GroupServer vs. MyBB vs. XMB vs. JForum vs. Phorum vs. Vanilla

General GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Version
1.0β
1.6.3
1.9.11
2.1.8
5.2.9a
2.6.4
Release Date
2010 June 16
2011-04-16 (12 years ago)
Febuary 28, 2009
2008-10-31 (15 years ago)
2008-10-12 (15 years ago)
2018-10-28 (5 years ago)
Last Update here
2010-06-21 (13 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
2012-03-02 (12 years ago)
2008-01-02 (16 years ago)
2008-10-16 (15 years ago)
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
Author
OnlineGroups.Net
MyBB Group
The XMB Group
Rafael Steil
Phorum Dev Team
Vanilla Forums Inc
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
Custom
General Public License
BSD
The Phorum License (BSD)
GPL
License cost
$0
US$0
0.00
0
0
0
Main View
Both, can be configured
Thread-Type
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Setup GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Installation method
manual
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
Upgrade method
manual
wizard
wizard
manual
wizard
manual
Hosting available
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Technology GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Programming Language
Python & Zope
PHP
php
Java
PHP
PHP
UTF-8 Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data Storage
1
PostgreSQL Database
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
1
MySQL Database
3
MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database
1
MySQL Database
Other Storage
Zope Object Database
HSQLDB
Source Code Repo
Issue Tracker
Posts GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
BBCode
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Plugin
HTML
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Optional
Yes
Emoticons
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Plugin
Formatting Toolbar
No
Yes
Yes
No
Optional
Plugin
WYSIWYG Editor
No
Plugin
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
Quoting
None
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Single
Syntax Highlighting
No
Yes
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
Attachments
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Tags
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Mark as solved
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
Forums GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Subforums
No
unlimited
one level
No
multiple levels
unlimited
Last Post
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Redirect Forums
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Trashcan Forum
No
Plugin
No
No
No
Yes
Anti-Spam and Security GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
CAPTCHA
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
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
No
Yes
Yes
Warnings
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
Suspension
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Bans
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
IP-Block
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Audit Logging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Optional
Yes
User Reports
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Other
Spam Assasin is used for email spam control.
Akismet plugin available.
Aksimet Plugin
Community Curation & SPAM removal
Notification GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
RSS/ATOM
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
E-Mail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Instant Messaging
Integrated Chat
0
0
Bookmarks
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Community GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Avatars
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
User Ranks
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Rating/Karma System
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Signatures
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Users Online List
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Private Messaging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom profile fields
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Plugin
Moderation GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Moderators
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global, forums and threads
Move Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Split Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Close Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Shadow Topics
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Sticky Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Important Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Search GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Full-text search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Author search
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced search
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unread Topics
Database tracked
Session tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Customization GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Languages
0
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
Mobile View
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Templates
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
Custom BBCodes
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Skin-Editor
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
No
Plugin
Smiley Packs
Unknown
Yes
Optional
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Plugins
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Statistics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Polls
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Calendar
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
No
Plugin
Friendly URLs
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Data Management GroupServer MyBB XMB JForum Phorum Vanilla
Available Importers
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
Pruning
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Archiving
Unknown
No
No
No
No
Yes
Export Formats
XML, mbox
Proprietary or MySQLDump
Export private messages
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Lo-Fi View
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Optional
Yes
remove GroupServer remove MyBB remove XMB remove JForum remove Phorum remove Vanilla