XenForo
Ranked 5 of 6 forum software by recommenders
Forum software that people find a better, more traditional experience than Discourse and older vBulletin-style forums. Some critics report security problems and bot traffic.
Forum software that people find a better, more traditional experience than Discourse and older vBulletin-style forums. Some critics report security problems and bot traffic.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Better experience than other forums
“IMO it has a much nicer UX than Discourse, if only because it uses a more traditional approach.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Discourse Is Not Going Closed Source” “while I've just been on forums that have been using xenoforo, I found it a better experience”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Discourse Is Not Going Closed Source” “the default design was quite refreshing compared to vB and IPB”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Getting phpBB 1.4.4 working in Docker” Modern take on vBulletin
“The original vB developers built Xenforo, which is still in the spirit of vB 3 but with some modern amenities”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Discourse Is Not Going Closed Source” “the default design was quite refreshing compared to vB and IPB”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Getting phpBB 1.4.4 working in Docker”
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
9 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“even vanilla xenforo was getting compromised all the time”
“I was so glad when XenForo came about and gave those sleazebags some competition.”
“the default design was quite refreshing compared to vB and IPB”
“xenforo and some add ons can do that”
“Xenforo is not much better an has many "administrators" whining about bot traffic as well.”
“IMO it has a much nicer UX than Discourse, if only because it uses a more traditional approach.”
“while I've just been on forums that have been using xenoforo, I found it a better experience”
“The original vB developers built Xenforo, which is still in the spirit of vB 3 but with some modern amenities”
“Even those (Xenforo now, I suppose) are being bought up by marketing companies to sell ads”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.