XenForo vs. phpBB vs. vBulletin vs. FluxBB

General XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Version
1.5.2
3.0.8
4.1.5
1.4.5
Release Date
2015-10-19 (8 years ago)
2010-11-19 (13 years ago)
2011-07-26 (12 years ago)
22/03/2011
Last Update here
2015-11-15 (8 years ago)
2011-06-22 (12 years ago)
2011-08-25 (12 years ago)
2011-05-05 (12 years ago)
Author
XenForo Ltd
The phpBB Group
vBulletin Solutions
FluxBB development team
URL
Free and Open Source
No
Yes
No
Yes
License
commercial / visible source
General Public License
commercial / visible source
GPL v2
License cost
$140
0.00
$285 Suite or $195 Forum
0
Main View
Thread-Type
Flat
Flat
Threaded or Flat
Flat
Setup XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Installation method
wizard
wizard
wizard
wizard
Upgrade method
wizard
wizard with manual interactions
wizard with manual interactions
wizard
Hosting available
No
No
No
No
Technology XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Programming Language
PHP
PHP
PHP
PHP
UTF-8 Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data Storage
1
MySQL Database
6
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
Other Storage
Source Code Repo
Issue Tracker
Posts XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
BBCode
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML
No
No
Yes
Patch
Emoticons
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Formatting Toolbar
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
WYSIWYG Editor
Yes
No
Yes
Patch
Quoting
Single
Nested
Nested
Nested
Syntax Highlighting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Attachments
Multiple files
Multiple files
Multiple files
No
Tags
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Mark as solved
Forums XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Subforums
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
No
Last Post
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Redirect Forums
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Trashcan Forum
No
No
Yes
No
Anti-Spam and Security XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
CAPTCHA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
Multiple groups
One group only
Flood Control
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACLs
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Blacklist
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Warnings
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Suspension
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Bans
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
IP-Block
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Audit Logging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
User Reports
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Other
Advanced Spam Manager "Spam Cleaner", Questions and Answer System
Plugin-based CAPTCHA system, Newly Registered Users permissions
Akismet
Notification XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
RSS/ATOM
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
E-Mail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Instant Messaging
No
Jabber
Bookmarks
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Community XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Avatars
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
User Ranks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Rating/Karma System
Yes
Patch
Yes
Patch
Signatures
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Users Online List
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Private Messaging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Custom profile fields
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Moderation XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Moderators
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
global and forums
Move Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Split Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Close Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Shadow Topics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sticky Threads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Important Threads
No
Yes
Yes
No
Search XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Full-text search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Author search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unread Topics
Database tracked
Database tracked
Database tracked
Session tracked
Customization XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Languages
0
0
0
0
Mobile View
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Templates
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
global and forum specific
CSS only
Custom BBCodes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Skin-Editor
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Smiley Packs
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Plugins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Statistics
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Polls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Calendar
No
No
Yes
Patch
Friendly URLs
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Patch
Data Management XenForo phpBB vBulletin FluxBB
Available Importers
Pruning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Archiving
No
No
Yes
Patch
Export Formats
NA
SQL Dumps in .sql, sql.gz, and .sql.bz2
Single Table CSV, Single and Multi-Table SQL
Export private messages
No
Yes
Yes
No
Lo-Fi View
No
Yes
Yes
No
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