| General | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version |
5.0.5
|
1.0β
|
5.2.9a
|
2.6.4
|
Ideal BB.Net Version 3.1.6
|
| Release Date |
2006-08-30 (19 years ago)
|
2010 June 16
|
2008-10-13 (17 years ago)
|
2018-10-29 (7 years ago)
|
2006-12-04 (19 years ago)
|
| Last Update here |
2006-12-06 (19 years ago)
|
2010-06-21 (16 years ago)
|
2008-10-16 (17 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (7 years ago)
|
2006-12-04 (19 years ago)
|
| Author |
Jive Software
|
OnlineGroups.Net
|
Phorum Dev Team
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
Ideal Science, Inc.
|
| URL | |||||
| Free and Open Source |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| License |
Per User
|
GPL
|
The Phorum License (BSD)
|
GPL
|
|
| License cost |
$1,950 to $19,950
|
$0
|
0
|
0
|
$299 - $24,999
|
| Main View |
Both, can be configured
|
||||
| Thread-Type |
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded
|
| Setup | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Installation method |
manual
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
||
| Upgrade method |
manual
|
wizard
|
manual
|
||
| Hosting available |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Technology | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Programming Language |
Java, J2EE, JSP
|
Python & Zope
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
ASP.Net, C #
|
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Data Storage |
5
DB2 Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database |
1
PostgreSQL Database |
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
| Other Storage |
Zope Object Database
|
||||
| Source Code Repo | |||||
| Issue Tracker | |||||
| Posts | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| BBCode |
No
|
No
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| HTML |
Yes
|
No
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Emoticons |
Yes
|
No
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes
|
No
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| WYSIWYG Editor |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Quoting |
Nested
|
None
|
Nested
|
Single
|
Single
|
| Syntax Highlighting |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
| Attachments |
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
| Tags |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Mark as solved |
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
|
||||
| Forums | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Subforums |
unlimited
|
No
|
multiple levels
|
unlimited
|
one level
|
| Last Post |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Redirect Forums |
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Trashcan Forum |
Optional
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Anti-Spam and Security | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| CAPTCHA |
Yes
|
No
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Groups |
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
| Flood Control |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| ACLs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Blacklist |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Warnings |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Suspension |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Bans |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| IP-Block |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Audit Logging |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| User Reports |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
| Other |
Spam Assasin is used for email spam control.
|
Aksimet Plugin
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
||
| Notification | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| RSS/ATOM |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
| Instant Messaging |
No
|
Integrated Chat
|
0
|
No
|
|
| Bookmarks |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Community | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Avatars |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| User Ranks |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Rating/Karma System |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Signatures |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Users Online List |
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Private Messaging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Custom profile fields |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Moderation | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Moderators |
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
| Move Threads |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Split Threads |
No
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Close Threads |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Shadow Topics |
No
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
| Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Important Threads |
No
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Search | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Full-text search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Author search |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Advanced search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Unread Topics |
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
||
| Customization | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Languages |
0
|
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
|
| Mobile View |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Templates |
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global
|
|
| Custom BBCodes |
No
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
| Skin-Editor |
No
|
Unknown
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
| Smiley Packs |
No
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
| Plugins |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Special Features | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Polls |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Calendar |
No
|
Unknown
|
No
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Friendly URLs |
No
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Data Management | Jive Forums | GroupServer | Phorum | Vanilla | idealBB |
| Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
||||
| Pruning |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Archiving |
Yes
|
Unknown
|
No
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Export Formats |
XML
|
XML, mbox
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
||
| Export private messages |
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Lo-Fi View |
No
|
Unknown
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| remove Jive Forums | remove GroupServer | remove Phorum | remove Vanilla | remove idealBB |