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 I understand that some may find this nostalgic, but it looks incredibly outdated and is not visually appealing.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.

 

[Wing]

That argument would carry more weight if we were actually seeing tangible results instead of continually shifting timelines and missed expectations.

Forum activity alone has never been a direct measure of development progress — I completely agree with that. Developers should absolutely spend more time building and testing software than posting online. However, when communication drops to nearly zero and promised deliverables remain delayed for years, people are naturally going to question what’s happening behind the scenes.

For example, Kier may only post once a year, yet we can still visibly see substantial progress on personal projects like KDX(https://kdx.kierdarby.com/). The issue isn’t what developers choose to do in their spare time — it’s the growing disconnect between expectations, communication, and visible progress on the core product itself.

At some point, repeatedly saying “they’re probably coding and testing” stops being a convincing explanation when major features remain behind schedule two years later with little transparency. That’s not cynicism — it’s simply acknowledging reality.

Many of us who have been here for 10+ years have seen the difference firsthand. Development has clearly slowed, the team appears significantly smaller, and the community itself has contracted as well. Those observations aren’t based on emotion; they’re based on long-term experience watching the platform evolve over more than a decade.


Just a reminder that some of us have been part of this community for 10–15 years. When we say development and communication have slowed to a crawl, that perspective is based on over a decade of observing the company’s patterns and release cycles — not just the last 3–4 years.

This isn’t reactionary criticism. It comes from long-term experience watching how development, communication, and community engagement used to operate compared to where things stand today.

This guy gets it.

 

[dilbert]

This thread is deeply concerning. As a self-hosted IC owner with three sites—including a large, highly customized board with nearly 2M posts averaging 500 posts a day—I feel incredibly vulnerable right now.

I have invested a lot of money into my main site. Because I run custom newsletters that rely on direct database access, migrating isn't simple. While XenForo seems like a viable backup, the fear that it could suffer the same fate as vBulletin (being sold to a corporation) makes me hesitate.

With development seemingly stalled and virtually no staff response on these forums, I feel completely lost about the future of my communities here.

 

[Mr Lucky]

The XF team keeps moving the goalposts

I don’t see any goalposts being moved. Yes they are taking longer to score than many people expected, but are you able to say in what way the goal post have moved?

 

[smallwheels]

However, when communication drops to nearly zero and promised deliverables remain delayed for years, people are naturally going to question what’s happening behind the scenes.

Absolutely agree that communication is catastrophic and the delays are not nice. However, I wonder if you can quote where someone from the XF crew promised a certain delivery date. All I saw (or at least remember) were verbs like "currently aiming", in conjunction with a timespan of several months. Not exactly a promise but rather the opposite. Get me right: I do understand the disappointment. But it is one thing to adjust a target and another, to break a promise. Many of the loudest people on here talk about a more than once broken promised release date. Yet no one could quote that. Could it be that you and all the others took as a promise what was never a promise in the first hand? So rather wishful thinking than anything else?

Many of us who have been here for 10+ years have seen the difference firsthand. Development has clearly slowed, the team appears significantly smaller, and the community itself has contracted as well. Those observations aren’t based on emotion; they’re based on long-term experience watching the platform evolve over more than a decade.

It comes from long-term experience watching how development, communication, and community engagement used to operate compared to where things stand today.

Yes, times may have changed, but you can't turn back time. Most of us will have lost some hair, too over the last 10 years. It may be sad but whining that the world was such a better place back then won't change a thing. It just makes you feel more miserable.

 

[jul]

Absolutely agree that communication is catastrophic and the delays are not nice. However, I wonder if you can quote where someone from the XF crew promised a certain delivery date. All I saw (or at least remember) were verbs like "currently aiming", in conjunction with a timespan of several months. Not exactly a promise but rather the opposite. Get me right: I do understand the disappointment. But it is one thing to adjust a target and another, to break a promise. Many of the loudest people on here talk about a more than once broken promised release date. Yet no one could quote that. Could it be that you and all the others took as a promise what was never a promise in the first hand? So rather wishful thinking than anything else?



Yes, times may have changed, but you can't turn back time. Most of us will have lost some hair, too over the last 10 years. It may be sad but whining that the world was such a better place back then won't change a thing. It just makes you feel more miserable.

