Companies Using vBulletin

Over the past several years of analyzing web technology data, I've watched vBulletin evolve in ways that the headline numbers don't fully capture.

1. Growth Trajectory: A Legacy Platform Showing Its Age

Our detection data tracks vBulletin from 33 active domains in July 2005 to a peak of 8,950 in April 2025. That growth looks steady, but the full picture is less rosy. We've detected 51,517 total domains that have used vBulletin at some point, meaning 39,712 (77%) have since abandoned it. The platform grew slowly through the 2000s, hovered around 1,000-1,300 active domains from 2015-2019, then saw a detection spike starting in mid-2023 as our crawler expanded its coverage. The recent uptick in active domains likely reflects improved detection rather than genuine new adoption.

Sales Signal: vBulletin's addressable market is shrinking. The 77% churn rate means most former users have already moved on. Sales teams targeting forum software should focus on the 8,942 remaining active sites as migration prospects rather than new vBulletin adopters.

2. Customer Profile: Small Operators Running Established Communities

The customer data is clear. 71.1% of vBulletin companies have 1-10 employees, and combined with the 11-50 range, 86% are small operations. These aren't enterprise software deployments; they're typically community managers or hobbyists running discussion boards. The age distribution reinforces this: 38.6% of companies were founded in the 2000s and another 20.5% in the 1990s, meaning nearly 60% of vBulletin operators are organizations that have existed for 15-30+ years. Newer companies (founded in the 2020s) represent just 6.5%. Larger organizations do use vBulletin: Fandango, Grass Valley, OASE GmbH, and GibbsCAM all run forum subdomains for product support or user communities.

Sales Signal: vBulletin's user base skews older and smaller. These organizations likely face rising maintenance costs on aging PHP infrastructure. They need migration tools, managed hosting, or modern alternatives that preserve their content archives.

3. Industry and Geographic Concentration

Industry-wise, Technology leads at 11.33%, followed by Software Development (5.95%) and IT Services (5.38%). Combined, tech-adjacent verticals account for over 22% of the base. Publishing (3.97%), gaming (3.12%), and restaurants (3.12%) fill out the middle tier. No single vertical exceeds 12%, which makes vBulletin a horizontal tool rather than an industry-specific one. These communities exist because the organizations needed a discussion space, not because vBulletin solves an industry problem.

Geographically, the United States leads with 48.7% of enriched companies (199 of 409 with country data). The UK (5.6%) and Germany (5.4%) are distant second and third. English-speaking markets account for over 55% of the base, with a notable European spread across France (3.9%), Italy (2.2%), Belgium (2.0%), and Spain (2.0%).

Sales Signal: The US concentration at nearly half the user base makes it the primary target market. European operators (especially Germany, France, and Italy) represent a secondary opportunity, particularly for localized migration services to EU-hosted alternatives.

4. Migration Patterns: vBulletin Is Losing Communities at Scale

The migration data is the most telling signal in our dataset. VBulletin is experiencing net-negative migration across every competitor. The largest outflow goes to XenForo 2.x: 151 companies switched away from vBulletin to XenForo, while only 1 came back. That's a 151:1 loss ratio. Against Discourse, the ratio is 9:1 (45 lost vs. 5 gained). Even bbPress, a simpler WordPress plugin, pulled 33 companies from vBulletin versus 8 going the other direction.

In the last year alone. 21 companies migrated to XenForo 2.x and 9 to Discourse. The pattern is unmistakable: vBulletin operators are moving to modern platforms that offer better theming, mobile responsiveness, and active plugin librarys.

Sales Signal: The 151:1 XenForo migration ratio makes former vBulletin users the prime audience for migration services. Companies still on vBulletin are likely evaluating alternatives. Any tool that simplifies vBulletin-to-XenForo or vBulletin-to-Discourse migration has a large addressable market of 8,942 remaining sites.

5. Technology stack

The tech stack data reveals what a typical vBulletin site looks like in 2026. jQuery appears on 85.7% of all vBulletin sites, reflecting the platform's PHP/jQuery architecture. Google Analytics (73.0%) and Google Tag Manager (71.0%) are near-universal for traffic tracking. Cloudflare provides CDN and security for 60.5% of sites.

The advertising stack is heavy: DoubleClick.Net (64.0%), Google AdSense (34.5%), and Ads.txt (34.2%) indicate that many vBulletin communities monetize through display ads. Social integration is also strong, with Facebook (77.8%) and Twitter (65.5%) widely embedded. This ad-heavy, socially-connected stack is typical of content communities that rely on traffic-based revenue.

Sales Signal: The high ad-tech penetration (64% DoubleClick, 34% AdSense) tells you these are traffic-dependent businesses. Tools that improve ad yield, reduce page load times, or offer alternative monetization (memberships, premium content) would resonate. The 60.5% Cloudflare adoption also suggests security-conscious operators who've already invested in DDoS protection.

G2 Review Signals

I've cross-referenced our crawl data with G2 reviews for vBulletin, and the patterns track. Users consistently praise ease of use and support availability as the platform's core strengths, which aligns with the long retention cycles we see among established communities. The main pain point? Outdated design templates -- a signal that matches the 151:1 migration ratio to XenForo we detect in our data.

Key Takeaways

vBulletin is a legacy forum platform in managed decline. With 3.79% market share (ranking #3) and a 77% historical churn rate, the platform retains a loyal but shrinking base of 8,942 active domains. Its users are overwhelmingly small (71.1% have 1-10 employees), US-based (48.7%), and operating tech or media communities founded in the 2000s. The 151:1 migration loss to XenForo is the clearest signal: the market is moving on. VBulletin's remaining value lies in its installed base of established communities that haven't yet migrated.

Sales Applications

Prospecting template: "Our data at TechnologyChecker.io shows your site [domain] is running vBulletin. With 151 communities migrating to XenForo in the past year alone, we help operators like you transition without losing posts, users, or SEO rankings. Can I share our migration checklist?"

Targeting strategy: On TechnologyChecker.io, filter by vBulletin + 51-200 employees + Technology industry to find mid-size companies most likely to have budget and urgency for a platform switch. The 442 enriched company profiles include LinkedIn URLs for direct outreach.

Competitive angle: Focus on the 39,712 domains that previously used vBulletin (our "previously used" data). These organizations have already made the decision to leave. Identify which platform they moved to and offer complementary services.

Explore the full dataset at TechnologyChecker.io and filter by industry, company size, geography, and tech stack across 8,942 vBulletin domains with 442 enriched company profiles.

What Buyers Should Know

I always tell prospects to check G2 reviews before making a Forum & Community decision. For vBulletin, the available reviews tell a consistent story: ease of use is the main draw, and design templates is the main risk. Our adoption data actually confirms the review sentiment -- the sites that stick with vBulletin long-term tend to be the ones that value what G2 reviewers praise most.