| General | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Version |
0.9.0.4 |
2.2a |
3.0.1 |
1.1.8 |
3.8.3 |
Release Date |
3 January 2009 |
22-Apr-2008 |
2008-04-07 |
5 February 2009 |
2009-06-11 |
Author |
bbpress.org |
miniBB Team |
The phpBB Group |
SMF Development Team |
Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. |
URL |
bbpress.org |
www.minibb.com |
www.phpbb.com |
www.simplemachines.org |
www.vbulletin.com |
Free and Open Source |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 No |
License |
GPL2 |
GPL |
General Public License |
Custom |
commercial / visible source |
License cost |
0 |
Free |
0.00 |
0 |
$180 owned or $100/year |
Programming Language |
PHP |
PHP |
PHP |
PHP |
PHP |
UTF-8 Support |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Type |
Flat |
Flat |
Flat |
Flat |
Threaded or Flat |
Installation method |
wizard |
manual |
wizard |
wizard |
wizard |
Upgrade method |
wizard |
manual |
wizard with manual interactions |
wizard |
wizard with manual interactions |
| Data Storage | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
MySQL |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Postgres |
 No |
|
 Yes |
 No |
 No |
Oracle |
 No |
|
 Yes |
 No |
 No |
SQLite |
 No |
|
 Yes |
 No |
 No |
Textfiles |
 No |
 No |
 No |
 No |
 No |
other |
|
|
FireBird 2.0+, MSSQL 2000+, MSSQL 2000+ (ODBC) |
|
|
Hosting available |
 No |
 No |
 No |
 No |
 No |
| Posts | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
BBCode |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
HTML |
 Yes |
 Optional |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Emoticons |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Formatting Toolbar |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
WYSIWYG Editor |
 No |
 Plugin |
 No |
 No |
 Yes |
Quoting |
Nested |
Single |
Nested |
Nested |
Nested |
Syntax Highlighting |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Attachments |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
| Forums | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Categories |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Subforums |
unlimited |
 No |
unlimited |
unlimited |
unlimited |
Last Post |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Redirect Forums |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
Trashcan Forum |
 Yes |
 No |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
| Anti-Spam and Security | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
CAPTCHA |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Groups |
One group only |
 No |
Multiple groups |
Multiple groups |
Multiple groups |
Flood Control |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
ACLs |
 No |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Blacklist |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Warnings |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
Suspension |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Bans |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
IP-Block |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Audit Logging |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
User Reports |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Other |
|
|
|
An Akismet mod is available |
Akismet |
| Notification | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
RSS/ATOM |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
E-Mail |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Instant Messaging |
 Plugin |
0 |
Jabber |
|
|
Bookmarks |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
| Community | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Avatars |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
User Ranks |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Rating/Karma System |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Signatures |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Users Online List |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Private Messaging |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Custom profile fields |
 Plugin |
 Patch |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
| Moderation | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Moderators |
global |
global and forums |
global and forums |
global, forums and threads |
global and forums |
Move Threads |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Split Threads |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Close Threads |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Shadow Topics |
|
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Sticky Threads |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Important Threads |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
|
 Yes |
| Search | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Full-text search |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Author search |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Advanced search |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Unread Topics |
|
Database tracked |
Database tracked |
Database tracked |
Database tracked |
| Customization | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Languages |
Dozens |
more than 40 available |
61 at the time of writing, see www.phpbb.com |
25+ |
Official: English, German, Chinese, Hungarian; Translatable into any language |
Templates |
global |
global |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
Custom BBCodes |
 Plugin |
 Patch |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
Skin-Editor |
 No |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Smiley Packs |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Plugins |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
| Special Features | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Statistics |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Polls |
 Plugin |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Calendar |
 No |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Friendly URLs |
 Yes |
 Optional |
 Patch |
 Yes |
 Yes |
| Data Management | bbPress  | miniBB  | phpBB  | SMF  | vBulletin  |
Pruning |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
Archiving |
 Plugin |
 No |
 No |
 Plugin |
|
Export Formats |
BBXF |
Users' logins/emails can be exported in CSV or TXT |
|
WAP(2), IMode |
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL |
Export private messages |
 Plugin |
 No |
 Yes |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
Lo-Fi View |
 Plugin |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
 Yes |
| Last updated | 2009-03-11 | 2008-05-20 | 2008-04-16 | 2009-03-06 | 2009-06-22 |
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