# vBulletin Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra > With the help of Capterra, learn about vBulletin Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Website Builder products and more. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/46868/vBulletin --- # vBulletin Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on March 13, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. Independent research methodology Capterra’s researchers use a mix of verified reviews, independent research and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or speak to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/proprietary-data-research/) How Capterra verifies reviews Capterra carefully verified over 2.5 million+ reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-verify-reviews/) How Capterra ensures transparency Capterra lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Capterra is free for users. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to receive web traffic and sales opportunities. Sponsored profiles include a link-out icon that takes users to the provider’s website. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-ensure-transparency/) [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) vBulletin ## What is vBulletin? A scalable and fully customizable forums and community solution for all medium-to-large sites. ## What is vBulletin used for? [Website Builder](https://www.capterra.com/website-builder-software/)[Community](https://www.capterra.com/community-software/) Top alternative Featured Overall rating Based on 13 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive \- Neutral \- Negative \- Starting price $249 Per Month Free trial available Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for vBulletin?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=http://www.vbulletin.com&name=vBulletin) ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### vBulletin 4.0 (13) VS. [4.2 (989)](https://www.capterra.com/p/113540/Bitrix24/reviews/) Starting Price $249 Per Month Starting Price $69 Flat Rate, Per Month Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 4.2 (13) Ease Of Use 4.0 (3,387) Value For Money 3.8 (10) Value For Money 4.2 (2,632) Customer Service 3.8 (12) Customer Service 4.0 (2,326) ## vBulletin alternatives [4.6 (5,138)](https://www.capterra.com/p/153140/Connecteam/reviews/) Starting price $29.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars Highest Rated [4.8 (117)](https://www.capterra.com/p/144958/ThoughtFarmer/reviews/) Starting price $6.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 100% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Squarespace](https://www.capterra.com/p/143461/Squarespace/) [4.5 (3,393)](https://www.capterra.com/p/143461/Squarespace/reviews/) Starting price $25.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 93% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/143461/Squarespace/) [Axero](https://www.capterra.com/p/129326/Axero/) [4.5 (87)](https://www.capterra.com/p/129326/Axero/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 98% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/129326/Axero/) [View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/46868/vBulletin/alternatives/) ## Features Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically. Access Controls/Permissions Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Discussions/Forums Online forums/groups where users can ask questions, share ideas, best practices, etc. Group Management Organize and edit a group of people's policy and members Membership Management Database of members to track personal information of individuals and families vBulletin 4 features Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Online forums/groups where users can ask questions, share ideas, best practices, etc. Organize and edit a group of people's policy and members Database of members to track personal information of individuals and families Features 3.8 (13) 3.8 Based on 13 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 3.8 (10) Free Trial Basic $249.00 Per Month Value for money 3.8 (10) 3.8 Based on 10 reviews ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 3.8 (12) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 3.8 (12) 3.8 Based on 12 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 4.0 Based on 13 reviews Filter by rating 5(5) 4(5) 3(2) 2(0) 1(1) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent NP Nicholas P. Managing Director E-Learning ### "Good platform at the time but now being left behind" 3.0 Overall Rating 3.0 3.0 Ease of Use 3.0 3.0 Features 2.0 2.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 3/10 October 7, 2020 We really appreciated this platform for a while, but our users started requesting something more modern and real-time. We now changed to a different community platform that is more like social media. I feel platforms like vBulletin may have had their day unless they become more similar to social media platforms. As a moderator, the platform solves some issues that are created through the social media approach, but users just aren't happy with it. Pros It does what it says on the tin. It is a good forum platform and has a serious, established feel to it. Users are familiar with how it works. It was possible to have our company branding and some customisation. Cons It's very dated and with people being more used to using social media for communities, it isn't desirable for users. It is also quite limited with customisation, as you have to go to third parties for particular add-ons that you would expect to be more straight forward. The front-end is more user friendly than the back-end. Reasons for choosing vBulletin It seemed the most stable and best established. Did most of the things we needed it to. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Manager Automotive ### "World famous community software" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 2.0 2.0 Likelihood to Recommend 6/10 September 23, 2020 We use vBulletin for our community website where people discuss automotive related topics. Pros Has a lot of features and is used by a lot of websites. Has a good performance on large numbers of posts. Cons Development of the software is not going well in the latest years. vBulletin cannot tackle other communication platforms as Facebook and WhatsApp that are now used to publicly discuss topics and discover other people with the same interests. