vBulletin LTS

vBulletin LTS is a Long-term Support project to extend the lifecycle of the vBulletin 3 and 4 forum engines, which are no longer officially supported. The project started in 2022.

• Support for new php versions
• Support for new database versions
• Security updates
• Bug fixes and improvements

The main principle of LTS support project is 0 (zero) php and database errors, warning and notices. This approach guarantees that forum does not contain the errors and actually compatible with declared php and database versions. By default most of the php and database errors, warning and notices are hide from the forum screen even in the official vBulletin releases. In the LTS project, all these errors are being fixed. It's true. This is a huge work. And this is the main difference between LTS project and any custom builds like "vBulletin with php X support" which hide from the screen only critical errors and in fact not compatible with declared php version. See more information about the project in the FAQ (Questions and Answers) section.

Long-term support may also be provided for third-party plugins (extensions) developed for vBulletin 3 and 4.

02.03.2026 The FAQ section has been updated.
21.02.2026 Added PHP 8.5 support status for plugins, templates and styles in the Extensions section.
14.01.2026 New section added: Bot protection (captcha) for vBulletin 3 and 4.
18.12.2025 vBulletin 4.3.1 LTS and vBulletin 3.9.1 LTS with full php 8.5.0 support is released.
...
17.09.2025 vBulletin 4.3.0 LTS with full php 8 support is released. This release also includes vBulletin CMS 4.3.0 LTS and vBulletin Blog 4.3.0 LTS.
06.06.2024 vBulletin 3.9.0 LTS with full php 8 support is released.
For more details, see the section All news.

Latest vBulletin LTS release: 3.9.1 (works on php 7.0-8.5.0, MariaDB (MySQL) 5.5.8-11.4)
vBulletin 3.9.1 LTS (demo) release updates the version 3.9.0 LTS and the latest official version 3.8.11.
What's new in the 3.9.0 LTS release:

• Added full php 8.5.0 support

Previuos vBulletin LTS release: 3.9.0 (works on php 7.0-8.4, MariaDB (MySQL) 5.5.8-11.4)
vBulletin 3.9.0 LTS release updates the version 3.8.12 LTS and the latest official version 3.8.11.
What's new in the 3.9.0 LTS release:

• Added full php 8 support (up to php 8.4.11)
• Works on MariaDB (MySQL) 5.5.8-11.4
• Fixed some vBulletin 3 old bugs

Latest vBulletin LTS release: 4.3.1 (works on php 7.1.33-8.5.0, MariaDB (MySQL) 5.5.8-11.4)
vBulletin 4.3.1 LTS (demo) release updates the version 4.3.0 LTS and the latest official version 4.2.5.
What's new in the 4.3.1 LTS release:

• Added full php 8.5.0 support for vBulletin, vBulletin CMS and vBulletin Blog

Previuos vBulletin LTS release: 4.3.0 (works on php 7.1.33-8.4, MariaDB (MySQL) 5.5.8-11.4)
vBulletin 4.3.0 LTS release updates the version 4.2.6 LTS and the latest official version 4.2.5.
What's new in the 4.3.0 LTS release:

• Added full php 8 support (up to php 8.4.11) for vBulletin, vBulletin CMS и vBulletin Blog
• Works on MariaDB (MySQL) 5.5.8-11.4
• Fixed numerous bugs in vBulletin, vBulletin CMS, and vBulletin Blog

The built-in tools for separating humans from bots (robots) in vBulletin 3 and 4 are outdated or easily bypassed by most bots. That is why, a set of plugins has been developed for vBulletin 3 and 4 that provide reliable human verification using modern tools:

• reCAPTCHA v2 (Google)
• reCAPTCHA v3 (Google)
• SmartCaptcha (Yandex)
• hCaptcha (Intuition Machines)
• Turnstile (Cloudflare)

Demo vBulletin LTS running on php 8:

• vBulletin 3.9.1 LTS demo
• vBulletin 4.3.1 LTS demo

I am a qualified developer having more than 20 years' experience working with vBulletin forums as an owner, administrator, programmer and QA. I'm not an amateur, but a professional. All LTS updates are released after extensive testing and bug fixing.

You can contact me by email with your forum URL. Before sending an email, make sure that you can receive a response to the return address provided.
Note: Emails with empty/fake contact information or from empty forums may be ignored, sorry.
You must be prepared to verify that you are a forum administrator.