Forum Softwares in com­par­sion

The forum software phpBB is a free forum system whose ever-growing feature set can compete with even high-priced pro­pri­et­ary solutions such as vBulletin. The open source software is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and boasts a large user community worldwide.

The current version phpBB 3.2 has a modular design and can be adapted to the re­spect­ive needs of the user by various ex­ten­sions. The community offers a large selection of free styles. If required, themes and templates can be in­di­vidu­al­ised. A re­spons­ive layout has been supported since the previous version.

Even in the areas of ad­min­is­tra­tion, mod­er­a­tion, and rights man­age­ment, phpBB is in no way inferior to other forum systems. The open source solution does not offer SEO features such as search engine friendly URLs.

Tech­nic­ally, phpBB is char­ac­ter­ised by a broad support of common database man­age­ment systems. The current version is com­pat­ible with PHP 7 and can be in­teg­rated into the Joomla! content man­age­ment system via an au­thor­isa­tion plug-in. Bridges for other CMS are not available.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 5.4+
• MySQL 3.23+, MySQLi, Post­gr­eSQL 8.3+, SQLite 2.8.2+, SQLite 3.6.15+, Oracle, MS SQL Server 2000+, or MariaDB 5.1+
• PHP ex­ten­sions: json

Demo version available

The German forum system WoltLab is promoted by its de­velopers as the “engine of suc­cess­ful com­munit­ies”. A special feature is the in­teg­rated CMS. The software is currently available in its 3rd version and offers everything for modern forum operation with its re­spons­ive templates, in­di­vidu­al design options, and a search engine friendly website structure.

The basis is a modular software ar­chi­tec­ture. While the core of the pro­pri­et­ary WoltLab Suite is available free of charge, all other com­pon­ents such as the forum, a gallery, calendar functions, file man­age­ment, and the blog area can be purchased as separate apps if required. Forum operators, who want to use the software without branding, have to pay a sig­ni­fic­ant surcharge, as with vBulletin.

If desired, forum operators can connect WoltLab with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus and thus enable users to register via their social media profile. In addition, the forum software offers in­ter­faces through which content can be con­veni­ently dis­trib­uted via Reddit, Pinterest, or WhatsApp.

WoltLab GmbH provides an official plug-in shop on its website where users can purchase ex­ten­sions, styles, and developer tools. The resources are both official ex­ten­sions and third-party software.

The forum software WoltLab Suite (written in PHP) requires DBMS MySQL or MySQL fork MariaDB. When pur­chas­ing the software license, an in­stall­a­tion service can be added. A cloud version of the forum software is not available.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 5.5.4+
• MySQL 5.1.17+ or MariaDB 10.0.22 with InnoDB support
• PHP ex­ten­sions: mbstring, libxml, dom, zlib, pdo, pdo_mysql, json, pcre, and hash

Demo version available

Invision Community is the latest version of the popular Invision Power Board (IP.Board) from IPS, Inc. The powerful software combines dis­cus­sion forums with CMS func­tion­al­ity and offers numerous extras for pro­fes­sion­al community projects. Ex­ten­sions are offered via an official online mar­ket­place.

The func­tion­al spectrum of Invision Community includes user-defined member profiles, a multi-level mod­er­a­tion system, detailed per­mis­sion settings as well as in­ter­faces to the most common social networks. If necessary, community members can be kept happy with gami­fic­a­tion tools. A cloud-based anti-spam system helps forum operators reduce unwanted posts from spam bots. Pro­fes­sion­al forum operators also benefit from mon­et­isa­tion options such as paid premium mem­ber­ships and in­ter­faces to ad­vert­ising networks. If required, a web shop can be in­teg­rated.

With Invision Community, IPS focuses primarily on the dis­tri­bu­tion of cloud solutions. Although acquiring a self-hosted license is possible, it has to be renewed every six months. Anyone who fails to do so will lose access to software updates, technical support, the anti-spam system, the mar­ket­place for software en­hance­ments, and support forums. As an al­tern­at­ive to the standard version, IPS offers the forum software as an en­ter­prise solution with extended support.

If Invision Community is used on its own hardware or as part of third-party hosting, PHP, and the DBMS MySQL must be provided. The vendor re­com­mends PHP 7. An in­stall­a­tion service can be purchased when buying the software license.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 5.4+
• MySQL 5.5+
• PHP ex­ten­sions: all standard ex­ten­sions as well as GD2 and mbstring

Demo version available

The MyBB (ori­gin­ally: My­Bul­let­in­Board) offers basic functions for a pro­fes­sion­al forum operation and is available to users free of charge under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

The basic features of the software include ad­min­is­tra­tion and mod­er­a­tion functions, private messages, a repu­ta­tion system, calendar, and events as well as a template editor. Ad­min­is­tra­tion tasks can be managed in the back­ground via a task schedul­ing system. Unwanted user behaviour can be punished by a warning system.

The core software shows weak points in the areas of mobile and SEO. However, various resources for extending the open source system are available to forum operators directly via the project website.

The PHP-based forum software MyBB supports MySQL, the free DBMS Post­gr­eSQL, and SQLite.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 5.2+
• MySQL 5.0+, Post­gr­eSQL 8.1+, or SQLite 3
• PHP ex­ten­sions: SimpleXML, mbstring, gd as well as the cor­res­pond­ing vendor specific database PHP extension.

