General | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Version |
3.0.8
|
2.0.6
|
4.1.5
|
0.9.0.4
|
1.4.7
|
1.4.5
|
3.2.3
|
1.6.3
|
7.5.4.2
|
2.6.4
|
Release Date |
2010-11-19 (13 years ago)
|
2013-10-21 (10 years ago)
|
2011-07-26 (12 years ago)
|
2009-01-02 (15 years ago)
|
2015-06-03 (8 years ago)
|
22/03/2011
|
2011-10-17 (12 years ago)
|
2011-04-16 (13 years ago)
|
2018-10-28 (5 years ago)
|
|
Last Update here |
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
|
2013-10-25 (10 years ago)
|
2011-08-25 (12 years ago)
|
2009-03-11 (15 years ago)
|
2016-02-08 (8 years ago)
|
2011-05-05 (13 years ago)
|
2012-02-07 (12 years ago)
|
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
|
2010-02-04 (14 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
|
Author |
The phpBB Group
|
Simple Machines
|
vBulletin Solutions
|
bbpress.org
|
Matt Beale, Mark Rendle
|
FluxBB development team
|
Invision Power Services
|
MyBB Group
|
Mindraven
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
URL | ||||||||||
Free and Open Source |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
License |
General Public License
|
BSD
|
commercial / visible source
|
GPL2
|
GPL
|
GPL v2
|
Commercial
|
Custom
|
Commercial
|
GPL
|
License cost |
0.00
|
0
|
$285 Suite or $195 Forum
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
License from $175 / Hosted from $5 per month
|
US$0
|
$139
|
0
|
Main View |
Both, can be configured
|
|||||||||
Thread-Type |
Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Setup | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Installation method |
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
Upgrade method |
wizard with manual interactions
|
wizard
|
wizard with manual interactions
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard with manual interactions
|
manual
|
Hosting available |
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Technology | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Programming Language |
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP 5.2+
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
UTF-8 Support |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Data Storage |
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 |
1
MySQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
1
MySQL Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
1
MySQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
Other Storage | ||||||||||
Source Code Repo | ||||||||||
Issue Tracker | ||||||||||
Posts | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
BBCode |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
HTML |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Emoticons |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Formatting Toolbar |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
WYSIWYG Editor |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Quoting |
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Single
|
Syntax Highlighting |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Attachments |
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
No
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Tags |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Mark as solved |
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
|
|||||||||
Forums | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Subforums |
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
No
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
|
Last Post |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Redirect Forums |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Trashcan Forum |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Anti-Spam and Security | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
CAPTCHA |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Optional
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Groups |
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
One group only
|
Multiple groups
|
One group only
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Flood Control |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
ACLs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Blacklist |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Warnings |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Suspension |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Bans |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
IP-Block |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Audit Logging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
User Reports |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Other |
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions
|
An Akismet mod is available
|
Akismet
|
Worming, Pilllorying
|
Spam Monitoring Service, Flag As Spammer, Question & Answer System
|
Akismet plugin available.
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
|||
Notification | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
RSS/ATOM |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Instant Messaging |
Jabber
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
0
|
|||||
Bookmarks |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Community | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Avatars |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
User Ranks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Rating/Karma System |
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Signatures |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Users Online List |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Private Messaging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Custom profile fields |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Optional
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Moderation | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Moderators |
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
global
|
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
global and forums
|
global and forums
|
global and forums
|
global, forums and threads
|
Move Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Split Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Close Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Shadow Topics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Important Threads |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Search | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Full-text search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Author search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Advanced search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unread Topics |
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Session tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
|
Customization | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Languages |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
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
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Templates |
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global
|
CSS only
|
CSS only
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
Custom BBCodes |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Skin-Editor |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Smiley Packs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugins |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Special Features | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Polls |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Calendar |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Friendly URLs |
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Data Management | phpBB | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | Beehive Forum | FluxBB | Invision Power Board | MyBB | UBB.threads | Vanilla |
Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
|||||||||
Pruning |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Archiving |
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Unknown
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Export Formats |
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2
|
WAP(2), IMode
|
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL
|
BBXF
|
SQL
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
||||
Export private messages |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Lo-Fi View |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
remove phpBB | remove SMF | remove vBulletin | remove bbPress | remove Beehive Forum | remove FluxBB | remove Invision Power Board | remove MyBB | remove UBB.threads | remove Vanilla |