Khoros Communities vs NodeBB
Khoros Communities
khoros.com
NodeBB
nodebb.orgSide by side
| Figure | Khoros Communities | NodeBB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $20/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 8.2 (#5) | 8.8 (#3) |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 8.3 (#36) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Spec score · Social Networking Software | 7.9 (#12) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 7.9 (#28) | 8.6 (#11) |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes | Yes |
| Security | Khoros's security overview says its applications use role-based permissions, CSRF protections, and activity logging, and that it conducts annual third-party application penetration tests. | NodeBB operates a bug bounty program, but eligible testing is limited to try.nodebb.org and third-party plugins are excluded. |
| Support | Khoros provides separate support knowledge bases for Community Classic and Community Aurora, with support resources accessed by signing in or signing up. | 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
Khoros Communities
Khoros Communities gives brands a space for customers to find answers, collaborate, and engage with one another. Communities can take the form of forums, blogs, knowledge bases, events, idea spaces, private messaging, and contests. Templates support initial setup, while no-code drag-and-drop tools let teams adjust page design and navigation. Operators can create private spaces, use a custom domain, and moderate activity with workflow automation and AI-driven content filters.
A rank and reputation engine scores activity across more than 80 triggers. Customizable analytics dashboards, widgets, and a bulk-data API support reporting. Khoros describes the product as API-first, with a GraphQL layer. Aurora early-access capabilities include AI moderation, appeals, generated answers for unanswered posts, and event-driven workflow automation; these require enablement. The Aurora Salesforce connector can escalate threads to cases, provide a private case portal, and support federated search, but requires a full Salesforce license. The product is available on web, Android, and iOS. Pricing is on request.
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.