are streets ahead.

vBulleting 5 is almost featureless, it's tortuously slow and without a doubt it is the most bug ridden software I have ever used. To put some perspective on the matter, vBulletin's own Xtreme marketeer and author of one of the fake reviews here, Lawrence L Cole II, had the following to say about their flagship release:

'Coming out of beta shouldn't be viewed as a recommendation to do a production upgrade of an existing forum earlier than is warranted by the current versus future capabilities of vBulletin 5 Connect.'

In other words, it's not currently fit for purpose.

To sum up, I've been a vBulletin customer for over 10 years, I use their products on a daily basis. What was once a product I'd recommend without hesitation I'd now say avoid like the plague.

Adam Dresch and David Dotson found this review useful

Xtreme Marketing at it's worst

The vB4 product was thought to be the worst forum product available for purchase ever released, until vB5.

All products have bugs, and there are attempts to remove them. vB5 has had 28 BETA releases, and still has obvious "top of the fold" bugs, and has less features than vB4.

Instead of working on the bugs, and speed issues, a full assault on marketing and PR spin has started.

As of 2/25/2013, Lawrence Cole (chief Xtreme Marketing guru) has failed to make any public announcement about vB5's release. He even fails to call the release "Gold", just more simply "Out Of Beta". These are private comments to registered customers, not available to the general public.

It's clear that vBulletin is content to take money from non-English reading customers, and eventually, more money from them in support licenses.

Adam Dresch found this review useful

IB/VB Staff were asked to post reviews here.

Please note, IB/VB staff were apparently asked to post reviews here of their own product.

To quote Wayne Luke, the Technical Support Lead:
"Staff were asked to make posts there. I don't know if they reviewed the guidelines. I am surprised that there is a review in my name though."
A few of the "reviews" have already been removed or flagged.
Don't believe everything you read here.

Now, as far as reviewing Vbulletin goes, you only need to read the wikipedia entry here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VBulletin

Read the criticism of Vb4, and now imagine the release of Vb5 being 10X worse
That's the kind of product Vbulletin has degraded to
It's buggy, unfinished, unpolished, lacks many major features, such as CMS, Member list, Infractions, Paid subs, the ignore system doesn't work, the last post info doesn't work right, it's incredibly slow and it causes browsers, both on desktops and mobiles, to lag and occasionally freeze and this is the "Gold" product.

Bob Schwarz, Dustin Lenin, Vjacheslav Trushkin and David Dotson found this review useful

All Fake

Given that most of the reviews for vbulletin happened over a few week period and quite a few were by staff members and the testing team, I wouldn't believe anything written on this page.

Dustin Lenin, Vjacheslav Trushkin and David Dotson found this review useful

Notice all the reviews here are by people with 1 review and the same names as their staff?

vBulletin is a hell hole. I really dont need to say any more. If you are stupid enough to buy a license from them then more fool you.

All I will say is look into their custom reviews (the real ones, not the fake ones on here). You'll quickly see why large customers such as digitalpoint.com, ign.com and avforums.com are/have moved away from vBulletin.

The product is seemingly no longer released when its stable, its released on a fixed date. So if its not finished, its still released.

vB 5.0.0 was released earlier this week. It's been a 100% failure. Even the most basic of features are gone, and its riddled with bugs. Their solution? Buy it now for a "massive" $25 discount and then in the future they may fix the problems.

The marketing spin speaks of vB5.0.0 being the best forum software around, despite basic features such as infractions, proper moderation, proper mobile support and such being absent.

When the developers miss something as obvious as a poll managing to work out that 10+10 = 21 then you know that there is something not quite right with the way the software is being managed.

Oh and then there's the lawsuit. Internet Brands (owners of vBulletin) tried sueing XenForo, a competitor started by former employees. Have a quick look into this and you'll see that so far everything they have claimed against XenForo and its developers has been complete fud.

Bottom of the line, the company is scum. They locked down the licensed customer feedback so you cant see all the complaints. The forum is full of them.

Use XenForo or Invision - both are made by way better development teams and dont fob you off with lies.

Phil Wray, Adam Dresch, Dustin Lenin and David Dotson found this review useful

Want a serious forum software? vB is the answer.

There are many arguments on which forum software is the best... I'm here to voice my opinion after serving over 400 forum clients from around the world. vB is hands down the best. If you are serious about developing a community with a reliable, well supported (company and community) and versatile forum software, then vB is there for you.

There are many other companies that produce forum software, but none has the tradition, well funded resources, experience and drive to improve like vBulletin.

We had MANY clients that end up migrating their forum to vB after they spent many valuable time and resources on other forum software and later discover that vB is still the best.

If you want to focus on the business of running a community with a solid software then look no more!!

Solid Product, Top Support, Great Community

vBulletin is the first choice for people wanting to administer an online community. Straightforward enough for a beginner to pick up and start using, but with the functionality for power users to really get under the hood. The active modification community at vbulletin.org has produced hundreds of free modifications and styles, all available to licensed customers.
With a skilled team of Support Staff and a large community of vbulletin forum admins, there's always somebody who can answer your questions or give feedback.
If you are considering starting a forum, vBulletin is the software to use!

Industry leading software and support

I have only had positive experiences with vBulletin, It is easy to use and very customizable. The admin control panel provides numerous settings to fine tune how your community works and looks.
On serveral occassions I decided on another forum software when starting a new community, but I always keep gravitating back to vBulletin Due to it's widespread use, it is very easy to find a theme or an addon for your community, as there are many out there. There also exists a semi-official modification site hosting thousands of styles and modifications, it can be found at www.vbulletin.org.
Highly recomended.

The main course for communities

We started in 2004 to build up a community related to photographers and photographic topics and discovered vbulletin forum software. 8 years later we can say that this choice was the best idea our developers ever had.
After 8 years starting the main course with vbulletin we are still on vbulletin and our numerous visitors and members are not only still happy with this solution but love it. And we think that this is the most important thing for an online presentation. Your visitors and, if you need a business solution as well and simultaneously, your customers are the main targets for your activities.
But above all you also need a secure solution for your community and for us specially a good service and support is necessary for our internet business.
So we recommend vbulletin software as the first choice for you to build up a stable and comfortable communication platform for your members and commercial business!

Still best in the business.

I started using vBulletin many years when vBulletin 3.x was putting shame on other forums softwares. The main reason I chose vBulletin over the competition is because they had a wonderful support team, a bigger community, and a huge modification community like vB.org.
Also I feel like the product is very intuitive, very easy to learn and managing forums makes your life easy rather than making it feel like a job.

Over the years I've tried other forum softwares but none came close to the quality vBulletin offered.
I can also finally say that vBulletin 4.x is finally the software everyone really wanted, 4.2 is what defines 4.x, the navigation manager, the overall clean look of the software and making admins life so much easier to manage their boards.

AMAZING platform

Couldn't have asked for a better way to build a forum! thanks!