Forumbee vs NodeBB
Forumbee
forumbee.com
NodeBB
nodebb.orgSide by side
| Figure | Forumbee | NodeBB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $50/mo | $20/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 6 |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 9.1 (#1) | 8.8 (#3) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 8.9 (#4) | 8.6 (#11) |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 8.7 (#19) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes | Yes |
| Security | Forumbee says its safeguards include encryption in transit, access controls, monitoring, and secure storage practices. | NodeBB operates a bug bounty program, but eligible testing is limited to try.nodebb.org and third-party plugins are excluded. |
| Support | The Premium plan includes email support, while the Enterprise plan includes a dedicated success manager with an annual subscription. | Paid hosting plans list priority support, and NodeBB also points users to its community support forum. |
Plans
Forumbee
- Premium$250 a month
- Enterprise$750 a month
- Additional Admin Users$50 a month
- Additional Members$100 a month
- Professional Services$200 a month
- Personalized Training$300, paid once
- Assisted Account Setup Package$1,500, paid once
- Custom Theme Package$3,500, paid once
- Gamification Module$4,200 a year
- Custom PlanPriced 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.