--- title: NodeBB canonical: https://saasranked.com/software/nodebb/ category: Customer Community Software points: 64 rank: 2 of 8 facts_checked: 2026-10-09 --- # NodeBB Open-source forum software, hosted from $20 a month or installed on your own server. 64 points out of 100. #2 of 8 customer community platforms. Vendor: NodeBB Inc. Website: https://nodebb.org/ - Hosted plans start at $20 a month (Starter), billed monthly, with 50,000 page views and 5 GB of storage [1]. - Every paid plan allows a custom domain and unlimited staff users [1]. - There is no free hosted plan, only a 14-day trial with a credit card required [1]. - The software is open source under GPL-3.0 and can be installed on your own server [2]. - Read and write REST APIs are documented, with routes for flags, queued posts, bans and groups [3][4]. Verdict: NodeBB suits teams that want a forum on their own domain, with the choice of vendor hosting or running it themselves [1][2]. The cheapest hosted plan is $20 a month, and the code is GPL-3.0 [1][2]. 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 [1][9]. Best for: Teams that want a forum on their own domain with an API and the option to self-host. ## Points | Criterion | Line | Value | Points | Note | |---|---|---|---|---| | Price | Free plan | No | 0/6 | Pricing page lists only a 14-day trial; no permanent free hosted plan [1]. | | Price | Cheapest paid plan with a custom domain | $20/mo | 12/12 | Starter, $20 a month, billed monthly (no yearly price shown); custom domain included [1]. | | Members and access | Unlimited members | Yes | 6/6 | Plans are metered by page views, not members; the GPL-3.0 self-hosted version has no member limit [1][2]. | | Members and access | Custom domain | Yes | 3/3 | Pricing table shows a custom domain on all four paid plans, including Starter [1]. | | Members and access | Single sign-on | Yes | 10/10 | NodeBB's OAuth2 Multiple plugin lets members sign in through your own OAuth2 provider, such as Okta or Auth0; Enterprise lists SSO too [11][1]. | | Members and access | Groups with their own permissions | Yes | 4/4 | Home page lists role-based permissions assigned per category; the API has group and privilege routes [4][5]. | | Moderation and answers | Moderation tools | Report queue, Approve before posting, Ban or suspend members | 6/8 | Write API spec lists flags, queued-post accept and remove, and user ban routes. No spam filter documented [4][7]. | | Moderation and answers | Accepted answers | Yes | 5/5 | NodeBB's question-and-answer plugin lets a reply be marked as the answer from the post tools; the answer moves to the top [10]. | | Connections | Named integrations | Not published | 0/8 | Not published on the vendor's pricing or home page; integrations are said to come from third-party plugins, none named [1][2][5]. | | Connections | Public API | Yes | 8/8 | README and docs describe RESTful read and write APIs with reference pages [2][3]. | | Connections | Webhooks | Not published | 0/3 | Not published in the docs navigation or Write API spec [3][4]. | | Your data | Export your community data | Not published | 0/6 | API spec lists a per-user data export only; no community-wide export is documented [8]. | | Your data | Open source | Yes | 4/4 | Licensed under GPL-3.0 [2]. | | Your data | Self-hosting | Yes | 3/3 | README and docs give install guides for many operating systems and Docker [2][6]. | | Security | SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 | Not published | 0/8 | Not published on the vendor's pricing or about pages [1][9]. | | Security | Written uptime guarantee | Not published | 0/3 | Not published on the vendor's pricing or about pages [1][9]. | | Security | Two-factor sign-in | Yes | 3/3 | The two-factor plugin (time-based codes or hardware keys) is listed in NodeBB's install dependencies [12][13]. | ## Plans | Plan | Price | Per month (USD) | |---|---|---| | Starter | $20/month [1] | $20 | | Hamlet | $100/month [1] | $100 | | Village | $250/month [1] | $250 | | City | $750/month [1] | $750 | | Enterprise | Quote [1] | - | The pricing page shows monthly prices only and a 14-day free trial; non-profit and start-up projects may get Starter-level hosting free at NodeBB's discretion [1]. ## Strengths - Hosted Starter plan costs $20 a month with a custom domain included [1]. - Open source under GPL-3.0, with install guides for many systems [2][6]. - Documented REST read and write APIs [2][3]. - Moderation routes cover reports, queued posts for approval and bans [4][7]. - Members can sign in through your own OAuth2 provider with an official plugin, and two-factor sign-in is available [11][12]. ## Limits - No free hosted plan, only a 14-day trial [1]. - Hosted prices are metered by page views and jump to $100 a month for 500,000 views [1]. - Integrations come from third-party plugins; none of Slack, Salesforce, Zendesk or HubSpot is named [2][5]. - Hosted plans are metered by page views, and the vendor's own pages name no SOC 2 or ISO certificate [1][9]. ## Sources 1. [NodeBB pricing](https://nodebb.org/pricing/), NodeBB, accessed 2026-10-09 2. [NodeBB README](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/master/README.md), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 3. [NodeBB documentation](https://docs.nodebb.org/), NodeBB, accessed 2026-10-09 4. [NodeBB Write API specification](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/master/public/openapi/write.yaml), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 5. [NodeBB home page](https://nodebb.org/), NodeBB, accessed 2026-10-09 6. [NodeBB documentation navigation (mkdocs.yml)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/docs/master/mkdocs.yml), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 7. [Queued posts API (Write API)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/master/public/openapi/write/posts/queue/id.yaml), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 8. [User exports API (Write API)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/master/public/openapi/write/users/uid/exports/type.yaml), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 9. [About NodeBB](https://nodebb.org/about/), NodeBB, accessed 2026-10-09 10. [nodebb-plugin-question-and-answer README](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/nodebb-plugin-question-and-answer/master/README.md), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 11. [nodebb-plugin-sso-oauth2-multiple README](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/nodebb-plugin-sso-oauth2-multiple/master/README.md), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 12. [Two-Factor Authentication for NodeBB (plugin README)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/nodebb-plugin-2factor/master/README.md), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09 13. [NodeBB package.json (dependencies)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/master/install/package.json), GitHub (NodeBB), accessed 2026-10-09