vBulletin Cloud
Online community management software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$18.74 per month
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
Small
Medium
Large
- Information technology and software
- Manufacturing
- Accommodation and food services
What is vBulletin Cloud
vBulletin Cloud is a hosted online community platform used to create and manage discussion forums and member communities. It targets organizations, publishers, and interest groups that want a managed forum experience without running their own server infrastructure. The product focuses on core forum capabilities such as threads, moderation, user management, and theming, with hosting and updates handled by the vendor. It is typically used for customer support communities, member discussion boards, and niche interest communities.
Mature forum feature set
vBulletin is built around traditional forum workflows such as categories, threads, replies, and moderation queues. It supports common community administration needs including user roles/permissions and content moderation tools. For organizations that specifically want forum-style discussions rather than event or course-centric communities, the feature set aligns well with that use case.
Vendor-hosted cloud deployment
The cloud offering reduces the need to provision servers, manage patches, or handle routine platform maintenance internally. This can simplify operations for small teams that want a hosted community rather than self-managed infrastructure. It also provides a more predictable deployment model compared with running forum software on an organization’s own hosting.
Forum-centric customization options
The platform provides theming and configuration options oriented to forum presentation and navigation. Administrators can structure forums and subforums to match different topics, products, or member segments. This helps teams maintain a consistent community information architecture as the forum grows.
Less suited to event-led communities
vBulletin Cloud is primarily designed for asynchronous forum discussions rather than event programming and attendee engagement. Organizations that need built-in event registration, virtual event delivery, or event analytics may require additional tools. This can increase integration and operational overhead for event-centric community strategies.
Limited modern engagement modules
Compared with platforms that emphasize advocacy programs, gamified challenges, or structured learning experiences, vBulletin Cloud is more centered on classic forum interactions. Teams seeking out-of-the-box capabilities for advocacy workflows, member journeys, or advanced engagement automation may find gaps. As a result, some engagement initiatives may require custom work or third-party services.
Portability and control trade-offs
A hosted deployment typically provides less control over the underlying environment than self-hosted software. Organizations with strict requirements for custom server-side extensions, bespoke integrations, or data residency controls may face constraints. Migration planning is also important, since moving large forum datasets and user accounts can be complex.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | $18.74 per month (billed annually) / $24.95 per month (month-to-month) | 25 GB monthly bandwidth; includes free forum support; includes a free domain with privacy protection (privacy protection not available for .co.uk and .ws). |
| Silver | $37.49 per month (billed annually) / $49.95 per month (month-to-month) | 75 GB monthly bandwidth; includes free ticket & forum support; includes a free domain with privacy protection. |
| Gold | $74.99 per month (billed annually) / $94.95 per month (month-to-month) | 200 GB monthly bandwidth; includes free phone, ticket & forum support; includes a free domain with privacy protection; includes free authentication for a custom email domain. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing (Contact Sales) | 200+ GB bandwidth and enterprise-level support/features; contact vBulletin for details. |
All plans include automatic upgrades to the latest vBulletin version, scalable capacity, high-performance servers, site security, automatic daily backups and a large (100GB) storage allocation included with all sites.
Seller details
vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
United States (exact city not consistently published)
2000
Private
https://www.vbulletin.com/
https://x.com/vbulletin
https://www.linkedin.com/company/vbulletin-solutions-inc/
