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.

The worst experience I had with customer support ever The worst experience I had with customer support in my entire life. They created an update from vb4 to vb5 that is impossible to install, so we paid their support team for a "professional installation" to do it. Their own support and developers were unable to, and ofc I did not get a refund for the $150 for the service, either to $250 for the upgrade files. They are a scam, and their support/server experts are completely dumb.

Poorly Written Software Causes Many Many Duplicate Content Issues 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.

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.

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