| General | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version |
1.6.3
|
3.0.8
|
5.2.9a
|
1.4.7
|
2.0.6
|
2.6.4
|
| Release Date |
2011-04-16 (13 years ago)
|
2010-11-19 (13 years ago)
|
2008-10-12 (15 years ago)
|
2015-06-03 (8 years ago)
|
2013-10-21 (10 years ago)
|
2018-10-28 (5 years ago)
|
| Last Update here |
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
|
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
|
2008-10-16 (15 years ago)
|
2016-02-08 (8 years ago)
|
2013-10-25 (10 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
|
| Author |
MyBB Group
|
The phpBB Group
|
Phorum Dev Team
|
Matt Beale, Mark Rendle
|
Simple Machines
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
| URL | ||||||
| Free and Open Source |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| License |
Custom
|
General Public License
|
The Phorum License (BSD)
|
GPL
|
BSD
|
GPL
|
| License cost |
US$0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| Main View |
Both, can be configured
|
|||||
| Thread-Type |
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Flat
|
| Setup | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| Installation method |
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
| Upgrade method |
wizard
|
wizard with manual interactions
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
manual
|
| Hosting available |
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
| Technology | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| Programming Language |
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Data Storage |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
6
Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
1
MySQL Database |
| Other Storage | ||||||
| Source Code Repo | ||||||
| Issue Tracker | ||||||
| Posts | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| BBCode |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| HTML |
Yes
|
No
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Emoticons |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| WYSIWYG Editor |
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Quoting |
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Single
|
| Syntax Highlighting |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
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 | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Subforums |
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
multiple levels
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
|
| Last Post |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Redirect Forums |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Trashcan Forum |
Plugin
|
No
|
No
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Anti-Spam and Security | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| CAPTCHA |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
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
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Suspension |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Bans |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| IP-Block |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Audit Logging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| User Reports |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Other |
Akismet plugin available.
|
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions
|
Aksimet Plugin
|
Worming, Pilllorying
|
An Akismet mod is available
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
| Notification | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| RSS/ATOM |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
| Instant Messaging |
Jabber
|
0
|
Yes
|
|||
| Bookmarks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Community | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| Avatars |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| User Ranks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Rating/Karma System |
Yes
|
Patch
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Signatures |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Users Online List |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Private Messaging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Custom profile fields |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Moderation | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| Moderators |
global and forums
|
global and forums
|
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
global, forums and threads
|
global, forums and threads
|
| Move Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Split Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Close Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Shadow Topics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Important Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Search | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| 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 | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | 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 and forum specific
|
CSS only
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
| Custom BBCodes |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Skin-Editor |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Smiley Packs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Plugins |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Special Features | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Polls |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Calendar |
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Friendly URLs |
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Data Management | MyBB | phpBB | Phorum | Beehive Forum | SMF | Vanilla |
| Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
|||||
| Pruning |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Archiving |
No
|
No
|
No
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Export Formats |
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2
|
WAP(2), IMode
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
|||
| Export private messages |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Lo-Fi View |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| remove MyBB | remove phpBB | remove Phorum | remove Beehive Forum | remove SMF | remove Vanilla |