XenForo is a pro­pri­et­ary forum software in the medium price range that focuses on social com­mit­ment. An intuitive “like” system allows users to earn trophies and therefore receive ap­pre­ci­ation for good con­tri­bu­tions.

Standard features include user-defined colour schemes, a central activity display, and an alarm system for quotes and answers. For success in the search engines, XenForo provides easily readable URLs and the pos­sib­il­ity of semantic an­nota­tion.

The forum software is designed to be an ex­pand­able system. Forum operators adapt the software in­di­vidu­ally to their re­spect­ive re­quire­ments with the help of add-ons. The provider re­com­mends Media Gallery and the Resource Manager as possible ex­ten­sions. Ad­di­tion­al add-ons can be obtained from third-party vendors. This may incur ad­di­tion­al costs. Users can also find various styles in re­spons­ive design in the add-on area on the pro­vider­'s website. This means that the forum system also looks good on mobile devices.

In order to operate a forum based on XenForo, users must have PHP and the MySQL database man­age­ment system. Other DBMS are not supported.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 5.4.0+
• MySQL 5.5+
• PHP ex­ten­sions: MySQLi, GD (with JPEG support), PCRE, SPL, SimpleXML, DOM, JSON, iconv, ctype, cURL

Demo version available

The first version of the Ultimate Bulletin Board (short: UBB) was released in 1997. The pro­pri­et­ary software is therefore one of the oldest forum systems. UBB dis­tri­bu­tion is based on unlimited software licenses. The update service and support end after one year, but can be renewed for another 12 months. UBB is in the mid-price segment.

The modular forum software consists of three com­pon­ents: As an extension to the basic module with a con­tri­bu­tion area and member ad­min­is­tra­tion, UBB provides an optional photo gallery. Both modules can be in­teg­rated into the UBB portal if required. Users can thus create a complete website based on UBB.

With detailed ad­min­is­tra­tion and mod­er­a­tion functions, spam pro­tec­tion in the form of captchas as well as search engine friendly URLs and mobile friendly templates, UBB offers all basic functions for modern forum operation. However, UBB does not offer the pos­sib­il­ity to extend the core software with plug-ins according to in­di­vidu­al re­quire­ments. This makes the forum system much more rigid than com­par­able pro­pri­et­ary products such as XenForo or the WoltLab Suite.

Tech­nic­ally, the PHP-based software relies on the MySQL database man­age­ment system. Other DBMS are not supported.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 5.4–5.6
• MySQL 5.5+
• PHP ex­ten­sions: GD or Im­ageMa­gick, mbstring

With Simple Machines Forum (SMF), forum operators have another open source system with a large user community available free of charge. According to the de­velopers, users with SMF can implement pro­fes­sion­al community projects in just a few minutes.

The current version 2 of SMF offers a com­pletely revised template engine that allows users to adapt the web interface of the forum system to their in­di­vidu­al re­quire­ments. The SMF community has a large selection of ready-made themes available free of charge in the download area of the project website - many of them in a mobile-friendly design. Users can also find various ex­ten­sions for the core software here. CMS bridges are available for XOOPS, mambo, and Joomla! among others.

As a scalable forum system, SMF is equally suitable for small and large com­munit­ies. According to the de­vel­op­ment team, the focus is on per­form­ance. In addition, the re­quire­ments of search engines were taken into account. The open source project is char­ac­ter­ised by good doc­u­ment­a­tion.

SMF supports MySQL and the free DBMS Post­gr­eSQL, SQLite, and SQLite 2.x. The forum software is not com­pat­ible with SQLite 3.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 5.4.0+,
• MySQL 4.0.18+, Post­gr­eSQL 8.0+, SQLite, SQLite 2.x

Demo version available

FluxBB is also available free of charge. The current version 1.5 comes with a function spectrum reduced to the es­sen­tials, which is be­ne­fi­cial to its per­form­ance. However, users do not have to make any com­prom­ises in terms of ad­min­is­tra­tion and mod­er­a­tion. On the other hand, there is a need for im­prove­ment with regard to SEO and usability on mobile devices. The selection of ready-made themes in the re­spons­ive design is straight­for­ward. Users that aren’t satisfied with the func­tion­al spectrum of the core software will find various resources on the pro­vider­'s website for in­di­vidu­al­ising the forum system.

Please note: FluxBB 1.5 will be replaced by its successor FluxBB 2.0 in the near future. The de­vel­op­ment team has decided to continue the open source project under the name "Flarum". A beta version is already available for download at flarum.org.

System re­quire­ments:

• PHP 4.4.0+
• MySQL 4.1.2+, Post­gr­eSQL 7.0+, SQLite 2

Which forum software is right for you depends on what your planned community project requires. If you only want to run a hobby or lifestyle forum to share your interests with like-minded people, free open source solutions are ideal. Without major in­vest­ments, forum systems such as phpBB, MyBB, or SMF can be used to build fully func­tion­al com­munit­ies with all the necessary features. If the demands on the project grow or the number of members increases, you can switch to another product and move the forum. Many of the providers presented have a so-called merge system that allows you to change the forum software without losing any data.

If, on the other hand, you are planning a pro­fes­sion­al community project, for example to provide an ad­di­tion­al contact channel for the customers of your web store, you should rely on a pro­fes­sion­al hosting basis and complete support right from the start. Cloud solutions such as vBulletin or Invision Community are ideal here, where the forum software is available as an all-inclusive package including hosting and main­ten­ance.

To make it easier for you to select the right forum software for your project, we have compared the presented community solutions in a table depending on their core functions.