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Wikis
Forums
Podcatchers
Weblogs
Feature Comparison
| General | Jive Forums  | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Version |
 5.0.5 |
2.0.1 |
3.1.7 |
4.1.5 |
| Release Date |
08/30/2006 |
September 18th, 2011 |
2012-05-10 |
2011-07-27 |
| Author |
Jive Software |
SMF Development Team |
Woltlab GmbH |
vBulletin Solutions |
| URL |
www.jivesoftware.com |
www.simplemachines.org |
www.woltlab.com |
www.vbulletin.com |
| Free and Open Source |
 No |
 Yes |
No |
No |
| License |
Per User |
BSD |
commercial / visible source / free lite version |
commercial / visible source |
| License cost |
$1,950 to $19,950 |
0 |
Basic $69.99, Standard $133.99, Professional $269.99 |
$285 Suite or $195 Forum |
| Programming Language |
Java, J2EE, JSP |
PHP |
PHP5 |
PHP |
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Type |
Threaded or Flat |
Flat |
Flat |
Threaded or Flat |
| Installation method |
|
wizard |
wizard |
wizard |
| Upgrade method |
|
wizard |
wizard |
wizard with manual interactions |
| Data Storage | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| MySQL |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Postgres |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Oracle |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| SQLite |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Textfiles |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| other |
SQLServer, DB2 |
|
No |
|
| Hosting available |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| Posts | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| BBCode |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| HTML |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Emoticons |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| WYSIWYG Editor |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Quoting |
Nested |
Nested |
Nested |
Nested |
| Syntax Highlighting |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Attachments |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
| Forums | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| Categories |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Subforums |
unlimited |
unlimited |
unlimited |
unlimited |
| Last Post |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Redirect Forums |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Trashcan Forum |
 Optional |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Anti-Spam and Security | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| 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 |
| User Reports |
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Other |
|
An Akismet mod is available |
|
Akismet |
| Notification | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| RSS/ATOM |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| E-Mail |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Instant Messaging |
No |
|
No |
|
| Bookmarks |
No |
 Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Community | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| Avatars |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| User Ranks |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Rating/Karma System |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| 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 | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| Moderators |
global, forums and threads |
global, forums and threads |
global and forums |
global and forums |
| Move Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Split Threads |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Close Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Shadow Topics |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Sticky Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Important Threads |
No |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Search | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| 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 | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| Languages |
English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German |
47 |
Chinese, Croatian, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Turkish |
Official: English, German; Translatable into any language |
| Templates |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
| Custom BBCodes |
No |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Skin-Editor |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Smiley Packs |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Plugins |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Special Features | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| Statistics |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Polls |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Calendar |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Friendly URLs |
No |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Data Management | Jive Forums | SMF | BurningBoard | vBulletin |
| Pruning |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Archiving |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Export Formats |
XML |
WAP(2), IMode |
sql |
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL |
| Export private messages |
No |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Lo-Fi View |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Last updated | 2006-12-06 | 2011-09-19 | 2012-11-14 | 2011-08-26 |
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