vBulletin
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 6 forum software by recommenders
People recommend vBulletin for its themes, hooks, bitmask permissions and classic forum look that beat UBB. Some critics note its spread through widely pirated nulled copies.
People recommend vBulletin for its themes, hooks, bitmask permissions and classic forum look that beat UBB. Some critics note its spread through widely pirated nulled copies.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Nostalgia for classic vBulletin forums
“I'm fondly reminded of the old vBulletin-style reputation squares”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com Alternative” “good old vBulletin-like forums are peak internet discussions”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Refusing to Use Twitter” “I never thought I'd miss vBulletin so much.”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “r/programming bans all discussion of LLM programming”
Other forum software people recommend
The four most recommended other forum software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 6 forum software, rankedWhat people said
13 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I'm fondly reminded of the old vBulletin-style reputation squares”
“Eventually discovering a nulled vbulletin was like finding a pot of gold.”
“the 4.x major broke a ton of mods so there was still a huge community sticking to 3.x”
“forums have issues with slowdown”
“vBulletin Did a better job with security”
“The thing that got vBulletin to succeed over UBB was themes and customizations/hooks.”
“How did vBulletin/phpBB came to dominate the forum space in the English internet? To me, that seem like the source of a lot of problems for the forum culture”
“Nothing wrong with those stacks.”
“I never thought I'd miss vBulletin so much.”
“Not sure what forums software you're thinking of but vBulletin, phpBB, Discourse don't have the extra features the author is looking for.”
“I was very impressed with vBulletin’s use of bitmasking for permissions”
“good old vBulletin-like forums are peak internet discussions”
“downloading "nulled" versions of vBulletin off of Limewire”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.