| General | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version |
4.1.5
|
2.6.4
|
5.0.5
|
2.0.6
|
| Release Date |
2011-07-27 (14 years ago)
|
2018-10-29 (7 years ago)
|
2006-08-30 (19 years ago)
|
2013-10-22 (12 years ago)
|
| Last Update here |
2011-08-26 (14 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (7 years ago)
|
2006-12-06 (19 years ago)
|
2013-10-25 (12 years ago)
|
| Author |
vBulletin Solutions
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
Jive Software
|
Simple Machines
|
| URL | ||||
| Free and Open Source |
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
| License |
commercial / visible source
|
GPL
|
Per User
|
BSD
|
| License cost |
$285 Suite or $195 Forum
|
0
|
$1,950 to $19,950
|
0
|
| Main View |
Both, can be configured
|
|||
| Thread-Type |
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
| Setup | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Installation method |
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
|
| Upgrade method |
wizard with manual interactions
|
manual
|
wizard
|
|
| Hosting available |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Technology | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Programming Language |
PHP
|
PHP
|
Java, J2EE, JSP
|
PHP
|
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Data Storage |
1
MySQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
5
DB2 Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
| Other Storage | ||||
| Source Code Repo | ||||
| Issue Tracker | ||||
| Posts | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| BBCode |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
| HTML |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Emoticons |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| WYSIWYG Editor |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Quoting |
Nested
|
Single
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
| Syntax Highlighting |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Attachments |
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
| Tags |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
| Mark as solved |
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
|
|||
| Forums | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Subforums |
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
| Last Post |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Redirect Forums |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Trashcan Forum |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
| Anti-Spam and Security | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| 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
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
| User Reports |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
| Other |
Akismet
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
An Akismet mod is available
|
|
| Notification | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| RSS/ATOM |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
| Instant Messaging |
No
|
|||
| Bookmarks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
| Community | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Avatars |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| User Ranks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Rating/Karma System |
Yes
|
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 | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Moderators |
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
global, forums and threads
|
global, forums and threads
|
| Move Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Split Threads |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Close Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Shadow Topics |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Important Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
| Search | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | 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 | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Languages |
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
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
| Templates |
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
| Custom BBCodes |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
| Skin-Editor |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Smiley Packs |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Plugins |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Special Features | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Polls |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Calendar |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Friendly URLs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
| Data Management | vBulletin | Vanilla | Jive Forums | SMF |
| Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
|||
| Pruning |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Archiving |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Export Formats |
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
XML
|
WAP(2), IMode
|
| Export private messages |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
| Lo-Fi View |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
| remove vBulletin | remove Vanilla | remove Jive Forums | remove SMF |