Askbot vs NodeBB
Askbot
askbot.com
NodeBB
nodebb.orgSide by side
| Figure | Askbot | NodeBB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $49/mo | $20/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 6 |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 8.3 (#41) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Audience | Askbot describes itself as designed for self-hosting and customization by organizations, communities, and educational institutions. | NodeBB describes forums as useful for brand communities and product support boards. |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | The download page offers installation with pip, a GitHub release ZIP, and a Git clone; pip installation requires Python 3.8 or newer. | NodeBB documentation provides installation guides for Linux distributions, macOS, Windows, and cloud deployment options including Docker. |
| Founded | 2009 | 2014 |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Paid from | 49 | 20 |
| Support | Plans list email support for Basic, priority email support for Business, and phone support for Enterprise; the developer page also links to a community support forum. | Paid hosting plans list priority support, and NodeBB also points users to its community support forum. |
Plans
Askbot
- Basic$49 a month
- Business$149 a month
- Enterprise$499 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- CustomPriced on request
NodeBB
- Starter$20 a month
- Hamlet$100 a month
- Village$250 a month
- City$750 a month
- Self-hostedFree
- Enterprise SolutionsPriced on request
In their own words
NodeBB
NodeBB is a community discussion platform for forums and online communities, including brand communities and product support boards. Members can write topics and replies using a visual editor or Markdown, chat in real time, and receive notifications for follows, likes and topic subscriptions. They can form groups with activity feeds, tag topics and follow tags for updates. Administrators can create unlimited moderator and administrator accounts and set their permissions. More than 500 plugins and themes can be installed through the control panel, and public Read and RESTful Write APIs support integrations. Spam-prevention integrations include Akismet, StopForumSpam and Project Honeypot. Self-hosted NodeBB is free to download and install under GPLv3; hosted plans start at $20 a month and include priority support. Basic full-text search uses the bundled database engine; Solr and Elasticsearch search require third-party plugins. Installation guides cover Linux, macOS, Windows and cloud deployment options including Docker.