Any news about Xenforo 3.0, can we expect modern forum?

[qnkov]

Hello. For half a year, I have been looking for a modern forum system to start an anime/manga site with various features. For example, a video system for watching movies/episodes, a way to add manga/anime as pages with information about them, topics with posters, etc. I saw that all of this is possible with Invision Community.

I waited to see version 5, but it turned out that the self-hosted platform is extremely expensive and has functionality limits. They also changed the way we acquire add-ons, significantly restricting options, and almost no themes exist for their latest version.

On the other hand, XenForo seems like a better alternative in terms of user base and price, but the forum and themes, in general, look like they’re from the early 2000s. I understand that some may find this nostalgic, but it looks incredibly outdated and is not visually appealing.

That’s why I’m wondering what exactly to expect with version 3.0. Can we anticipate a modern interface similar to Invision Community? I really don't want to go to invision as they may drop self-hosted in next version, as they aim for big comapanies, not common users now.

 

[Brad P]

I’ve been with XenForo since the very beginning, and yeah, the wait for 3.0 has definitely been a long one. I get why people are getting impatient, but honestly, big rewrites like this take time. They’ve said before it’s a full overhaul of the front end and a lot of the core code, so it’s not something they can just push out quickly.

I still have faith in the team. Every major release they’ve done before has been worth the wait, and I’d rather see them take their time and get it right than rush it. When it finally drops, I’m hoping it feels modern but still keeps that core XF simplicity that made it great from the start.

Enjoy Sunday everyone, the sun is shining in the UK

 

[TheGroove]

It could be that Xenforo has simply hit its plateau, I mean it works well as designed and does everything we really need a forum to do. Short of security updates it's hard to blame them for not wanting to continue development on what's essentially a dying platform since everything has moved to a world of social media.

Yes, existing customers want something new but with the low adoption rate of new forum sites nowadays what incentive they have to completely modernize it when so few will ever use it?

Personally speaking I've just been using Claude to write any enhancements I want on my board, unless it's something major you really don't need to hire a developer or wait anymore.

 

[smallwheels]

it's hard to blame them for not wanting to continue development on what's essentially a dying platform since everything has moved to a world of social media.

Well, obviously apart from the fact that it is the business of XF to develop it further and that the further developments have been announced and partly delivered with the last releases. I really don't what these destrutive statements shall achieve. We had these in a tsunami-like form towards the end of 2025 and we have seen for once what these did to the culture of the forum and secondly that it was simply made up fake news by destructive people and drama queens. One could have hoped that there was some learning from this episode - but it seems that some rather enjoy making up things and spreading fake news and FUD.

You claim the XF team would not want to continue development on XF. Where do you get this from? It is plain phantasy I'd say.

You further claim

the low adoption rate of new forum sites nowadays

- wehre do get this from? You either have internal sources or you make up things w/o any foundation once more.

If you think forums and specifically XF would be a dying or dead horse you should switch horses and everyone would be well served. You'd use a plattform that you consider to be not dead and the rest of the forum would suffer from less negativity, destructiveness, fake news and FUD.