Am I allowed as paying customer who pays for a year of "support and updates" to be concerned of the absence and lack of transparency by the staff? Literally this thread wouldn't last for so long if there was any staff looking at their forums. I fully knew that I paid for Xenforo as a sort of as-is product with no promises of new features. BUT, what I do expect is any security updates as bare minimum for a year long. Especially during these times its much easier to find flaws with AI. I have absolutely no clue if there is still activity around security flaw reports or the detection of it. This concern is proven by the 'complains' within this thread.

To me, these complains are valuable for new customers as they serve as a review for new customers. They have the right to know before buying.

I myself and many others have bought Xenforo knowing fully well it won't generate money (nowadays). For Xenforo to be optimal you also will probably be looking at buying styles and add-ons from third party developers. All-in-all this is a lot of money. As a new customer with perhaps a limited budget I would at least want to know; yes Xenforo is amazing but maybe keep your expectations down for the things mentioned in this thread.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I myself and many others have bought Xenforo knowing fully well it won't generate money (nowadays).

Of course it won’t generate money. You can buy a taxi cab and park it in your drive and it won’t generate money. But with some input from you both can make money.

 

[jul]

Of course it won’t generate money. You can buy a taxi cab and park it in your drive and it won’t generate money. But with some input from you both can make money.

I dont think that was the important part from my post.

 

[dilbert]

@Kier
@Mike
@Chris D
@Jeremy P
@Naz

As a potential customer, would you please consider a paragraph or two addressing some of these concerns?

Thank you

 

[Wing]

Yes, times may have changed, but you can't turn back time. Most of us will have lost some hair, too over the last 10 years. It may be sad but whining that the world was such a better place back then won't change a thing. It just makes you feel more miserable.

Welcome to business. Any other company, the same complaints would be rampant by now for a paid product.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

In all honesty, some of the stuff I read here seems to be that people are confused, and from that confusion, lots of silly statements get made.

I just read about security updates from @dilbert, who isn't an XF customer, when all you had to do was check the appropriate forum to see, 3 updates this year, one specifically security, two fixing things, some minor improvements. That took me a few seconds to find.



Then I read stuff about design, comparing Invision as a modern system and XF should what? Follow their design? What does design have to do with features? I'm not seeing anything on the forum side that Invision has or does significantly different than what the current XF does. Design is what third party designers are for, it has nothing to do with XF and the default template you get. I posted earlier that if you like Invision design, there is a solution to that, without the price of Invision.

So... that's security, updates, features and theme all shot down as misinformation so far.

Dev communication. Yep, that is few and far between. From what I have read here before from devs about these type threads, it just consumes their time and becomes an endless waste of time when they should be focused on what they're doing, living their life, spending time with family, etc. Nothing here is broken, XF works well, we have an evolving group of devs and designers constantly adding solutions for niche consumer demand.

The loudest voices in here, seem to be from people with fairly new and small forums, or non-XF customers. Wait until your forum is larger, constant changes come with significant headaches.

You pay for the license to use their intellectual property. It covers you for any updates during the year. You may get updates, you may not. Just don't renew until you get updates enough to justify the cost. Hell, I didn't renew here for a couple of years at one point, nothing to renew for. Its not difficult.

 

[Wing]

The loudest voices in here, seem to be from people with fairly new and small forums, or non-XF customers. Wait until your forum is larger, constant changes come with significant headaches.

Tbh, I totally get what you’re saying. But you need to take a step back and remember all the HUGE boards even, who have decided to change platforms over the last years. Numerous admins over the years have attempted to express these same complaints and concerns year after year. So no this isn’t valid anymore man. I don’t know how many threads have been posted like this now since 2023, where some very active members and even developers of the Xenforo community are also no longer with us. Please quit painting with a broad brush that tries to discredit the concerns. That’s super frustrating at this point - and everyone should stop pointing fingers at other clients that decide to continue speaking out. Maybe for once finally point the finger at the culprit aka company itself? That’s typically how it goes in any other business environment. This isn’t a hobby passion project, last I checked - Xenforo was a proper LTD.

