| General | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version |
2.0.6
|
1.6.3
|
0.9.0.4
|
2.6.4
|
2.4
|
| Release Date |
2013-10-21 (10 years ago)
|
2011-04-16 (13 years ago)
|
2009-01-02 (15 years ago)
|
2018-10-28 (5 years ago)
|
2008-08-17 (15 years ago)
|
| Last Update here |
2013-10-25 (10 years ago)
|
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
|
2009-03-11 (15 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
|
2009-09-02 (14 years ago)
|
| Author |
Simple Machines
|
MyBB Group
|
bbpress.org
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
miniBB Team
|
| URL | |||||
| Free and Open Source |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| License |
BSD
|
Custom
|
GPL2
|
GPL
|
GPL
|
| License cost |
0
|
US$0
|
0
|
0
|
Free
|
| Main View |
Both, can be configured
|
||||
| Thread-Type |
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Flat
|
Flat
|
| Setup | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Installation method |
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
| Upgrade method |
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
manual
|
manual
|
| Hosting available |
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Technology | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Programming Language |
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
| UTF-8 Support |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Data Storage |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
1
MySQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
| Other Storage | |||||
| Source Code Repo | |||||
| Issue Tracker | |||||
| Posts | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| BBCode |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| HTML |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
| Emoticons |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Formatting Toolbar |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| WYSIWYG Editor |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Quoting |
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Single
|
Single
|
| Syntax Highlighting |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
| Attachments |
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
| Tags |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Mark as solved |
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
|
||||
| Forums | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Subforums |
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
one level
|
| Last Post |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Redirect Forums |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Trashcan Forum |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Anti-Spam and Security | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| CAPTCHA |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Groups |
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
One group only
|
Multiple groups
|
No
|
| Flood Control |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| ACLs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Blacklist |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Warnings |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Suspension |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Bans |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| IP-Block |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Audit Logging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| User Reports |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
No
|
| Other |
An Akismet mod is available
|
Akismet plugin available.
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
||
| Notification | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| RSS/ATOM |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
| Instant Messaging |
Plugin
|
0
|
|||
| Bookmarks |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Community | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Avatars |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| User Ranks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Rating/Karma System |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Signatures |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Users Online List |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Private Messaging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Custom profile fields |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Moderation | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Moderators |
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
global
|
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
| Move Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Split Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Close Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Shadow Topics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Important Threads |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Search | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Full-text search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Author search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Advanced search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Unread Topics |
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
|
| Customization | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| 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
|
| Mobile View |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
| Templates |
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global
|
global and forum specific
|
global
|
| Custom BBCodes |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
| Skin-Editor |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Smiley Packs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Plugins |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Special Features | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Polls |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Calendar |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
| Friendly URLs |
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
| Data Management | SMF | MyBB | bbPress | Vanilla | miniBB |
| Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
||||
| Pruning |
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Archiving |
Plugin
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Export Formats |
WAP(2), IMode
|
BBXF
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
Users' logins/emails can be exported in CSV or TXT
|
|
| Export private messages |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
| Lo-Fi View |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| remove SMF | remove MyBB | remove bbPress | remove Vanilla | remove miniBB |