Comparison of Internet forum software (PHP)

This is a comparison of the features of various Internet forum packages written in PHP.

General information

Basic general information about the forums: creator/company, license/price etc.

	Creator	Latest release date	Current stable version	License	Automatic Updates (for security)
Beehive Forum	Project Beehive Forum Developers	2011-02-14	1.0.1	GPL	manually
bbPress	Automattic	2009-07-28	1.1	GPL	Yes
Discuz!	Comsenz Technology Co., Ltd.	2010-10-20	7.2	Discuz! EULA (proprietary, gratis for non-commercial use)	manually
e107	e107 (CMS)	2011-04-06	0.7.25	GPL	manually
FluxBB	FluxBB.org Developers	2011-09-13	1.4.7	GPL	manually
FUDforum	Ilia Alshanetsky and community	2011-07-17	3.0.3RC1	GPL	manually
ImperialBB	ImperialBB.com	2010-02-28	1.0	GPL	manually
IceBB	XAOS Interactive	2010-12-02	1.0	GPL	manually
Invision Power Board	Invision Power Services Inc.	2011-08-31	3.2.2	Proprietary	manually
MercuryBoard	Jason Warner, Mark Elliot, and Jonathan West	2008-02-24	1.1.7	GPL	manually
miniBB	Paul Puzyrev & Sergei Larionov	2010-10-05	2.5a	GPL	manually
MyBB	MyBB Group	2011-11-25	1.6.5	LGPL	manually
NextBBS	Chris FR & Team	2008-02-18	0.5.3	GPL	manually
NinkoBB	Nijikokun	2010-03-16	1.3 RC5	GPL	manually
NovaBoard	Developers and Community	2010-06-13	1.1.4	Artistic License 2.0	manually
OvBB	Jonathon Freeman & Brian Otto	2007-04-06	V0.16a	MIT	manually
Phorum	Brian Moon	2011-09-09	5.2.18	Phorum License 2 (BSD like)	manually
phpBB3	phpBB Ltd.	2012-01-02	3.0.10	GPL	manually
PunBB	Rickard Andersson	2011-12-01	1.4.1	GPL	manually
Quicksilver Forums	Geoff Dunn, Roger Libiez (Samson) & The Quicksilver Forums Development Team	2011-01-16	1.5	GPL	manually
Simple Machines 1	Simple Machines	2011-12-22	1.1.16	Proprietary	manually
Simple Machines 2	Simple Machines	2011-12-22	2.0.2	BSD License	manually
Simply AJAX Forum System (SAFS)	Fast Track Sites	2010-05-20	3.10.05.20	Proprietary	manually
Tritanium Bulletin Board	Tritanium Scripts	2011-11-04	1.6	CC 3.0 by-nc-sa	manually
UBB.threads	Mindraven, Inc.	2010-08-21	7.5.6	Proprietary	manually
UseBB	Dietrich Moerman	2011-11-04	1.0.14	GPL	manually
Vanilla	Vanilla Forums Inc.	2011-11-03	2.0.18	GPL	manually
vBulletin	vBulletin Solutions Inc.	2011-11-04	4.1.7pl2	Proprietary	manually
WhiteBoard	Eli White & SaroSoftware	2010-05-30	0.1.30	GPL	manually
Woltlab Burning Board	WoltLab GmbH	2011-08-26	3.1.6	proprietary	manually
XenForo	XenForo Ltd.	2011-11-22	1.1.0	Proprietary	manually
XMB	XMB Software	2009-03-01	1.9.11	GPL	manually
NitPick2011	?	2011-09-18	1.0	?	manually
	Creator	Latest release date	Current stable version	License	Automatic Updates (for security)

Features

	Flat	Threaded	User-selectable themes	Calendar	Image attachment	Unread message tracking	WYSIWYG Editor
Beehive Forum	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Full	Yes (using TinyMCE)
bbPress	Yes	Plugin	Yes	No	Plugin	Plugin	Plugin
Discuz!	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
e107	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
FluxBB	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Session	No
FUDforum	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Yes
IceBB	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Full	No
Invision Power Board	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Yes
kusaba	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	No
MercuryBoard	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Session	No
miniBB	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MyBB	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Plugin
NextBBS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Yes
NinkoBB	Yes	No	No	No	No	?	No
NovaBoard	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Full	No
Phorum	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Full	No
phpBB3	Yes	No	Yes	Plugin	Yes	Full	Planned
PunBB	Yes	Plugin	Yes	Plugin	Plugin	Session	Plugin
Quicksilver Forums	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Full	No
Simple Machines 1	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	No
Simple Machines 2	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Yes
Simply AJAX Forum System (SAFS)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Full	No
Tritanium Bulletin Board	Yes	No	Yes	Planned	Yes	Full	No
UBB.threads	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Planned (Version 8.0)
UseBB	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Session	No
Vanilla	Yes	Plugin	Plugin	Plugin	Plugin	Plugin	Plugin
vBulletin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Yes
WhiteBoard	Yes	No	Planned	Yes	No	Full	No
Woltlab Burning Board	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full	Yes
XenForo	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Full	Yes
XMB	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	No
NitPick2011	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
	Flat	Threaded	User-selectable themes	Calendar	Image attachment	Unread message tracking	WYSIWYG Editor

Data storage

Information about what data storage system can be used.

	MySQL	PostgreSQL	MSSQL	Oracle	SQLite	Firebird
Beehive Forum	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
bbPress	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Discuz!	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
e107	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
FluxBB	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
FUDforum	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IceBB	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Invision Power Board	Yes	No	Yes ($75)	No	No	No
kusaba	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
MercuryBoard	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
miniBB	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
MyBB	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
NextBBS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
NinkoBB	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
NovaBoard	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Phorum	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
phpBB3	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PunBB	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Quicksilver Forums	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Simple Machines 1	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Simple Machines 2	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Simply AJAX Forum System (SAFS)	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Tritanium Bulletin Board	Planned (Version 2.0)	No	No	No	No	No
UBB.threads	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
UseBB	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Vanilla	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
vBulletin	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
WhiteBoard	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
WoltLab Burning Board	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
XenForo	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
XMB	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
NitPick2011	No	No	No	No	No	No
	MySQL	PostgreSQL	MSSQL	Oracle	SQLite	Firebird

See also

• Comparison of forums written in ASP and ASP.NET
• Comparison of forums written in other languages