Invision Power Board vs. SMF vs. vBulletin vs. phpBB

General Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Version
3.2.3
2.0.6
4.1.5
3.0.8
Release Date
2011-10-17 (12 years ago)
2013-10-21 (10 years ago)
2011-07-26 (12 years ago)
2010-11-19 (13 years ago)
Last Update here
2012-02-07 (12 years ago)
2013-10-25 (10 years ago)
2011-08-25 (12 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
Author
Invision Power Services
Simple Machines
vBulletin Solutions
The phpBB Group
URL
Free and Open Source
No
Yes
No
Yes
License
Commercial
BSD
commercial / visible source
General Public License
License cost
License from $175 / Hosted from $5 per month
0
$285 Suite or $195 Forum
0.00
Main View
Thread-Type
Flat
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Setup Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Installation method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
Upgrade method
wizard
wizard
wizard with manual interactions
wizard with manual interactions
Hosting available
Yes
No
No
No
Technology Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Programming Language
PHP 5.2+
PHP
PHP
PHP
UTF-8 Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data Storage
1
MySQL Database
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
1
MySQL Database
6
Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
Other Storage
Source Code Repo
Issue Tracker
Posts Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
BBCode
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Emoticons
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Formatting Toolbar
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
WYSIWYG Editor
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Quoting
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Syntax Highlighting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Attachments
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Tags
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Mark as solved
Forums Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Subforums
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
Last Post
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Redirect Forums
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Trashcan Forum
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Anti-Spam and Security Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
CAPTCHA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Flood Control
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACLs
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Blacklist
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Warnings
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Suspension
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bans
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
IP-Block
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Audit Logging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
User Reports
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Other
Spam Monitoring Service, Flag As Spammer, Question & Answer System
An Akismet mod is available
Akismet
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions
Notification Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
RSS/ATOM
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
E-Mail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Instant Messaging
No
Jabber
Bookmarks
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Community Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Avatars
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
User Ranks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Rating/Karma System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Signatures
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Users Online List
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Private Messaging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom profile fields
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Moderation Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Moderators
global and forums
global, forums and threads
global and forums
global and forums
Move Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Split Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Close Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Shadow Topics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sticky Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Important Threads
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Search Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Full-text search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Author search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unread Topics
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Customization Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Languages
0
0
0
0
Mobile View
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Templates
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
Custom BBCodes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Skin-Editor
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Smiley Packs
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Statistics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Polls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Calendar
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Friendly URLs
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Data Management Invision Power Board SMF vBulletin phpBB
Available Importers
Pruning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Archiving
Yes
Plugin
Yes
No
Export Formats
SQL
WAP(2), IMode
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2
Export private messages
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Lo-Fi View
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
remove Invision Power Board remove SMF remove vBulletin remove phpBB