Crowded vs NodeBB
Crowded
crowded.co
NodeBB
nodebb.orgSide by side
| Figure | Crowded | NodeBB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | €50/mo | $20/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 6 |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 7.5 (#92) | 9.3 (#3) |
| API | Crowded offers API access to build on top of the product or implement community content on a static website. | NodeBB provides a public Read API and a RESTful Write API for software integrations. |
| Audience | Crowded presents customer success, networking, co-creation, and business communities as use cases, including support hubs and knowledge bases. | NodeBB describes forums as useful for brand communities and product support boards. |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Product | Crowded helps organizations launch and grow their own online branded community platform. | NodeBB is a community discussion platform for forums and online communities. |
| Security | Crowded says communities have SSL certificates, its cloud hosting provider is ISO and SOC II certified with 99.9% uptime, and its application receives annual third-party security audits. | NodeBB operates a bug bounty program, but eligible testing is limited to try.nodebb.org and third-party plugins are excluded. |
| Support | The features page lists community coaching, a dedicated account manager for all customers, email and chat support, and a help center. | Paid hosting plans list priority support, and NodeBB also points users to its community support forum. |
Plans
Crowded
- Premium€799 a month
- Enterprise€1,599 a month
- Success Package€499 a month
- Tailored Design€1,499 a month
- 500 Additional users€50 a month
- 500 Additional users€50 a month
- Success Package€499 a month
- Premium — Out of the box€799 a month
- Tailored Design€1,499, paid once
- Enterprise — Custom setup€1,599 a month
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.