 

[Rusty Snippets]

@Kier
@Mike
@Chris D
@Jeremy P
@Naz

As a potential customer, would you please consider a paragraph or two addressing some of these concerns?

Thank you

 

[dilbert]

I just read about security updates from @dilbert, who isn't an XF customer, when all you had to do was check the appropriate forum to see, 3 updates this year, one specifically security, two fixing things, some minor improvements.

Sorry, I don't think that was me.

This makes me sad. This is a pre-sales forum, and no one seems to think I'll get a reply.
Obviously, I didn't read every post in the thread, but I'm not sure there are many from xF developers.

 

[smallwheels]

I fully knew that I paid for Xenforo as a sort of as-is product with no promises of new features. BUT, what I do expect is any security updates as bare minimum for a year long.

It is interesting that you complain about a lack of security updates when there were four updates within the last 12 months: 2.3.7, 2.3.8, 2.3.9 and 2.3.10 - the latter just two months ago and the last three all within this year. This information is just one click away (and I even posted it a couple of posts further up this thread). If you missed those, your complaints about lack of (security) updates and lack of communication sound somewhat failed, as you obviously don't care as much as you claim...

To me, these complains are valuable for new customers as they serve as a review for new customers. They have the right to know before buying.

They could be valuable if they were not poisoned with made up things that are untrue like "lack of (security) updates" (when in reality there were plenty), broken "promises" (when in reality there were no promises at all) etc. - some people start to get hysterical again. We had this exact situation last autumn - obviously some people did not learn their lesson.
So no - threads like this are not helpful for potential customers. There is a lot of room for improvement with XF's transparency and communication and possibly the speed of releases could be faster. However: The product works pretty excellently, many admins are not too eager for rushing through updates (as they are by definition risky and work intensive) but rather prefer a stable pace and stability and the impression that the moaner brigade creates for new customers is very wrong in some respects. They probably don't even represent the majority of customers (as the majority is simply not posting on that forum and busy running their forums successfully and hopefully happily, too).

So overall these complaint threads are everything but helpful, as they are a mixture of valid points and made up things, generically pretty hysterical after only short time, in many areas massively exaggerated (we will all die if XF doesn't release tomorrow; my forum does not work at all w/o 3.0), represent in many areas expectations against XF regarding features that they never intended or hinted at (let alone promised) to follow and create an impression of the community that one would rather prefer not to become part of it.

So in fact threads like this are more a source of disinformation and FUD than anything else. And through the exaggerations and made up things they even make it harder to address the valid points that people have.

In the end it does not matter: The moaners department won't stop moaning, no matter what XF does and delivers or not. They just like to moan and will never be happy. And this way they make it harder for the valid points of critics to be listened to and lower the probability that those will be addressed.

 

[Semper]

You’re really enjoying this thread.

 

[vbresults]

This thread is deeply concerning. As a self-hosted IC owner with three sites—including a large, highly customized board with nearly 2M posts averaging 500 posts a day—I feel incredibly vulnerable right now.

I have invested a lot of money into my main site. Because I run custom newsletters that rely on direct database access, migrating isn't simple. While XenForo seems like a viable backup, the fear that it could suffer the same fate as vBulletin (being sold to a corporation) makes me hesitate.

With development seemingly stalled and virtually no staff response on these forums, I feel completely lost about the future of my communities here.

IC4's EOL date has been announced and they are retiring the provider directory as well. I had high hopes for IC5 but many of the customization hook points have been removed. It does a lot out of the box but closed a lot of doors too.

There is no better alternative than XF and there are solutions to your custom newsletter problem with the appropriate expertise. Any discussion about XenForo being sold to another company is speculative and unfounded.

 

[jul]

It is interesting that you complain about a lack of security updates when there were four updates within the last 12 months: 2.3.7, 2.3.8, 2.3.9 and 2.3.10 - the latter just two months ago and the last three all within this year. This information is just one click away (and I even posted it a couple of posts further up this thread). If you missed those, your complaints about lack of (security) updates and lack of communication sound somewhat failed, as you obviously don't care as much as you claim...

