Phorum vs. MyBB vs. Beehive Forum vs. phpBB vs. Vanilla vs. JForum

General Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Version
5.2.9a
1.6.3
1.4.7
3.0.8
2.6.4
2.1.8
Release Date
2008-10-12 (15 years ago)
2011-04-16 (12 years ago)
2015-06-03 (8 years ago)
2010-11-19 (13 years ago)
2018-10-28 (5 years ago)
2008-10-31 (15 years ago)
Last Update here
2008-10-16 (15 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
2016-02-08 (8 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
2008-01-02 (16 years ago)
Author
Phorum Dev Team
MyBB Group
Matt Beale, Mark Rendle
The phpBB Group
Vanilla Forums Inc
Rafael Steil
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
The Phorum License (BSD)
Custom
GPL
General Public License
GPL
BSD
License cost
0
US$0
0
0.00
0
0
Main View
Both, can be configured
Thread-Type
Threaded or Flat
Threaded or Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Flat
Flat
Setup Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Installation method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
Upgrade method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard with manual interactions
manual
manual
Hosting available
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Technology Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Programming Language
PHP
PHP
PHP
PHP
PHP
Java
UTF-8 Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data Storage
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
1
MySQL Database
6
Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database
1
MySQL Database
3
MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database
Other Storage
HSQLDB
Source Code Repo
Issue Tracker
Posts Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
BBCode
Optional
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
HTML
Optional
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Emoticons
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Formatting Toolbar
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
WYSIWYG Editor
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
No
Quoting
Nested
Nested
Nested
Nested
Single
Nested
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
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
Forums Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Subforums
multiple levels
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
No
Last Post
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Redirect Forums
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Trashcan Forum
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Yes
No
Anti-Spam and Security Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
CAPTCHA
Optional
Yes
Optional
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
Yes
No
Warnings
Plugin
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Suspension
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bans
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
IP-Block
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Audit Logging
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unknown
User Reports
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Other
Aksimet Plugin
Akismet plugin available.
Worming, Pilllorying
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions
Community Curation & SPAM removal
Notification Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
RSS/ATOM
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
E-Mail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Instant Messaging
0
Yes
Jabber
0
Bookmarks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Community Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Avatars
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
User Ranks
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Rating/Karma System
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Patch
Yes
Yes
Signatures
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Users Online List
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Private Messaging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom profile fields
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Plugin
No
Moderation Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Moderators
global and forums
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
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Close Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Shadow Topics
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Sticky Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Important Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Search Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
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 Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
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
Unknown
Templates
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
CSS only
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global
Custom BBCodes
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Skin-Editor
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Smiley Packs
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugins
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Statistics
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Polls
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Calendar
No
Yes
No
No
Plugin
No
Friendly URLs
Plugin
Plugin
No
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Data Management Phorum MyBB Beehive Forum phpBB Vanilla JForum
Available Importers
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
Pruning
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Yes
No
Archiving
No
No
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Export Formats
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2
Proprietary or MySQLDump
Export private messages
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Lo-Fi View
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
remove Phorum remove MyBB remove Beehive Forum remove phpBB remove Vanilla remove JForum