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Feature Comparison
| General | phpBB  | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Version |
 3.0.1 |
1.1.8 |
3.8.3 |
2.3.5 |
| Release Date |
2008-04-07 |
5 February 2009 |
2009-06-11 |
April 29, 2008 |
| Author |
The phpBB Group |
SMF Development Team |
Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. |
Invision Power Services |
| URL |
www.phpbb.com |
www.simplemachines.org |
www.vbulletin.com |
www.invisionpower.com |
| Free and Open Source |
 Yes |
Yes |
 No |
No |
| License |
General Public License |
Custom |
commercial / visible source |
Commercial |
| License cost |
0.00 |
0 |
$180 owned or $100/year |
Standard $149.99 Business $299.99 |
| Programming Language |
PHP |
PHP |
PHP |
PHP 4.3+ or PHP 5.0+ |
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Type |
Flat |
Flat |
Threaded or Flat |
Threaded or Flat |
| Installation method |
wizard |
wizard |
wizard |
wizard |
| Upgrade method |
wizard with manual interactions |
wizard |
wizard with manual interactions |
wizard |
| Data Storage | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| MySQL |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Postgres |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
| Oracle |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
| SQLite |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
| Textfiles |
No |
No |
No |
|
| other |
FireBird 2.0+, MSSQL 2000+, MSSQL 2000+ (ODBC) |
|
|
MS SQL |
| Hosting available |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Posts | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| BBCode |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| HTML |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Emoticons |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| WYSIWYG Editor |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Quoting |
Nested |
Nested |
Nested |
Nested |
| Syntax Highlighting |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Attachments |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
| Forums | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| Categories |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Subforums |
unlimited |
unlimited |
unlimited |
unlimited |
| Last Post |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Redirect Forums |
Yes |
 Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Trashcan Forum |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
 Optional |
| Anti-Spam and Security | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| 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 |
Plugin |
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 | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| RSS/ATOM |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| E-Mail |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Instant Messaging |
Jabber |
|
|
0 |
| Bookmarks |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Community | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| Avatars |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| User Ranks |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Rating/Karma System |
No |
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 |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Moderation | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| Moderators |
global and forums |
global, forums and threads |
global and forums |
global and forums |
| Move Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Split Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Close Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Shadow Topics |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Sticky Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Important Threads |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Yes |
| Search | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| 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 |
|
| Customization | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| Languages |
61 at the time of writing, see www.phpbb.com |
25+ |
Official: English, German, Chinese, Hungarian; Translatable into any language |
Integrated language editor |
| Templates |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
| Custom BBCodes |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Skin-Editor |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Smiley Packs |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Plugins |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Optional |
| Special Features | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| Statistics |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Polls |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Calendar |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Friendly URLs |
 Patch |
Yes |
Yes |
|
| Data Management | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | Invision Power Board |
| Pruning |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Archiving |
No |
Plugin |
|
Yes |
| Export Formats |
|
WAP(2), IMode |
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL |
Word, HTML |
| Export private messages |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Lo-Fi View |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Last updated | 2008-04-16 | 2009-03-06 | 2009-06-22 | 2008-05-06 |
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