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Compare them all:
Wikis
Forums
Podcatchers
Weblogs
Feature Comparison
| General | phpBB  | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Version |
3.0.8 |
 1.1.5a |
4.1.5 |
2.0.1 |
| Release Date |
20 Nov 2010 |
24/09/2008 |
2011-07-27 |
September 18th, 2011 |
| Author |
The phpBB Group |
Mark O'Sullivan ; Lussumo. |
vBulletin Solutions |
SMF Development Team |
| URL |
www.phpbb.com |
www.getvanilla.com |
www.vbulletin.com |
www.simplemachines.org |
| Free and Open Source |
 Yes |
Yes |
 No |
Yes |
| License |
General Public License |
GPL |
commercial / visible source |
BSD |
| License cost |
0.00 |
0 |
$285 Suite or $195 Forum |
0 |
| Programming Language |
PHP |
PHP |
PHP |
PHP |
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Type |
Flat |
Flat |
Threaded or Flat |
Flat |
| Installation method |
wizard |
wizard |
wizard |
wizard |
| Upgrade method |
wizard with manual interactions |
manual |
wizard with manual interactions |
wizard |
| Data Storage | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| MySQL |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Postgres |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Oracle |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| SQLite |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Textfiles |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| other |
FireBird 2.0+, MSSQL 2000+, MSSQL 2000+ (ODBC) |
No |
|
|
| Hosting available |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| Posts | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| BBCode |
Yes |
 Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| HTML |
No |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Emoticons |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| WYSIWYG Editor |
No |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Quoting |
Nested |
Single |
Nested |
Nested |
| Syntax Highlighting |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Attachments |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
Multiple files |
| Forums | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| Categories |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Subforums |
unlimited |
No |
unlimited |
unlimited |
| Last Post |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Redirect Forums |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Trashcan Forum |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Anti-Spam and Security | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| CAPTCHA |
Yes |
Plugin |
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 |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Suspension |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Bans |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| IP-Block |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Audit Logging |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| User Reports |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Other |
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions |
|
Akismet |
An Akismet mod is available |
| Notification | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| RSS/ATOM |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| E-Mail |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Instant Messaging |
Jabber |
none |
|
|
| Bookmarks |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Plugin |
| Community | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| Avatars |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| User Ranks |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Rating/Karma System |
 Patch |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Signatures |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Users Online List |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Private Messaging |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Custom profile fields |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Moderation | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| Moderators |
global and forums |
global |
global and forums |
global, forums and threads |
| Move Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Split Threads |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Close Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Shadow Topics |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Sticky Threads |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Important Threads |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Plugin |
| Search | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| 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 |
Database tracked |
| Customization | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| Languages |
48 at the time of writing, see www.phpbb.com |
23: English, Chinese, French, German, Spanish... |
Official: English, German; Translatable into any language |
47 |
| Templates |
global and forum specific |
global |
global and forum specific |
global and forum specific |
| Custom BBCodes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Plugin |
| Skin-Editor |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Smiley Packs |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Plugins |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Special Features | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| Statistics |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Polls |
Yes |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Calendar |
No |
Plugin |
Yes |
Yes |
| Friendly URLs |
Plugin |
Plugin |
Yes |
Plugin |
| Data Management | phpBB | Vanilla | vBulletin | SMF |
| Pruning |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Archiving |
No |
No |
Yes |
Plugin |
| Export Formats |
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2 |
None |
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL |
WAP(2), IMode |
| Export private messages |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Plugin |
| Lo-Fi View |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Last updated | 2011-06-22 | 2008-11-15 | 2011-08-26 | 2011-09-19 |
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