NodeBB

"NodeBB Review"

Overall: Overall, I would recommend NodeBB as a forum software to companies who would like to test the very idea of having a forum, or who are not ready to commit to large budgets and extended functionality. If you don't have any resources to write custom CSS, you could rely on one of their pre-made themes, and select from among 10+ skins. If you have design and coding resources, your opportunities will be much greater. NodeBB allows you to have a SSO option, which was a strong requirement for us, and their most basic plan is more than enough for us at the moment. They were also very kind to refund us for a few months at the beginning of our cycle when we were not using the forum, which left us with a great impression and established trust. Repeatedly we reached out to them with a request to develop certain functionality, for which they provided reasonable quotes.

Pros: We've been using NodeBB to run our forum for more than a year. Overall, it's a great *value for money* tool. The interface is relatively easy to use: after a bit of work of understanding where different settings are controlled, two people, one of whom was a trainee, could work it out alright. We like the look and feel it provides, which gives an impression of a website, rather than your average forum with pages and pages of content to scroll through and posts that look like a digitalised list of archives from the national library. The support team is responsive. Since they are a small company they take time to get back, but they almost always could help with the answer, or help to work out an alternative solution. They were one of the first forums to comply with GDPR, which was great news for us.

Cons: Since it's a new platform and a small team, there isn't a lot of learning materials about the software. Because plugins are open to the community to create, they would sometimes interfere with one another and break things. There is no curation to the list of recommended or updated plugins. And there is no quick way to understand if a task could be solved with a plugin or not (could be solved through documentation?). One needs to spend time with the community to work this out.

"Really, The best forum software I've used!"

Overall: For my business providing an intuitive, flexible and adaptable UI to the users is key. I have found this software meets all my needs and the NodeBB team are experts in what they do, "They know their stuff" I found that they will make your idea become reality, providing you with feedback on a possible alternative ways of meeting your needs, I have found the NodeBB team participate with what you are trying to achieve, you don't feel like your on your own, they help you get there.

Pros: The forum software is easy on the eyes, some forum software looks too busy, with too many options and not intuitive but, NodeBB is clean and easy to use. The software is flexible and adaptable for your needs. The software has many options, I have adapted it to what I need, switching off features I do not need for my business.

Cons: The software team at NodeBB are keen to help with every issue you may encounter, so I have not really found any cons as such which would deter me from using the software. The software team are constantly updating the software, with additions and new features. I have had suggestions for what I have considered improvements and the NodeBB have listened, the features could take some time to be released, but the team have to consider feedback from many users and the best for improvements is released. I have used the NodeBB's customisation route many times, to get the features I need.