GroupServer vs. XMB vs. MyBB vs. Vanilla vs. JForum vs. phpBB

General GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Version
1.0β
1.9.11
1.6.3
2.6.4
2.1.8
3.0.8
Release Date
2010 June 16
Febuary 28, 2009
2011-04-16 (12 years ago)
2018-10-28 (5 years ago)
2008-10-31 (15 years ago)
2010-11-19 (13 years ago)
Last Update here
2010-06-21 (13 years ago)
2012-03-02 (12 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
2008-01-02 (16 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
Author
OnlineGroups.Net
The XMB Group
MyBB Group
Vanilla Forums Inc
Rafael Steil
The phpBB Group
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
General Public License
Custom
GPL
BSD
General Public License
License cost
$0
0.00
US$0
0
0
0.00
Main View
Both, can be configured
Thread-Type
Flat
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Flat
Flat
Setup GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Installation method
manual
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
Upgrade method
manual
wizard
wizard
manual
manual
wizard with manual interactions
Hosting available
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
Technology GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Programming Language
Python & Zope
php
PHP
PHP
Java
PHP
UTF-8 Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data Storage
1
PostgreSQL Database
1
MySQL Database
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
1
MySQL Database
3
MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database
6
Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
Other Storage
Zope Object Database
HSQLDB
Source Code Repo
Issue Tracker
Posts GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
BBCode
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
HTML
No
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Emoticons
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Formatting Toolbar
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
WYSIWYG Editor
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Quoting
None
Nested
Nested
Single
Nested
Nested
Syntax Highlighting
No
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Attachments
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
Tags
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Unknown
Mark as solved
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
Forums GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Subforums
No
one level
unlimited
unlimited
No
unlimited
Last Post
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Redirect Forums
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Trashcan Forum
No
No
Plugin
Yes
No
No
Anti-Spam and Security GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
CAPTCHA
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
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
No
Yes
Warnings
No
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Suspension
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bans
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
IP-Block
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Audit Logging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
User Reports
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Other
Spam Assasin is used for email spam control.
Akismet plugin available.
Community Curation & SPAM removal
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions
Notification GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
RSS/ATOM
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
E-Mail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Instant Messaging
Integrated Chat
0
Jabber
Bookmarks
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Community GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Avatars
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
User Ranks
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Rating/Karma System
No
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Signatures
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Users Online List
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Private Messaging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom profile fields
No
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Moderation GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Moderators
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global, forums and threads
global and forums
global and forums
Move Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Split Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Close Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Shadow Topics
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Sticky Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Important Threads
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Search GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Full-text search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Author search
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced search
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unread Topics
Session tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Customization GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Languages
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
0
Mobile View
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Unknown
Templates
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global
global and forum specific
Custom BBCodes
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Skin-Editor
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Smiley Packs
Unknown
Optional
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugins
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Statistics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Polls
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Calendar
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
No
No
Friendly URLs
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Data Management GroupServer XMB MyBB Vanilla JForum phpBB
Available Importers
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
Pruning
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Archiving
Unknown
No
No
Yes
No
No
Export Formats
XML, mbox
Proprietary or MySQLDump
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2
Export private messages
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Lo-Fi View
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
remove GroupServer remove XMB remove MyBB remove Vanilla remove JForum remove phpBB