Forum is our vital need. Strange claim, don’t you find it? Here comes an explanation. Communication, a thing without which the entire civilization, the Internet, and even your website or blog wouldn’t exist. See the connection? More chatting, more knowledge, more fun. No matter whether it’s a live conversation or virtual. What you’re going to see here is if PhpBB to bbPress migration needed or on the contrary.
Looking for a suitable forum? Consider these.
Both PhpBB and bbPress are open-source and free. Both are preferred by different users. Both enriched with valuable knowledge and different users’ experience. Like two great encyclopedias. Still, which forum platform to choose?
Shall we go through and compare phpBB and bbPress?
PhpBB
The story of this forum starts in early 2000. The oldie one but the veteran. The current stable version is 3.1.9, released 4 months ago. Famous for its ultra large community and multilingualism (44 or so supported languages). The platform is written in PHP scripting language. More techy forum. Thus, there is a broad way for creating and modifying features added by the user (thanks to MODs). With a bit of coding knowledge, you can contribute some nice things to the forum. PhpBB “About” page says, that: “Millions of people use phpBB on a daily basis, making it the most widely used open source bulletin board system in the world.” Guess, the explanation is odd here. Some features which make phpBB “a bright color”:
- Supports more database engines (PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server);
- Іmplemented AJAX technology
- phpBB is a flat forum (you’re not replying to the previous message, you’re creating a new one, which is added to the end of discussion)
- Private messages sending is supported
bbPress
WordPress’s sibling since was produced by the same creator. The forum currently runs on 2.5 version. The same way as phpBB, bbPress is written in PHP. BBPress is a plugin-type extension which can be simply added to your website.
What can be said about bbPress? A lot of not just good, but prevailing good things.
bbPress is effortlessly integrated into WordPress. It’s logical:
- One login for everything. Users can log in to your website and forum under single login
- WYSIWYG editor is included
- Supports both flat and threaded types of discussion
- Anti-spam protection is included (Akismet)
- No need for coding knowledge. Any widget or plugin is embedded in here.
- Theme front-end editing is allowed.
- Taking into consideration WordPress’s “SEO friendliness”, the same concerns bbPress
We can’t predict what forum will be your instant choice. There are no winners or losers. Both forums aim different audience and different topics. Though, there is something to make a note of. Consider that you’re a WordPress user. Which forum will be more naturally preferred? Our (captain-obvious) guess is bbPress. As it was already said, to add a forum to your WP website you just need to install bbPress like a simple plugin. This simplifies a lot of things. In case you’re aiming not big, neat and safe forum, bbPress is more than just a right option for you. Everything is as easy managed as in WordPress since they best work when united.
Planning migration from phpBB to bbPress? Plan it with CMS2CMS. All your data will be safe and sound.