| General | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version |
0.9.0.4
|
3.0.8
|
2.0.6
|
5.2.9a
|
2.6.4
|
3.0.9
|
| Release Date |
2009-01-02 (14 years ago)
|
2010-11-19 (12 years ago)
|
2013-10-21 (9 years ago)
|
2008-10-12 (14 years ago)
|
2018-10-28 (4 years ago)
|
2018-05-17 (5 years ago)
|
| Last Update here |
2009-03-11 (14 years ago)
|
2011-06-22 (11 years ago)
|
2013-10-25 (9 years ago)
|
2008-10-16 (14 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (4 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (4 years ago)
|
| Author |
bbpress.org
|
The phpBB Group
|
Simple Machines
|
Phorum Dev Team
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
The FUDForum development team and user community.
|
| URL | ||||||
| Free and Open Source |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| License |
GPL2
|
General Public License
|
BSD
|
The Phorum License (BSD)
|
GPL
|
GNU General Public License
|
| License cost |
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Free
|
| Main View |
Both, can be configured
|
Classic forum list
|
||||
| Thread-Type |
Flat
|
Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
| Setup | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Installation method |
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
| Upgrade method |
wizard
|
wizard with manual interactions
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
manual
|
wizard
|
| Hosting available |
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Technology | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Programming Language |
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Data Storage |
1
MySQL Database |
6
Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
7
DB2 Database, Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
| Other Storage | ||||||
| Source Code Repo | ||||||
| Issue Tracker | ||||||
| Posts | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| BBCode |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| HTML |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Emoticons |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Formatting Toolbar |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| WYSIWYG Editor |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Quoting |
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Single
|
Nested
|
| Syntax Highlighting |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Attachments |
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
| Tags |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Mark as solved |
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
|
No
|
||||
| Forums | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Subforums |
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
multiple levels
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
| Last Post |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Redirect Forums |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Trashcan Forum |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Anti-Spam and Security | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| CAPTCHA |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
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
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Suspension |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Bans |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| IP-Block |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Audit Logging |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| User Reports |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Other |
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions
|
An Akismet mod is available
|
Aksimet Plugin
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
Several others like SpamBot detection, prevent new users from posting links, etc.
|
|
| Notification | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| RSS/ATOM |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
| Instant Messaging |
Plugin
|
Jabber
|
0
|
Yes - via ICQ, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google Chat or Skype.
|
||
| Bookmarks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Community | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Avatars |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| User Ranks |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Rating/Karma System |
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Signatures |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Users Online List |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Private Messaging |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Custom profile fields |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Moderation | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Moderators |
global
|
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
| Move Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Split Threads |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Close Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Shadow Topics |
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Important Threads |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Search | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| 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 | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Languages |
0
|
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
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Templates |
global
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global
|
| Custom BBCodes |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Skin-Editor |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Smiley Packs |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
| Plugins |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Special Features | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Polls |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Calendar |
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Friendly URLs |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Data Management | bbPress | phpBB | SMF | Phorum | Vanilla | FUDforum |
| Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
|||||
| Pruning |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Archiving |
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
| Export Formats |
BBXF
|
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2
|
WAP(2), IMode
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
PDF (Adobe), ATOM, RSS, RDF, HTML
|
|
| Export private messages |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Lo-Fi View |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
| remove bbPress | remove phpBB | remove SMF | remove Phorum | remove Vanilla | remove FUDforum |