They could be valuable if they were not poisoned with made up things that are untrue like "lack of (security) updates" (when in reality there were plenty), broken "promises" (when in reality there were no promises at all) etc. - some people start to get hysterical again. We had this exact situation last autumn - obviously some people did not learn their lesson.
So no - threads like this are not helpful for potential customers. There is a lot of room for improvement with XF's transparency and communication and possibly the speed of releases could be faster. However: The product works pretty excellently, many admins are not too eager for rushing through updates (as they are by definition risky and work intensive) but rather prefer a stable pace and stability and the impression that the moaner brigade creates for new customers is very wrong in some respects. They probably don't even represent the majority of customers (as the majority is simply not posting on that forum and busy running their forums successfully and hopefully happily, too).

So overall these complaint threads are everything but helpful, as they are a mixture of valid points and made up things, generically pretty hysterical after only short time, in many areas massively exaggerated (we will all die if XF doesn't release tomorrow; my forum does not work at all w/o 3.0), represent in many areas expectations against XF regarding features that they never intended or hinted at (let alone promised) to follow and create an impression of the community that one would rather prefer not to become part of it.

So in fact threads like this are more a source of disinformation and FUD than anything else. And through the exaggerations and made up things they even make it harder to address the valid points that people have.

In the end it does not matter: The moaners department won't stop moaning, no matter what XF does and delivers or not. They just like to moan and will never be happy. And this way they make it harder for the valid points of critics to be listened to and lower the probability that those will be addressed.

Great how you just make up things out of thin air. Nobody says there are no security updates nor any 'lack of security updates'. Quote me where I said any of that.

All I want to say is we are left in the dark which is reason for concern (to me!):

We have no idea what is going on within the Xenforo team. Something about transparency and communication...? Again, if there was any activitiy around the staff team on the forums this thread would and should be closed right away with a (little) clarification. Having 4 updates within 12 months doesn't necessarily say anything. Although the amount of updates has significantly decreased it seems. We have had 3/4 updates within a single month before... Does that say anything? Not directly. All we know is that we have an official product forums with barely any reactions from staff, a staff/developers team with even less members now and a post of one of two years ago about less activity because of sickness/family trouble. How is that going right now? We don't know, for months/years. Those 12 months with 3 singular security reports being reported by the Xenforo community and solved by a Xenforo developer doesn't necessarily say if there is a backlog of reports still out there... We never knew but the only difference now is that there are less developers and no/barely any communication than before. As a 'costumer' who potentionally don't know anything about developing/coding we rely on communication. Have you seen the bug reports section? It seems to be just Chris dealing with all the pages of bug reports for Xenforo and the 3 official add-ons. Shout out to him for carrying Xenforo if that is the case but to me that seems way too much to be carried by just one person. In this day and age with AI growing more intelligent and the ease of downloading a nulled Xenforo version and search for vulnerabilities with AI allows for anyone that is not even an expert to potentionally do harm. Again, Xenforo might be rock solid in terms of security but I simply do not know. All I know is what I see (based on forum activity) and to me that is a single developer for such a big product.

Again, I am a fan of Xenforo. I will not leave Xenforo. Every month I purchase add-ons/styles from third-party developers to support them and ofcourse myself. Yet, I do understand the 'complaints' of those who post here.

Have you also noticed that all those who 'complain/moan/cry' all just ask for one thing: just a singular reply from a Xenforo staff member to tell us what's going on. One reply to stop this thread from growing is all that is needed.

 

[duderuud]

In the end it does not matter: The moaners department won't stop moaning, no matter what XF does and delivers or not. They just like to moan and will never be happy.

I can only speak for myself but that is just not true. I am "a moaner" for a while now because of this situation. I never was moaning before, always been a happy customer.

When the XF team is back on it's feet (if ever) and 2.4 is out while 3.0 is being in development again I will be happy again. But I am afraid that is wishful thinking to be honest.

 

[CedricV]

Some people really need other hobbies than complaining and debating with other members about things they can’t change like their life depends on it.

 

[smallwheels]

Nobody says there are no security updates nor any 'lack of security updates'. Quote me where I said any of that.

