Management at Internet Brands must be drinking on the job again.

[Wayne]

Just in case you're looking for a final reason to dump vBulletin Cloud on the curb:

"Effective November 4, 2025, vBulletin will be raising renewal cost of the following vBulletin Cloud plans:

Bronze Monthly (renewal cost increased to USD 24.95)
Silver Monthly (renewal cost increased to USD 49.95)
Gold Monthly (renewal cost increased to USD 94.95)
Bronze Yearly (renewal cost increased to USD 224.95)
Silver Yearly (renewal cost increased to USD 449.95)
Gold Yearly (renewal cost increased to USD 899.95)"

What they're offering isn't worth $50/month to me. Obviously I'll keep my self-hosted licenses just because, but it's been real, vBulletin Cloud.

 

[Shawn]

How much do you get for the 900.00 a month plan?! I'd expect a big dedicated server for that!

 

[Wayne]

$900 is for a year and you get 200gb bandwidth and a promise that they'll never innovate beyond the last version of vB6.

 

[Shawn]

$900 is for a year and you get 200gb bandwidth and a promise that they'll never innovate beyond the last version of vB6.

Oh it's a year! LOL I was gonna say!

 

[Demon_skeith]

IPB isn't any better, glad I went with Xenofor and host my own stuff.

 

[Wayne]

With the cloud site gone, I was tinkering with the last vB license I purchased (6.1.5, at the last update). Looks like they managed to get a probably/maybe/mostly functional PWA going. 5 years too late, but better late than never I guess. Has this been in self-hosted for a while and I just didn't notice??

 

[Shawn]

I think they recently added that in one of their updates for vb6.

 

[LarryMyster]

Who actually uses vBulletin anymore? Serious question. Glad I didn't upgrade to 6, its the same exact thing as vB5 right?

 

[Wayne]

I was trying to leverage the nostalgia of vBulletin for the forum (that was its overall vibe), but I was mainly in denial. After using vB for many years, it was tough to admit that the software has simply become an overly-complicated mess. It forces you to take the hardest route to achieve an obviously outdated aesthetic.

Even Gemini hates it at this point: "vBulletin is no longer the market leader for new community projects. It is primarily sustained by its existing, massive user base. For a new venture seeking modern features, high performance, and a vibrant developer community, XenForo or Discourse are generally considered superior choices."

 

[LarryMyster]

I was trying to leverage the nostalgia of vBulletin for the forum (that was its overall vibe), but I was mainly in denial. After using vB for many years, it was tough to admit that the software has simply become an overly-complicated mess. It forces you to take the hardest route to achieve an obviously outdated aesthetic.

Even Gemini hates it at this point: "vBulletin is no longer the market leader for new community projects. It is primarily sustained by its existing, massive user base. For a new venture seeking modern features, high performance, and a vibrant developer community, XenForo or Discourse are generally considered superior choices."

When vB4 came out and they did the whole CMS that is when they started to fall. Jelsoft Enterpises sold vBulletin to Internet Brands and Kier (the lead dev) took off during the vB4 fiasco and went and made XenForo, then Internet brands tried to sue kier for "stealing code." Xenforo won the lawsuit by the way, shocker... vB4 is when it had the big shift.

I'm sorry and don't take it personal, but vbulletin died at vB4, vB 3.8 was the last good software update in my opinion.

 

[Shawn]

Who actually uses vBulletin anymore? Serious question. Glad I didn't upgrade to 6, its the same exact thing as vB5 right?

VB6 looks like it may have some potential but they need to do a lot more to get it there,

 

[LarryMyster]

I agree. I just don't see how they could copy vB5. I mean was there huge differences between the 2?

 

[Shawn]

I miss VB3.8 to be honest

 

[Wayne]

I agree. I just don't see how they could copy vB5. I mean was there huge differences between the 2?

Despite claims of improved speed and updated styling, the changes are negligible. The visuals don't enhance usability, and the software feels no faster than before.

 

[Shawn]

Despite claims of improved speed and updated styling, the changes are negligible. The visuals don't enhance usability, and the software feels no faster than before.

I haven't noticed any speed increases with any of the forum platforms to be honest.