| General | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version |
Ideal BB.Net Version 3.1.6
|
1.0β
|
2.6.4
|
5.2.9a
|
0.16a
|
| Release Date |
2006-12-04 (19 years ago)
|
2010 June 16
|
2018-10-29 (7 years ago)
|
2008-10-13 (17 years ago)
|
2007-04-06 (19 years ago)
|
| Last Update here |
2006-12-04 (19 years ago)
|
2010-06-21 (16 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (7 years ago)
|
2008-10-16 (17 years ago)
|
2008-01-21 (18 years ago)
|
| Author |
Ideal Science, Inc.
|
OnlineGroups.Net
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
Phorum Dev Team
|
Jonathon Freeman & Brian Otto
|
| URL | |||||
| Free and Open Source |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| License |
GPL
|
GPL
|
The Phorum License (BSD)
|
MIT
|
|
| License cost |
$299 - $24,999
|
$0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| Main View |
Both, can be configured
|
||||
| Thread-Type |
Threaded
|
Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
| Setup | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Installation method |
manual
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
|
| Upgrade method |
manual
|
manual
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
|
| Hosting available |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
| Technology | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Programming Language |
ASP.Net, C #
|
Python & Zope
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
| UTF-8 Support |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Data Storage |
1
MySQL Database |
1
PostgreSQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database |
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database |
| Other Storage |
Zope Object Database
|
||||
| Source Code Repo | |||||
| Issue Tracker | |||||
| Posts | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| BBCode |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
| HTML |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
No
|
| Emoticons |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
| WYSIWYG Editor |
No
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Quoting |
Single
|
None
|
Single
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
| Syntax Highlighting |
Unknown
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Attachments |
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
| Tags |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
| Mark as solved |
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
|
||||
| Forums | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Subforums |
one level
|
No
|
unlimited
|
multiple levels
|
No
|
| Last Post |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Redirect Forums |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
| Trashcan Forum |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
| Anti-Spam and Security | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| CAPTCHA |
Unknown
|
No
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
| Groups |
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
One group only
|
| Flood Control |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| ACLs |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Blacklist |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Warnings |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Suspension |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Bans |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| IP-Block |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Audit Logging |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
No
|
| User Reports |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Other |
Spam Assasin is used for email spam control.
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
Aksimet Plugin
|
||
| Notification | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| RSS/ATOM |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
| Instant Messaging |
No
|
Integrated Chat
|
0
|
No
|
|
| Bookmarks |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Community | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Avatars |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| User Ranks |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Rating/Karma System |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Signatures |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Users Online List |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Private Messaging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Custom profile fields |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Moderation | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Moderators |
global and forums
|
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
global
|
| Move Threads |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Split Threads |
No
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Close Threads |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Shadow Topics |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Important Threads |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Search | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Full-text search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Author search |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Advanced search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Unread Topics |
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Session tracked
|
||
| Customization | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Languages |
0
|
0
|
141
Afar, Abkhazian, Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Assamese, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Bihari, Bislama, Bengali; Bangla, Tibetan, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Czech, Welsh, Danish, German, Bhutani, Greek, English, Esperanto, Spanish, Estonian, Basque, Persian, Finnish, Fiji, Faroese, French, Frisian, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Galician, Guarani, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Armenian, Interlingua, Indonesian, Interlingue, Inupiak, Icelandic, Italian, Inuktitut, Japanese, Javanese, Georgian, Kazakh, Greenlandic, Cambodian, Kannada, Korean, Kashmiri, Kurdish, Kirghiz, Latin, Lingala, Laothian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Lettish, Malagasy, Maori, Macedonian, Malayalam, Mongolian, Moldavian, Marathi, Malay, Maltese, Burmese, Nauru, Nepali, Dutch, Norwegian, Occitan, Oromo, Oriya, Punjabi, Polish, Pashto, Pushto, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Quechua, Rhaeto-Romance, Kirundi, Romanian, Russian, Kinyarwanda, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Sangho, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Samoan, Shona, Somali, Albanian, Serbian, Siswati, Sesotho, Sundanese, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Tajik, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkmen, Tagalog, Setswana, Tonga, Turkish, Tsonga, Tatar, Twi, Uighur, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Volapuk, Wolof, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, Zhuang, Chinese, Chinese Traditional, Zulu |
0
|
0
|
| Mobile View |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
| Templates |
global
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global
|
|
| Custom BBCodes |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Skin-Editor |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
No
|
No
|
| Smiley Packs |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Plugins |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Special Features | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Polls |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Calendar |
No
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Friendly URLs |
No
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Data Management | idealBB | GroupServer | Vanilla | Phorum | OvBB |
| Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
||||
| Pruning |
No
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Archiving |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
| Export Formats |
XML, mbox
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
No
|
||
| Export private messages |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
| Lo-Fi View |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
No
|
| remove idealBB | remove GroupServer | remove Vanilla | remove Phorum | remove OvBB |