Discourse vs NodeBB
Two of the top three customer community platforms, compared rule by rule on published facts.
In short
- Discourse has 93 points and NodeBB 64, 29 apart on our customer community software rules.
- Discourse earns more on price, moderation and answers, connections, your data and security; NodeBB earns more on nothing.
- Cheapest paid plan with a custom domain: Discourse $100/mo, NodeBB $20/mo.
- Only Discourse meets: free plan, named integrations, webhooks, export your community data, SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 and written uptime guarantee.
Discourse93/100 #1 of 8
Best for: Companies that want a moderated, open-source support forum on their own domain.
NodeBB64/100 #2 of 8
Best for: Teams that want a forum on their own domain with an API and the option to self-host.
Points by group
| Group | Discourse | NodeBB |
|---|---|---|
| Price of 18 | 13 | 12 |
| Members and access of 23 | 23 | 23 |
| Moderation and answers of 13 | 13 | 11 |
| Connections of 19 | 17 | 8 |
| Your data of 13 | 13 | 7 |
| Security of 14 | 14 | 3 |
| Total | 93 | 64 |
Rule by rule
What each vendor publishes, and the points it earns. Sources are on each product page.
| Rule (points) | Discourse | NodeBB |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan (6) | Yes 6 | No 0 |
| Cheapest paid plan with a custom domain (12) | $100/mo 7 | $20/mo 12 |
| Unlimited members (6) | Yes 6 | Yes 6 |
| Custom domain (3) | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| Single sign-on (10) | Yes 10 | Yes 10 |
| Groups with their own permissions (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Moderation tools (8) | Report queue, Approve before posting, Ban or suspend members, Spam or word filters 8 | Report queue, Approve before posting, Ban or suspend members 6 |
| Accepted answers (5) | Yes 5 | Yes 5 |
| Named integrations (8) | Slack, Salesforce, Zendesk 6 | Not published 0 |
| Public API (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Webhooks (3) | Yes 3 | Not published 0 |
| Export your community data (6) | Yes 6 | Not published 0 |
| Open source (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Self-hosting (3) | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 (8) | Yes 8 | Not published 0 |
| Written uptime guarantee (3) | Yes 3 | Not published 0 |
| Two-factor sign-in (3) | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
Discourse
Discourse suits teams that want an open-source support forum with documented moderation, an API and webhooks. Pro at $100 a month covers a custom domain and unlimited members. It also names SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. The catch: no HubSpot integration is listed, and the written uptime guarantee is Enterprise only.
NodeBB
NodeBB suits teams that want a forum on their own domain, with the choice of vendor hosting or running it themselves. The cheapest hosted plan is $20 a month, and the code is GPL-3.0. The catch: hosted plans have no free tier, and NodeBB's pricing and about pages name no SOC 2 or ISO certificate, uptime guarantee or named integrations.
Both products are scored by the same rules: how we score customer community platforms.