Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

bbPress VS MyBB

Compare bbPress VS MyBB and see what are their differences

bbPress logo bbPress

bbPress is forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress.

MyBB logo MyBB

MyBB is a discussion board software that runs on PHP and MySQL
  • bbPress Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-25
  • MyBB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-10

bbPress features and specs

  • WordPress Integration
    bbPress is developed by the same team that built WordPress, making it seamlessly compatible and easy to integrate with WordPress sites, utilizing the same login and administration areas.
  • Lightweight
    bbPress is known for being lightweight and fast. It doesn't take up much server space and is efficient in terms of resources, making it a good choice for sites concerned about performance.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, bbPress is free to use and can be customized as per the needs. It benefits from community contributions and wide support.
  • Plugin Ecosystem
    bbPress has a variety of plugins and themes available, allowing for extensive customization and feature enhancement without touching the core codebase.
  • Simple Setup
    The setup process of bbPress is straightforward, especially for those familiar with WordPress, allowing users to create forums quickly without complex configurations.

Possible disadvantages of bbPress

  • Limited Features
    Compared to other forum software, bbPress may lack some advanced features out of the box, requiring additional plugins or custom development.
  • Community Size
    The bbPress community, while active, is smaller compared to larger forum software communities, which may impact the variety and speed of support.
  • Basic Design
    bbPress comes with a very basic, minimalistic design. Users seeking more visually appealing or modern forum styles may need to rely on additional themes or custom work.
  • Dependency on WordPress
    Since bbPress is a WordPress plugin, it's dependent on WordPress, which may not be ideal for those looking to build standalone forums without using WordPress as a base.
  • Learning Curve
    For users not familiar with WordPress, there might be a learning curve to effectively manage and customize a bbPress forum.

MyBB features and specs

  • Free and Open-Source
    MyBB is free to download and use. Its open-source nature allows for complete customization and transparency.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The software offers a clean and intuitive interface, making it easy for both administrators and users to navigate.
  • Community Support
    A large, active community provides extensive documentation, plugins, themes, and support.
  • Extensible
    MyBB supports a wide range of plugins and themes, allowing users to extend its functionality and appearance easily.
  • Built-In Features
    It offers a variety of built-in features like private messaging, multi-quote, user tagging, and more.
  • SEO Friendly
    MyBB includes SEO-friendly URLs and settings that help improve the forum's visibility on search engines.
  • Security
    Regular security updates and a dedicated security team help ensure that the platform is secure.

Possible disadvantages of MyBB

  • Outdated Design
    Some users may find the default themes and design elements outdated compared to modern forum software.
  • Limited Built-In Modern Features
    While MyBB has a lot of basic features, it lacks some modern functionalities out of the box, requiring additional plugins.
  • Learning Curve for Customization
    While it is highly customizable, new users may find it challenging to modify the software to fit their needs without digging into the documentation or community forums.
  • Performance
    The performance may degrade with a large number of users and posts, requiring additional optimizations or server resources.
  • Plugin Dependence
    To add advanced features, users often need to rely on third-party plugins, which may not always be up to date or secure.
  • Less Frequent Updates
    Compared to some other forum software, updates and new releases are less frequent, which can lead to delays in receiving new features or bug fixes.

bbPress videos

bbPress Review - How To Create a Simple Forum on a WordPress Blog

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How To Create A Forum In WordPress using bbPress (Part - I)
  • Tutorial - BBPress Wordpress Tutorial - Set up a Forum in Wordpress

MyBB videos

How to Build a Forum Website Free! MYBB review: Demo + Quick Setup Tutorial

More videos:

  • Review - Host your Own Forums with MyBB
  • Tutorial - How To Create / Set Up Your Own MyBB Forum 2019

