Launched in June 2000, phpBB was, for a long time, a very common sight when using any online community. Today, with the huge rise is sites like Discord and Reddit, and even groups within social media behemoth Facebook, phpBB isn’t as common – but it’s still going strong.
Web profiler BuiltWith tracks over 45,000 websites globally that are either currently using or have historically relied on phpBB to host their communities. It’s also particularly popular amongst European users, where it’s still the most popular forum software in the Czech Republic, and holds second place in both Slovakia and Slovenia. The “Powered by phpBB” footprint: If you search the exact phrase “Powered by phpBB”, Google indexes millions of pages. While many of those are subpages within the same forums, it highlights the staggering amount of indexable content the software has generated over 26 years.
phpBB remains popular due to its low resource usage and wide range of available ‘Add-Ons’. It continues to receive security updates and bug fixes, along with development from a small community.
The Era of the “Super Furry”
The release history of phpBB includes some legendary milestones that developers still look back on:
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The Ground-Up Rebuild: In 2001, the developers realised the original code couldn’t handle their long-term ambitions. They built phpBB 2.0.x completely from scratch.
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The 2.0 Launch: Released on April 4, 2002, version 2.0.0 was officially codenamed the “Super Furry” version. It completely revolutionised forum aesthetics.
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The subSilver Revolution: The default theme for phpBB2 was called subSilver (designed by Tom “subBlue” Beddard). It was so wildly influential in 2001 that almost every bulletin board software for the next decade copied its gradients, cell padding, and iconic rounded-corner layout.
Whilst not as popular as it used to be, forums remain very popular for many niche interest groups. Many older sites remain online due to the vast amount of expertise held in their thread and posts.
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