vBulletin was first launched in 2000 by James Limm and John Percival. Its successor, vBulletin 2, was released in 2001. A third version was launched in 2004.
Internet Brands acquired the product from JelSoft in 2007.[4]
vBulletin 4 was released in late 2009. The StyleVars system was added to draw CSS variables directly from the vBulletin Template code.[5]
In July 2010, the BBC reported that there was a serious flaw in vBulletin software that allows anyone to easily access the database username and password.[6]
In October 2010, Internet Brands sued three former employees, just as their new competing software XenForo was to be launched,[4] as well as a second lawsuit in the United States claiming breach of contract, copyright infringement, and misappropriation of trade secrets.[7] In May 2011 it was announced that vBulletin had abandoned an attempt at preventing XenForo doing business,[8] and in 2013 the claims were dismissed.
vBulletin 5 was released in 2012.
In late 2017, a post by Technical Support Lead, Wayne Luke, confirmed that vBulletin 3 and vBulletin 4 were now considered to be "End of Life" software, with no further development of the series planned.[9][10][11]