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to bbPress and MyBB)
Forums And Forum Software
Forums
24 24%
76% 76
Community Platform
22 22%
78% 78
WordPress
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare bbPress and MyBB

bbPress Reviews

Top 10 Best Free Open Source Forum Software to Setup own Discussion Forum
bbPress makes it very simple for a user to create a unique discussion forum within the WordPress based website as it enables easy setup and offers various useful features to reduce the load. It concentrates more on fast performance, effortless integration, web standards, and extensive usability. It has clean and modern design and provides simple installation process. You can...
Source: technofizi.net

MyBB Reviews

Top 10 Best Free Open Source Forum Software to Setup own Discussion Forum
MyBB is a free application for discussion forums which is scripted in PHP language and uses MySQL database. The application includes almost everything which is required to run an effective and fascinating community smoothly. It uses an instructive discussion board set up so which allows viewers to begin and respond to interactions and tag their posts. In order to keep the...
Source: technofizi.net

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, MyBB should be more popular than bbPress. It has been mentiond 8 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

bbPress mentions (5)

  • Is Wordpress suitable for my project ?
    Your description has a lot of room for specifics, but if forum is what you want you should check bbpress. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Best way to create a community website
    For something simple, I'd look into bbpress. For something more complex (but that can still integrate with WordPress, check out Xenforo (my favorite) or Vanilla. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Nextdoor replacement?
    I've never used either, but there's BBpress and BuddyPress from the makers of WordPress: Https://bbpress.org/ Https://buddypress.org/. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Looking for a simple forum-based WP theme that can be customized to add custom pages
    Bbpress.org is going to be best place to start. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • [HELP] Plugin for Discussion Board/Forum
    Have you checked out bbpress? It's from the creators of WordPress Https://bbpress.org/. Source: almost 4 years ago

MyBB mentions (8)

  • Best way to host a small forum?
    Excellent! Glad we could get you sorted! Hosting can be scary and it's okay to be afraid to touch things or not understand certain settings or terms. Especially if you're new. The key is to read the documentation. For your forum needs, this can be found at https://mybb.com and https://phpbb.com. Source: over 1 year ago
  • PhpBB
    I actually recommend myBB [0] over phpBB for anyone looking to set up a LAMP forum. It's cleaner, better written, and possibly better maintained and with a much less scary vulnerability history. I believe it started off as an attempt to create an OSS version of IPB (or was it vB?). [0]: https://github.com/mybb/mybb. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • How can I create a forum using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?
    As u/Marble_Wraith mentioned. You will find more help and information at r/webdev. That being said, building a Forum is somewhat complex, if you're planning to do so from scratch without any prior knowledge this could be a challenging first task. If it's also an option to use a pre-build app, then https://mybb.com/ is a good starting point. You can also find some information on YouTube about how to get it running. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • What happened to the new offsite backup project?
    If you want something done and nobody is doing it, it is best to do it yourself. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Got Me Kicked Off Nanny Job Fb group!!
    She probably intimidated the group moderator, I can't see how any of that would have gotten you kicked out of a group. I suppose you could start your own group or even start one of those free forums like https://mybb.com/ and you decide how members will be vetted and of course everyone use a pseudonym. She probably has an alternate account that isn't her real name., hence why you can't block her. I suppose you... Source: over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing bbPress and MyBB, you can also consider the following products

CreativeMinds WordPress Q&A Plugin - The WordPress Question and Answer Plugin lets users post and answer questions, featuring voting, moderation, and categories. Ideal for creating a community-driven knowledge base or support forum, it enhances user engagement and information sharing.

Discourse - Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.

phpBB - Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a cheap, credit-card sized computer. The official website uses phpBB for their discussion forums. phpBB is not affiliated with nor responsible for any of the sites listed on the showcase.

XenForo - Intuitive. Social. Engaging. Fast. XenForo brings a fresh outlook to forum software.

Flarum - Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun. It's simple, fast, and free.

NodeBB - NodeBB Forum Software - A better community platform for the modern web. NodeBB is a next generation forum software that's free and easy to use.