Elgg vs NodeBB
Elgg
elgg.org
NodeBB
nodebb.orgSide by side
| Figure | Elgg | NodeBB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 8.7 (#8) | 8.6 (#11) |
| Spec score · Community Building Platforms | 8.7 (#5) | 8.7 (#6) |
| Spec score · Social Networking Software | 8.6 (#5) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 8.1 (#59) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Audience | The site describes Elgg as suitable for universities, schools, colleges, organizations, and companies building communities or collaborative platforms. | NodeBB describes forums as useful for brand communities and product support boards. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes | Yes |
| Security | Elgg documents bcrypt password hashing, login throttling, input filtering, CSRF tokens, and access control lists. | NodeBB operates a bug bounty program, but eligible testing is limited to try.nodebb.org and third-party plugins are excluded. |
| Support | Elgg lists community discussions, technical support forums, and professional service providers as support resources. | Paid hosting plans list priority support, and NodeBB also points users to its community support forum. |
Plans
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
Elgg
Elgg is a free, open-source framework for building web applications where people sign in and share information. It can serve as a foundation for campus networks, organizational collaboration platforms, or company communications tools. Hooks and events let plugins extend or change application behavior, while the view system supports custom themes. Granular content access policies can support private networks and intranets; user groups and a file storage API provide building blocks for managing members and their files. Elgg supports on-site and email notifications, as well as RPC web services for external applications and mobile clients. Its listed security features include anti-CSRF validation, XSS filters, HMAC signatures, and password hashing. The project offers documentation, tutorials, an API reference, community discussions, and a repository with more than 1,000 open-source plugins. It is free to download, install, and use. The full package with core plugins is offered under GPLv2; the framework without plugins is offered under MIT. Self-hosting requires a database and a configured cron job for background tasks.
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.