General | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Version |
2.0.6
|
4.1.5
|
0.9.0.4
|
1.4.5
|
3.0.9
|
3.2.3
|
1.6.3
|
5.2.9a
|
2.6.4
|
Release Date |
2013-10-21 (10 years ago)
|
2011-07-26 (13 years ago)
|
2009-01-02 (15 years ago)
|
22/03/2011
|
2018-05-17 (6 years ago)
|
2011-10-17 (12 years ago)
|
2011-04-16 (13 years ago)
|
2008-10-12 (15 years ago)
|
2018-10-28 (5 years ago)
|
Last Update here |
2013-10-25 (10 years ago)
|
2011-08-25 (13 years ago)
|
2009-03-11 (15 years ago)
|
2011-05-05 (13 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
|
2012-02-07 (12 years ago)
|
2011-06-22 (13 years ago)
|
2008-10-16 (15 years ago)
|
2018-11-01 (5 years ago)
|
Author |
Simple Machines
|
vBulletin Solutions
|
bbpress.org
|
FluxBB development team
|
The FUDForum development team and user community.
|
Invision Power Services
|
MyBB Group
|
Phorum Dev Team
|
Vanilla Forums Inc
|
URL | |||||||||
Free and Open Source |
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
License |
BSD
|
commercial / visible source
|
GPL2
|
GPL v2
|
GNU General Public License
|
Commercial
|
Custom
|
The Phorum License (BSD)
|
GPL
|
License cost |
0
|
$285 Suite or $195 Forum
|
0
|
0
|
Free
|
License from $175 / Hosted from $5 per month
|
US$0
|
0
|
0
|
Main View |
Classic forum list
|
Both, can be configured
|
|||||||
Thread-Type |
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Threaded or Flat
|
Flat
|
Setup | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Installation method |
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
Upgrade method |
wizard
|
wizard with manual interactions
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
wizard
|
manual
|
Hosting available |
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Technology | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Programming Language |
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP 5.2+
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
PHP
|
UTF-8 Support |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Data Storage |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
1
MySQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
7
DB2 Database, Firebird Database, Microsoft SQL Database, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
1
MySQL Database |
3
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, SQLite File Database |
2
MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database |
1
MySQL Database |
Other Storage | |||||||||
Source Code Repo | |||||||||
Issue Tracker | |||||||||
Posts | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
BBCode |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
HTML |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Emoticons |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
Formatting Toolbar |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Plugin
|
WYSIWYG Editor |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Patch
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Quoting |
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Nested
|
Single
|
Syntax Highlighting |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Attachments |
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
No
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Multiple files
|
Tags |
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Mark as solved |
No
|
A particular post can highlighted as accepted answer
|
|||||||
Forums | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Categories |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Subforums |
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
No
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
unlimited
|
multiple levels
|
unlimited
|
Last Post |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Redirect Forums |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Trashcan Forum |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Anti-Spam and Security | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
CAPTCHA |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Groups |
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
One group only
|
One group only
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Multiple groups
|
Flood Control |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
ACLs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Blacklist |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Warnings |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Suspension |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Bans |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
IP-Block |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Audit Logging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
User Reports |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Other |
An Akismet mod is available
|
Akismet
|
Several others like SpamBot detection, prevent new users from posting links, etc.
|
Spam Monitoring Service, Flag As Spammer, Question & Answer System
|
Akismet plugin available.
|
Aksimet Plugin
|
Community Curation & SPAM removal
|
||
Notification | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
RSS/ATOM |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Instant Messaging |
Plugin
|
Yes - via ICQ, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google Chat or Skype.
|
No
|
0
|
|||||
Bookmarks |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Community | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Avatars |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
User Ranks |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Rating/Karma System |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Signatures |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Users Online List |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Private Messaging |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Custom profile fields |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Moderation | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Moderators |
global, forums and threads
|
global and forums
|
global
|
global and forums
|
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
|
Split Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Close Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Shadow Topics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Sticky Threads |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Important Threads |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Search | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Full-text search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Author search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Advanced search |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Unread Topics |
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Session tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
Database tracked
|
|
Customization | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Languages |
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
|
Yes
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Unknown
|
Yes
|
Templates |
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global
|
CSS only
|
global
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
global and forum specific
|
Custom BBCodes |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Skin-Editor |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Smiley Packs |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Plugins |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Special Features | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Statistics |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Polls |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Calendar |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Plugin
|
Friendly URLs |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Patch
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Data Management | SMF | vBulletin | bbPress | FluxBB | FUDforum | Invision Power Board | MyBB | Phorum | Vanilla |
Available Importers |
All platforms use: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addon/porter-core
|
||||||||
Pruning |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Archiving |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
Patch
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Export Formats |
WAP(2), IMode
|
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL
|
BBXF
|
PDF (Adobe), ATOM, RSS, RDF, HTML
|
SQL
|
Proprietary or MySQLDump
|
|||
Export private messages |
Plugin
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Lo-Fi View |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Plugin
|
No
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Optional
|
Yes
|
remove SMF | remove vBulletin | remove bbPress | remove FluxBB | remove FUDforum | remove Invision Power Board | remove MyBB | remove Phorum | remove Vanilla |