Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Aug 5, 2026

XenForo

XenForo is an Internet forum software package written in the PHP programming language. The software is developed by former vBulletin lead developers Kier Darby and Mike Sullivan. The first public beta release of XenForo was released in October 2010, the stable version on March 8, 2011. The program includes several search engine optimization (SEO) features.

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Aug 5, 2026
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XenForo
DevelopersXenForo Limited, Kier Darby, Mike Sullivan, Chris Deeming
Initial releaseMarch 8, 2011 (2011-03-08)
Written inPHP
PlatformPHP, MySQL
Available inEnglish
TypeForum software
LicenseCommercial proprietary software
Websitexenforo.com

XenForo is an Internet forum software package written in the PHP programming language. The software is developed by former vBulletin lead developers Kier Darby and Mike Sullivan. The first public beta release of XenForo was released in October 2010, the stable version on March 8, 2011.1 The program includes several search engine optimization (SEO) features.

On November 12, 2014, Chris Deeming joined the development team. One of his products, Xen Media Gallery, now XenForo Media Gallery, joined the XenForo family of products.2

Development

One of the developers of XenForo, Kier Darby, had been a lead developer for the community platform vBulletin. The original owner of vBulletin, Jelsoft, was acquired by the American new media company Internet Brands in 2007. Disagreements occurred between the developers and the new management and most of the vBulletin developers left Internet Brands in 2009. Darby and other former vBulletin developers began work on a new platform, XenForo.34

Internet Brands lawsuits

One day before the scheduled release of the first public beta of XenForo in October 2010, Internet Brands announced that it would file a lawsuit against the XenForo team in the UK, claiming: copyright infringement of property acquired by Internet Brands, use of code in XenForo that was refactored from vBulletin code, breach of contract, and engaging in unfair business practices.45 Representatives stated that XenForo "unfairly stands on the shoulders of more than a decade of development", development which had become the property of Internet Brands through the acquisition. Internet Brands denied that the timing of the lawsuit was to coincide with the public beta. In November 2010, Internet Brands sued XenForo and Darby in California District Court in the United States, additionally claiming that Darby had not returned confidential information from Internet Brands regarding the vBulletin software. The XenForo team denied the claims.5

On February 28, 2013, XenForo announced that the lawsuit had been settled between the parties in both the UK and the US. Although specific terms of the agreement are confidential, Internet Brands withdrew both the US and UK lawsuits.6 XenForo announced that all license holders with a valid license from June 19, 2012 would receive an additional 255 days of support and download access.7

Release history

Legend:
Unsupported
Supported
Latest version
Preview version
Future version
Version Release date Notable changes Latest release
Unsupported: 1.08 March 8, 2011 Initial release 1.0.49 July 12, 2011
Unsupported: 1.110 November 22, 2011 Thread prefixes, RTL, etc. 1.1.511 May 21, 2013
Unsupported: 1.212 July 30, 2013 Template modification system,13 route filters (route changing),14 post edit history and logging15 1.2.916 July 27, 2015
Unsupported: 1.317 March 11, 2014 Custom BB codes, Google+/Twitter registration, user change logging, multi-quote, etc. 1.3.918 October 20, 2015
Unsupported: 1.419 September 9, 2014 Selective quoting, sitemap XML generation, thread reply bans, custom help pages, poll improvements, new profile post features, etc. 1.4.1320 August 30, 2016
Unsupported: 1.521 August 18, 2015 Thread tagging, responsive admin control panel, two-step verification, floating notices, profile post comment improvements, etc. 1.5.2422 May 29, 2019
Unsupported: 2.023 November 28, 2017 New user interface, emoji support, what's new section, etc. 2.0.1224 December 11, 2018
Supported: 2.125 January 30, 2019 Push notifications, Emoji reactions, REST API, etc. 2.1.1526 June 5, 2024
Supported: 2.227 September 29, 2020 Progressive Web Application; question, suggestion and article thread types; profile post attachments, activity summary email, just-in-time registration etc. 2.2.1626 June 5, 2024
Latest version: 2.328 July 4, 2024 Style variants with dark mode, improved performance, featured content, image optimization, SSO with OAuth2, Passkey support, trending content 2.3.729 July 15, 2025
See also

See also

External links
References

References

  1. "Nearly There..." XenForo. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  2. Feedback from XenForo blog Archived May 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Metz, Cade. "vBulletin denies busting downloads in paid-up protester ban". The Register. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  4. Metz, Cade. "vBulletin sues ex-devs over 'from scratch' competitor". The Register. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  5. Metz, Cade. "Forumware giant vBulletin sues ex-devs (again)". The Register. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  6. "Grace+Grace LLP Celebrates Dismissal of Internet Brands Litigations". Grace+Grace LLP. Archived from the original on March 3, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  7. Darby, Kier. "Lawsuit Over...Next!". XenForo. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  8. "XenForo 1.0 released".
  9. "XenForo 1.0.4 released".
  10. "XenForo 1.1 released".
  11. "XenForo 1.1.5 released".
  12. "XenForo 1.2 released".
  13. "Template Modifications and Comparison". XenForo. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  14. "Route Filters". XenForo. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  15. "Post Edit History and Logging". XenForo. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  16. "XenForo 1.2.9 Released (Security Fix)".
  17. "XenForo 1.3 released".
  18. "XenForo 1.3.9 Released (Security Fix)".
  19. "XenForo 1.4 released".
  20. "XenForo 1.4.13 Released (Security Fix)".
  21. "XenForo 1.5.0 Released". Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  22. "XenForo 1.5.24 and Media Gallery 1.1.18 Released". Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  23. "XenForo 2.0.0 & Add-ons Released".
  24. "XenForo 2.0.12 Released". XenForo community. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  25. "XenForo 2.1.0 & Add-ons Released".
  26. "XenForo 2.1.15 Patch 1, 2.2.16 Patch 2 and XenForo Media Gallery 2.1.9, 2.2.6 Released (Includes Security Fixes)". XenForo community. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
  27. "XenForo 2.2.0 & Add-ons Released".
  28. "XenForo 2.3.0 & Add-ons Released". XenForo community. July 4, 2024. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  29. "XenForo 2.3.7 Released (Includes Security Fixes)". XenForo community. July 15, 2025. Retrieved July 16, 2025.