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

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