NodeBB vs XenForo
NodeBB
nodebb.orgXenForo
xenforo.comSide by side
| Figure | NodeBB | XenForo |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | $60/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 5 |
| Spec score · Discussion Forum Software | 8.9 (#2) | 7.1 (#9) |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 8.8 (#3) | 7.1 (#15) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 8.6 (#11) | 7.1 (#48) |
| Spec score · Community Building Platforms | 8.7 (#6) | 7.1 (#22) |
| Company | NodeBB says it was founded in 2014 by three developers and identifies the company as NodeBB, Inc. | The site's footer identifies the company as XenForo Ltd. and displays a 2010–2026 copyright notice. |
| Security | NodeBB operates a bug bounty program, but eligible testing is limited to try.nodebb.org and third-party plugins are excluded. | Security features include two-factor authentication, automatic account lockouts, CAPTCHA integrations, one-way password hashing, and input filtering. |
| Support | Paid hosting plans list priority support, and NodeBB also points users to its community support forum. | The Cloud Starter and Standard plans list lifetime support, while Business lists lifetime priority support. |
Plans
NodeBB
- Starter$20 a month
- Hamlet$100 a month
- Village$250 a month
- City$750 a month
- Self-hostedFree
- Enterprise SolutionsPriced on request
XenForo
- XenForo Cloud Starter$60 a month
- XenForo Cloud Standard$100 a month
- XenForo Self-hosted$195, paid once
- XenForo Cloud Business$250 a month
- XenForo Cloud EnterprisePriced 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.