Easy:

I fully knew that I paid for Xenforo as a sort of as-is product with no promises of new features. BUT, what I do expect is any security updates as bare minimum for a year long. Especially during these times its much easier to find flaws with AI. I have absolutely no clue if there is still activity around security flaw reports or the detection of it. This concern is proven by the 'complains' within this thread.

All I want to say is we are left in the dark

Depends from what you consider "dark". The official state of things is atm:

• They target to release 2.4 within 2026, so while this is not a promise (and has taken long and the timeframe has been shifted in the past) they are currently well within the communicated time frame.
• We do know for the most part what will be contained in 2.4 based on the various HYS threads from the past
• We do know that with 2.4 there will come a new editor and a more or less massive overhaul of the legacy code base (which probably is one of the reasons if not the main reason for the delays)
• We do know that 3.0 will (obviously) come at some point after 2.4 and that 2.4 is the release where the focus lies currently
• We do know that 3.0 will bring a new style and that this will be the main feature. We do not yet know what this means in detail (which seems fair as the focus is on 2.4 currently).
• We do know that 2.4 will not include any of the social-media-feed alike thingies that some people loudly demand in countless variations (that partly outrage each other anyway)
• We do know (or rather can safely assume) that whatever the new style of 3.0 will bring will not be a Reddit/Facebook/Tiktok/Instagram clone, so those who demand those things won't be happy anyway and won't stop moaning
• We do know that XF reacts to known and new security issues fast (as they did this in the past and also recently)
• We do know that the company is financially sound due to the success of the cloud offerings
• We do know that there are no plans to ditch self hosting
• We do know that XF traditionally has a pretty solid architecture and code base and that the team holds to that for the future as well - so we can have trust that this will persist.
• We do know that XF has always declared itself to be a traditional forum software and within that to deliver a solid core and basis, that can easily be extended and customized through add ons rather than XF trying to become everybody's darling and to integrate each and every functionality into the core
• We do know that they want to extend that even more in direction of becoming a framework to build upon, possibly to make it easier to use XF as a foundation for things left and right of plain classical forums
• We do know that they have started use AI support in a responsible way to help with coding
• We do know that they are in the process of overhauling and improving the existing documentation
etc.

I would not call this exactly "being left in the dark".

What we don't know:
• When exactly 2.4. and later 3.0 will be released (no wonder, as it can be assumed that the XF crew does not know this either)
• What exactly any given dev of the XF crew does at any given moment in time (which is not our business anyway)
• What exactly the XF crew is currently working on on a feature level (would not change anything if we knew it)
• How much money XF as a company currently makes per year (again: not our business)
• How exactly the new style of 3.0 will look (the interest in that is understandable but on the other hand it is simply not relevant as long as 2.4 has not been released and 3.0 is not in close sight)
• How many people really code at XF and if this is full time / the main job or rather a side business (would really be nice to know and help to adjust expectations, but in the end it is the outcome that counts, so more transparency would be beneficial but absolutely it is again not our business)

While a bit more transparency and regular reporting about the current state of things would no doubt be nice and somewhat helpful to create a loose planning horizon for the own forums it seems somewhat understandable given the hysterical debates here on the forums that they rather prefer to communicate things when they are done and ready instead of communicating assumptions and probabilities that will then be taken as promises by some and lead to new aggressions and hysterical debates.

While I agree that - especially with the history of 2.4 and depending from that 3.0 - there is reason to question the speed of development and to ask for the reasons for that as well as for improvement in communication and reliability of it it is also clear that 2.2 and 2.3 do work w/o issues and there is no urgent need for a massive update from a technical perspective. And also that forums that do not do brilliant today in terms of users and engagement won't have a sudden change and become vastly successful because of 2.4. and later 3.0 once they will be released as the reasons for unsuccessful forums are clearly not within the delay of those releases but in those forums themselves. But as some are not willing to take the responsibility for the success of their own forums and rather direct that to XF again the moaning won't stop.

Have you seen the bug reports section? It seems to be just Chris dealing with all the pages of bug reports for Xenforo and the 3 official add-ons.

You should better have a closer look. Also, as recently a couple of bugs have been closed it could possibly be that we may be approaching another release as this happens typically not too long before one.

As a 'costumer' who potentionally don't know anything about developing/coding

... you have a pretty strong opinion about developing/coding.