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MB Michael B. Owner Information Technology and Services ### "Terrible Software Avoid at all costs" 1.0 Overall Rating 1.0 1.0 Ease of Use 2.0 2.0 Features 2.0 2.0 Customer Service 1.0 1.0 Likelihood to Recommend 0/10 July 1, 2020 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 wen Pros Recognized brand was great up until version 3.8, then things went downhill quickly! Cons Terrible Support Security Vulnerabilities Poor Functionality Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Anant M. Manager Information Technology and Services ### "vBulletin - The best software to build your forum or community on!" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 May 22, 2020 vBulletin 4 has been our forum software since the past year or so. And it works to create our own forum within our organisation. Users are able to ask for information get answers rapidly by us and the community hence increasing value and trustworthiness. Pros My first encounter with vBulletin was back in 2010. It is an amazing piece of software and has been here for like forever. - It has been the standard for a while and a lot of other platforms were built on it likeliness. - It has ability to create different sub forums, categories in a one click manner which are easy to navigate. - The moderation tools are amazing and easy to use. - For the end user, the whole forum is simple and secure to use. They are familiar as it has been here for a long time. Cons \- Some of the default templates are too retro looking in 2020, a simple modern interface is lacking. - There is a steep learning curve and it does not work out of the box. - It is expensive than other solutions. Free options are available - Bugs are very common and vBulletin 5 is a mess. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. PB Prince B. Assistant IT manager Banking ### "The best Forum software" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 January 14, 2020 vBulleting enables us to create our own blog within our organisation and also clients are able to ask for information they need on our services and get answers in time hence adding a value and a credibility to our business organization audience. Pros I like this software since its easy to use and installation is very simple and fast. It can load in different platforms is windows, Unix, MacOs as for me I use it on windows. It has an asset manager which allows the user to access photos, files and documents t anytime you need. Can be used for article publicity Cons I do not have any cons on this software is the best for me and my coworkers also never complain about it. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JH Judith H. Admin Education Management ### "Vbulletin" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 January 13, 2020 Pros I like the poll, blog, and discussion forum feathers. Makes it easy to get things done and easy to manage and easy for users to view with little problems Cons I can't really think of much that I didn't like Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JP Jess P. Webmaster Internet ### "VBulletin Makes Solid Bulletin Board (Forum) Software" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 6/10 November 5, 2019 They make a good solid bulletin board system. However I have always foundthem to be pricey. Pros I have set up VBulletins on a number of sites for my colleagues. I find it overall easy to install, well designed, and very customizable. Cons I find the price to be high. Always have. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Media and Content Developer Computer Software ### "Good basic Bulletin Board System" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 September 5, 2019 We appreciated the administration options, and the ability to grant permissions and access to specific forums and areas of the board. The general ability to post a public record of a conversation in one place was helpful and effective for the time period in which we used it. Pros Vbulletin was a great customizable option when we needed an online bulletin board system for discussions within the community. Cons Eventually we went to a system that was more mobile-friendly, and better tied into the way in which our community communicated. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Consultant Information Technology and Services ### "Hands down the best software" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 July 12, 2019 Support was great and helped me with all my issues Pros I liked the qucik and easy setup and the wide arrway of features. Many people originally told me the software was slow etc, but since its release the code has grealty improved and its very fast and able to run on cheap shared hosting. The admin panel is very clean, and my users love it Cons The price is pretty expensive still, plus there arent as many addons as I hoped. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Lead Writer Computer Software ### "vBulletin is a forum software that I use on a daily basis." 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 May 8, 2018 Pros vBulletin is stable, easy to use and easy to learn. It creates deep, feature rich forums and message boards which are easy to navigate. Cons Having to buy and maintain a license is definitely an inconvenience for me. There are other ways to share content which don't cost anyhting. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. [View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/46868/vBulletin/reviews/) ## Top-rated software of 2026 ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox. Independent research methodology Capterra's researchers use a mix of verified reviews, independent research and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or speak to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/proprietary-data-research/) How Capterra verifies reviews Capterra carefully verified over 2.5 million+ reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-verify-reviews/) How Capterra ensures transparency Capterra lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Capterra is free for users. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to receive web traffic and sales opportunities. Sponsored profiles include a link-out icon that takes users to the provider's website. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-ensure-transparency/)