NodeBB vs Open Social
NodeBB
nodebb.orgOpen Social
getopensocial.comSide by side
| Figure | NodeBB | Open Social |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | 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 | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 1 |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 8.6 (#11) | 7.8 (#30) |
| Spec score · Community Building Platforms | 8.7 (#6) | 7.8 (#14) |
| Audience | NodeBB describes forums as useful for brand communities and product support boards. | The maker describes its platform as supporting cross-organisation collaboration and complex, multi-layered organizational structures. |
| Company | NodeBB says it was founded in 2014 by three developers and identifies the company as NodeBB, Inc. | Open Social describes itself as a Dutch company with exclusively Dutch investors and identifies Amsterdam, The Netherlands as its base. |
| Product | NodeBB is a community discussion platform for forums and online communities. | Open Social is a Community Collaboration Platform for organizations to connect, engage and collaborate within their communities. |
| Security | NodeBB operates a bug bounty program, but eligible testing is limited to try.nodebb.org and third-party plugins are excluded. | The maker says it is ISO 27001 certified; its Cloud Platform page also cites GDPR standards and isolated single-tenant hosting. |
| Support | Paid hosting plans list priority support, and NodeBB also points users to its community support forum. | SaaS customers can receive professional support and enterprise services including maintenance, security audits, performance optimization and developer training. |
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
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.
Open Social
Open Social is a community collaboration platform for organizations connecting and working across their communities. Its suite has six products: Community Management System, Cloud Platform, Gaia AI, Engagement Studio, Connection Hub and Lumina Insights. The Community Management System supports custom roles, permissions and organizational arrangements, including complex, multi-layered structures. Gaia AI assists with workflows, content moderation and advanced search. Connection Hub connects with external systems such as Salesforce and Snowflake, and supports GraphQL, webhooks, Kafka and no-code Zapier connections. An optional Document Collaboration Suite enables real-time co-editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings in formats including docx, xlsx, pptx, odf and visio. A branded native app for iOS and Android is also available as an add-on, with push notifications. The core Community Management System is free in the Drupal community; its SaaS subscription adds hosting, other products and professional services. SaaS customers can receive enterprise services, and an on-premise hosting option is described for organizations with infrastructure requirements. The maker identifies Amsterdam as its base and says it is ISO 27001 certified.