Add to Chrome
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Add to SafariWhen comparing phpBB vs ElkArte, the Slant community recommends ElkArte for most people. In the question“What are the best web forum software packages?” ElkArte is ranked 5th while phpBB is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose ElkArte is:
Elkarte has BadBehaviour and other measures included into the core to protect your forum from spammers.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Open source
Source code is available on GitHub under GNU General Licence.
Pro Premium extensions
There are many great developers creating premium extensions to make it go to the next level. With those premium extensions phpBB goes far beyond any other.
Pro Extensible
Is built to be extensible and flexible.
Pro Huge extension repository
Its the forum software with the most ready to go extension repository.
Pro Improved Anti Spam measures
Elkarte has BadBehaviour and other measures included into the core to protect your forum from spammers.
Pro Notification centre
ElkArte has a notification center where you can see mentions, likes, quoted messages and other alerts, all included into the core of the software.
Pro Responsive design
ElkArte comes out of the box with two responsive styles.
Pro Easy to install
Pro Open Source
It is completely free to use and is licensed with an open source BSD-3 clause license.
Pro Integrated video embedding
Integrated video embedding for YouTube, Vimeo, and DailyMotion.
Cons
Con Outdated look and feel
Even the latest version of the software looks like the typical '90s forums which is now pretty outdated.
Con Slow (phpBB 3.0)
phpBB 3.0 was not optimized for slow connections.
Con Poor community communication
There is a release lifecycle, but it is not adhered to. Migrations and updates cannot be planned.
Con Limited themes and extensions
And community is fairly small as it is derived from SMF Forums.
