bbPress vs. FUDforum vs. Invision Power Board vs. MyBB vs. Phorum vs. vBulletin

General bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Version
0.9.0.4
3.0.9
3.2.3
1.6.3
5.2.9a
4.1.5
Release Date
2009-01-02 (15 years ago)
2018-05-17 (5 years ago)
2011-10-17 (12 years ago)
2011-04-16 (12 years ago)
2008-10-12 (15 years ago)
2011-07-26 (12 years ago)
Last Update here
2009-03-11 (15 years ago)
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
2012-02-07 (12 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
2008-10-16 (15 years ago)
2011-08-25 (12 years ago)
Author
bbpress.org
The FUDForum development team and user community.
Invision Power Services
MyBB Group
Phorum Dev Team
vBulletin Solutions
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
License
GPL2
GNU General Public License
Commercial
Custom
The Phorum License (BSD)
commercial / visible source
License cost
0
Free
License from $175 / Hosted from $5 per month
US$0
0
$285 Suite or $195 Forum
Main View
Classic forum list
Thread-Type
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Threaded or Flat
Threaded or Flat
Setup bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Installation method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
Upgrade method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard with manual interactions
Hosting available
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Technology bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Programming Language
PHP
PHP
PHP 5.2+
PHP
PHP
PHP
UTF-8 Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data Storage
1
MySQL Database
7
DB2 Database, Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
1
MySQL Database
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database
1
MySQL Database
Other Storage
Source Code Repo
Issue Tracker
Posts bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
BBCode
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
HTML
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Emoticons
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Formatting Toolbar
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
WYSIWYG Editor
No
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Attachments
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Tags
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Mark as solved
No
Forums bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Subforums
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
multiple levels
unlimited
Last Post
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Redirect Forums
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Trashcan Forum
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Anti-Spam and Security bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
CAPTCHA
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Groups
One group only
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Flood Control
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACLs
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Blacklist
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Warnings
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Suspension
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Bans
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
IP-Block
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Audit Logging
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
User Reports
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Other
Several others like SpamBot detection, prevent new users from posting links, etc.
Spam Monitoring Service, Flag As Spammer, Question & Answer System
Akismet plugin available.
Aksimet Plugin
Akismet
Notification bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
RSS/ATOM
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
E-Mail
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Instant Messaging
Plugin
Yes - via ICQ, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google Chat or Skype.
No
0
Bookmarks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Community bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Avatars
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
User Ranks
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Rating/Karma System
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Signatures
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Users Online List
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Private Messaging
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom profile fields
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Moderation bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Moderators
global
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
Move Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Split Threads
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Close Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Shadow Topics
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sticky Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Important Threads
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Search bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Full-text search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Author search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced search
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unread Topics
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Customization bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Languages
0
0
0
0
0
0
Mobile View
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Templates
global
global
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
Custom BBCodes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Skin-Editor
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Smiley Packs
Plugin
Patch
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Statistics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Polls
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Calendar
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Friendly URLs
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Data Management bbPress FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum vBulletin
Available Importers
Pruning
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Archiving
Plugin
Optional
Yes
No
No
Yes
Export Formats
BBXF
PDF (Adobe), ATOM, RSS, RDF, HTML
SQL
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL
Export private messages
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Lo-Fi View
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
remove bbPress remove FUDforum remove Invision Power Board remove MyBB remove Phorum remove vBulletin