| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 7.7 (#11) | 7.5 (#13) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 7.5 (#38) | 7.4 (#44) |
| Administration | The Admin Control Panel organizes forum configuration, content, users, appearance, and maintenance into six sections. | The administration panel lets users customize features without directly editing code. |
| Customization | MyBB includes a plugin system and built-in template and theme editor, with community plugins and themes available. | Community-built extensions can add features, and styles can customize a board’s appearance. |
| Founded | 2002 | 2000 |
| Purpose | MyBB is free, open source forum software for building online communities. | phpBB is an open-source bulletin board system for building online forums. |
| Server requirements | MyBB 1.8 requires PHP, a supported database, a web server, and the SimpleXML, mbstring, gd, and database PHP extensions. | phpBB 3.3 requires a web server with PHP 7.2 or later and a supported SQL database. |
| Support | Support resources include documentation, community forums, and a Discord server; the documentation says community forum support is free and available to anyone using MyBB. | Support resources include documentation, knowledge base articles, community support forums, and limited-support Discord and IRC chats. |