NodeBB
Forum software built for the modern web.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 880 commits in the last 90 days, latest release v4.16.5 (Oct 2026).
Comparisons in Communication - Social Networks and Forums: Twitter alternatives, Facebook Groups alternatives, Reddit alternatives, Disqus alternatives.
At a glance
NodeBB quick facts
- Health score
- 97/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 15,245
- Last commit
- yesterday (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- v4.16.5, Oct 2026
- Licence
- GPL-3.0
Top alternatives to NodeBB
In its own words
The project's README opens: "NodeBB Forum Software is powered by Node.js and supports either Redis, MongoDB, or a PostgreSQL database. It utilizes web sockets for instant interactions and real-time notifications. NodeBB takes the best of the modern web: real-time streaming discussions, mobile responsiveness, and rich RESTful read/write APIs, while staying true to the original bulletin board/forum format → categorical hierarchies, local user accounts, and asynchronous messaging."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
NodeBB scores 97/100, #4 of 40 in Communication - Social Networks and Forums: 880 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the latest release (v4.16.5, 2 days ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 15,245 stars add 16.7 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and Docker support adds the final 10. That places it in the good band (70 and above). The biggest shortfall is star count, worth 3.3 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
880 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
v4.16.5 released 2 days ago
- Stars biggest shortfall 16.7 / 20
15k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 10.0 / 10
Docker image or Compose file available
Commit activity
- 880
- Last 90 days
- 3,408
- Last 12 months
- yesterday
- Last push
Ranked #4 of 40 tools in Communication - Social Networks and Forums by health , between Lemmy (#3) and Misskey (#5) .
Details
| Licence | GPL-3.0 |
| Platforms | Nodejs, Docker |
| Latest release | v4.16.5 · 2 days ago |
| Stars | 15,245 |
| Open issues | 83 |
| Docker | Yes |
| Repository | NodeBB/NodeBB ↗ |
NodeBB vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a category with NodeBB (Communication - Social Networks and Forums), scored on the same five terms.
NodeBB: common questions
Is NodeBB still maintained?
NodeBB had 880 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was yesterday; the latest tagged release, v4.16.5, is from 2 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.
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