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 I understand that some may find this nostalgic, but it looks incredibly outdated and is not visually appealing.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

 

[zappaDPJ]

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

As a member/admin of multiple forums that serve purely to promote other forums, I've seen within the last year or so far more than 100 new forums started on various platforms. The problem is I've seen a similar number of those disappear or left idle. There are some exceptions, forums started on Discourse and SaaS solutions do seem more likely to build a reasonable user base.

That's not to say forums are in anyway dead, far from it many still flourish but in the main it's rare to find a new forum gain any meaningful traction. If you know otherwise I'd be interested to see a few.

As far as Xenforo is concerned, it's probably still the best traditional forum option but as has been said multiple times, it's a small company, development is slow and there are other options which appear more likely to attract people who are new to forums. Nobody I know (apart from the odd 50+ year old forum owner) wants to see pagination on a phone and yet Xenforo doesn't even offer the option for scrolling.

A little modernisation on the user side could go along way to reverse the declining use of forums especially now that the more disposable content platforms within social media are in decline.

Fewer people posting on social media, Ofcom finds

Some experts believe it highlights a social media shift as platforms boost short video.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[smallwheels]

That's not to say forums are in anyway dead, far from it many still flourish but in the main it's rare to find a new forum gain any meaningful traction. If you know otherwise I'd be interested to see a few.

Even here in the forums there are regularly stories of new forums that gain traction within their niche or area. It's no news that forums were more common before all the other social media existed, that deliberately trigger the reward system in the human brain to create addiction and that this led to less usage of traditional forums. It has been discussed countless times on here. Yet still forums cover an area that those superficial media cannot cover and they are still well used. Some are part of the "the glass is half empty" brigade (and some claim "we will all die" or even "we have all died already").

For my part my forum is now 3,5 years old, it has now 3.500 members and still grows constantly, currently at a rate of 100-150 members monthly. I am absolutely fine with that and have no reason to complain. So I don't care what negativists say about forums dying b/c I do see the opposite every single day.

Claiming, like @TheGroove did, XF would

not wanting to continue development on what's essentially a dying platform since everything has moved to a world of social media

is simply fake news and desinformation on not just one level.

 

[cdub]

and still grows constantly, currently at a rate of 100-150 members monthly. I am absolutely fine with that and have no reason to complain

Those are phenomenal numbers!

 

[Forsaken]

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.

Chris has talked specifically of details and plans a few times they have for XF going forward, as well as places that they want to improve. They have also made mention of how they are wanting to move XF from being a forum to a framework for building other applications on, which is already something others (DigitalPoint) have done successfully.

Not even going to get into you advising the use of AI over a developer .