Dana Bell describes SwiftBBS this way: "SWIFTBBS is a simple and small bulletin board system program, with support for internal and custom menus. If you know a bit about programming, SwiftBBS' questionnaire command files can also be used to control access and navigation.With SwiftBBS you can even designate a custom main menu for each user, and for new users at the same site (families) to logon without having to hang up. The menu system allows the system operator to define the use and parameters of a hundred or so separate functions, including linking of menus. The documentation for SwiftBBS includes a general manual, reference manual and an application manual of suggestions on how to set-up and use SwiftBBS."

Dana Bell mentions in the documentation: "The development of SwiftBBS is a reflection of my preferences for the features of two other BBS packages, QuickBBS and Opus. QuickBBS for the quickness, hotkeys, database format and the customizing features, and Opus for the simple and professional operation and appearance. I hope the SwiftBBS similarities will be a credit to the developers of these two. Both systems have also been imitated since then by other fine programs in their own right, RemoteAccess and Maximus."