I’ve been looking for some forum software to run a new site. The PHP world has a good choice of free/open source packages, many of which are very widely deployed. This is a brief review of four of the most popular systems. Despite having heard good things, I’ve avoided proprietary systems like vBulletin and IP.Board (formerly Invision Power Board). I’m certainly not going to pay just to review them.
First the good news. All the packages reviewed were easy to install. They all have a fairly neat automated installer with the exception of PunBB which is semi-automated. At the end of the process it gives you a file which you have to upload manually to the server. No big deal.
Thereafter, things go right downhill. Let’s look at some basic stats:
| version | tables | files | |
|---|---|---|---|
| bbPress | 0.9.0.2 | 8 | 150 |
| PunBB | 1.2.20 | 17 | 124 |
| Simple Machines Forum (SMF) | 1.1.6 | 41 | 1128 |
| phpBB | 3.0.2 | 62 | 1024 |
Here, “tables” is database tables. They’re a good indication of how bloated, or if you prefer, “powerful”, a system is. A basic forum system needs just four core tables: users, forums, topics, posts. Add onto that one more table for storing global configuration like the site name and you should be good to go.
“Files” is the number of files in the default installation package.
bbPress scores well here in keeping the bloat down, running its entire system in a parsimonious eight tables; at the other extreme, phpBB weighs in with an engorged 62. Behind these simple figures lies a sorry tale of phenomenal feature creep, atrocious usability and security nightmares.
Four reviews to follow:
- bbPress
- PunBB (in progress)
- Simple Machines Forum (in progress)
- phpBB (in progress)