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

General FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Version
3.0.9
3.2.3
1.6.3
5.2.9a
2.0.6
4.1.5
Release Date
2018-05-17 (5 years ago)
2011-10-17 (12 years ago)
2011-04-16 (12 years ago)
2008-10-12 (15 years ago)
2013-10-21 (10 years ago)
2011-07-26 (12 years ago)
Last Update here
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
2012-02-07 (12 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
2008-10-16 (15 years ago)
2013-10-25 (10 years ago)
2011-08-25 (12 years ago)
Author
The FUDForum development team and user community.
Invision Power Services
MyBB Group
Phorum Dev Team
Simple Machines
vBulletin Solutions
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
License
GNU General Public License
Commercial
Custom
The Phorum License (BSD)
BSD
commercial / visible source
License cost
Free
License from $175 / Hosted from $5 per month
US$0
0
0
$285 Suite or $195 Forum
Main View
Classic forum list
Thread-Type
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Setup FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Installation method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
Upgrade method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard with manual interactions
Hosting available
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Technology FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Programming Language
PHP
PHP 5.2+
PHP
PHP
PHP
PHP
UTF-8 Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data Storage
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
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
1
MySQL Database
Other Storage
Source Code Repo
Issue Tracker
Posts FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
BBCode
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
HTML
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Emoticons
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Formatting Toolbar
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
WYSIWYG Editor
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Quoting
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Syntax Highlighting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
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 FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Subforums
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
multiple levels
unlimited
unlimited
Last Post
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Redirect Forums
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Trashcan Forum
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Yes
Anti-Spam and Security FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
CAPTCHA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Flood Control
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACLs
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Blacklist
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Warnings
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Suspension
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Bans
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
IP-Block
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Audit Logging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
User Reports
Yes
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
An Akismet mod is available
Akismet
Notification FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
RSS/ATOM
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
E-Mail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Instant Messaging
Yes - via ICQ, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google Chat or Skype.
No
0
Bookmarks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Community FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Avatars
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
User Ranks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Rating/Karma System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Signatures
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Users Online List
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Private Messaging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom profile fields
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Moderation FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Moderators
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global, forums and threads
global and forums
Move Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Split Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Close Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Shadow Topics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sticky Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Important Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Search FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Full-text search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Author search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unread Topics
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Customization FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Languages
0
0
0
0
0
0
Mobile View
Yes
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Templates
global
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
Custom BBCodes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Skin-Editor
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Smiley Packs
Patch
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Statistics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Polls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Calendar
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Friendly URLs
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Data Management FUDforum Invision Power Board MyBB Phorum SMF vBulletin
Available Importers
Pruning
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Archiving
Optional
Yes
No
No
Plugin
Yes
Export Formats
PDF (Adobe), ATOM, RSS, RDF, HTML
SQL
WAP(2), IMode
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL
Export private messages
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Lo-Fi View
Optional
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
remove FUDforum remove Invision Power Board remove MyBB remove Phorum remove SMF remove vBulletin