My forum is the lifeblood of my business and I picked VB5 - Don't know if I was wrong. I bought VB5 looked like a slick finished product, got expensive hosting, got it professionally installed. I spent a lot of money generating content, driving traffic and then in one instance my forum collapses. I panic - I kept my VB5 stock, did not change a thing, except for follow all instructions for updates. Now, I have to buy support packages to fix my problems. If you are not a technical person, and you expect VB5 to be an investment, it's not. It's a liability. It's better to use an older version of VB or another solution. VB5 needs another year of bug fixes or everyone needs to anti-up and start a class action. I work for a major auto company that has released cars that fell under class action. It just takes one motivated pissed off person who knows a lawyer or a pissed off VB customer that happens to be a lawyer - maybe it will bring down and bankrupt the company, and give rise to a better solution.

bad reviews for vbulletin means it was… bad reviews for vbulletin means it was too advanced for the posted lol.

Good company 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.

Top forum software Excellent and clean software. Would highly recommend.

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.