ForumMatrix In cooperation with The Admin Zone

Feature Comparison

GeneralbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Version 0.9.0.4 10.3.3 Ideal BB.Net Version 3.1.6 0.16a 3.0.7-PL1 1.1.10 1.0.10
Release Date 3 January 2009 January 1, 2007 December 4, 2006 2007-04-06 2009-11-17 July 14th, 2009 October 25, 2009
Author bbpress.org Justin Osborne Ideal Science, Inc. Jonathon Freeman & Brian Otto The phpBB Group SMF Development Team UseBB Team
URL bbpress.org www.eblah.com www.idealscience.com sourceforge.net www.phpbb.com www.simplemachines.org www.usebb.net
Free and Open Source Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
License GPL2 GPL   MIT General Public License Custom GNU General Public License
License cost 0 Free $299 - $24,999 0 0.00 0 Free
Programming Language PHP Perl ASP.Net, C # PHP PHP PHP PHP 4
UTF-8 Support Yes Yes   Yes Yes Yes No
Type Flat Flat Threaded Flat Flat Flat Flat
Installation method wizard wizard   wizard wizard wizard wizard
Upgrade method wizard wizard   wizard wizard with manual interactions wizard manual
Data StoragebbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
MySQL Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Postgres No No   Yes Yes No No
Oracle No No No No Yes No No
SQLite No Yes No No Yes No No
Textfiles No Yes   No No No No
other       No FireBird 2.0+, MSSQL 2000+, MSSQL 2000+ (ODBC)   MySQLi (4.1, 5.x)
Hosting available No No Yes No No No No
PostsbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
BBCode Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
HTML Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Emoticons Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Formatting Toolbar Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WYSIWYG Editor No Optional No No No No No
Quoting Nested Nested Single Nested Nested Nested Nested
Syntax Highlighting Plugin No   Yes Yes Yes No
Attachments Multiple files Multiple files Multiple files Multiple files Multiple files Multiple files No
ForumsbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Categories Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Subforums unlimited unlimited one level No unlimited unlimited No
Last Post Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Redirect Forums Plugin Yes Yes No Yes Plugin No
Trashcan Forum Yes   No No No Yes No
Anti-Spam and SecuritybbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
CAPTCHA Plugin Yes   Yes Yes Yes No
Groups One group only Multiple groups Multiple groups One group only Multiple groups Multiple groups No
Flood Control Yes Yes   Yes Yes Yes Yes
ACLs No Yes   No Yes Yes No
Blacklist Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Warnings Plugin No Yes No Yes Plugin No
Suspension Plugin Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Bans Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
IP-Block Plugin Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Audit Logging Plugin Yes   No Yes Yes No
User Reports Plugin Yes   No Yes Yes No
Other         Plugin-based CAPTCHA system An Akismet mod is available Registration log
NotificationbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
RSS/ATOM Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
E-Mail Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Instant Messaging Plugin 0 No No Jabber   No
Bookmarks Yes Yes No No Yes Plugin Yes
CommunitybbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Avatars Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
User Ranks Plugin Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Rating/Karma System Plugin Yes No No No Yes No
Signatures Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Users Online List Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Private Messaging Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Custom profile fields Plugin Yes Yes No Yes Plugin No
ModerationbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Moderators global global and forums global and forums global global and forums global, forums and threads global and forums
Move Threads Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Split Threads Plugin Yes No No Yes Yes No
Close Threads Yes Yes   Yes Yes Yes Yes
Shadow Topics   Yes   No Yes Yes No
Sticky Threads Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Important Threads Plugin Yes Yes No Yes Plugin No
SearchbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Full-text search Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Author search Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Advanced search Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Unread Topics   Database tracked   Session tracked Database tracked Database tracked Session tracked
CustomizationbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Languages Dozens English, German, Spanish, Swedish, Chinese Many 1 - English 61 at the time of writing, see www.phpbb.com 47 10+
Templates global global global global global and forum specific global and forum specific global
Custom BBCodes Plugin Yes   No Yes Plugin No
Skin-Editor No Yes   No Yes Yes No
Smiley Packs Plugin Yes   No Yes Yes No
Plugins Yes Yes   No Yes Yes No
Special FeaturesbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Statistics Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Polls Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Patch
Calendar No Yes No Yes No Yes No
Friendly URLs Yes Yes No No Patch Yes Yes
Data ManagementbbPress DetailsE-Blah DetailsidealBB DetailsOvBB DetailsphpBB DetailsSMF DetailsUseBB Details
Pruning Plugin Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Archiving Plugin Yes   No No Plugin No
Export Formats BBXF XHTML 1.1   No   WAP(2), IMode No
Export private messages Plugin Yes Yes No Yes Plugin No
Lo-Fi View Plugin No   No Yes Yes No
Last updated2009-03-112007-12-312006-12-042008-01-212010-08-242010-07-262009-10-25

Sponsored Links:

A service brought to you by the fine people of CosmoCode.