Flarum vs NodeBB?

BrodyStone21

So I did a lot of research on the various forum softwares available and ended up deciding on Flarum. However, I just discovered NodeBB, which appears to be even larger than Flarum, so no idea how I missed it. I was just wondering if someone would be able to share the advantages and disadvantages of both.

I went to a couple NodeBB sites and it seems very fast, has infinite scroll, and is using categories instead of tags. From what I can see, it can't be hosted on shared hosting, but other than that, what are the differences?

peteryang

BrodyStone21
I remember trying this before, nodebb can be deployed on a shared host but requires ssh.

BrodyStone21

peteryang oh okay, interesting! Thanks for letting me know.

ernestdefoe

I’ve used nodeBB before and it’s ok not really anything to write home about. It does its job and does it well but still feels dated to me. It doesn’t have the modern feel that Flarum has. It also takes up more resources because of the platform it runs on. It isn’t as resource intensive as Discourse but doesn’t run quite as smooth on shared hosting. Not saying it won’t but with the limitations most shared hosts have on accounts it may not run as optimally as it should.

peteryang

ernestdefoe The amount of memory Discourse consumes is truly shocking; Flarum is still the most economical option and has better-looking themes."

ernestdefoe

peteryang I don't know about better looking themes. Maybe when 2.0 comes out we will see more themes created. Overall the default theme of Flarum to me is the best looking as it looks more modern.

BrodyStone21

ernestdefoe Do you worry about Flarum 2.0 breaking extensions your forum requires to run? I'm excited for Flarum 2.0, but I've also noticed that extensions aren't part of the core, and therefore not maintained nearly as long.

peteryang

ernestdefoe I don't know about better looking themes.

There are some nice themes here
https://flarumtr.com/t/ozellestirme?sort=top

ernestdefoe

BrodyStone21 extensions are not intended to be part of core hence why they are extensions. I think 98% of the extensions I use will be updated to 2.0 when it comes out so I’m not that concerned since most of the ones I use are currently well maintained. Like I said there may be a few that don’t get updated but overall I think most of them will. I’m using the managed Flarum hosting and they have only well maintained extensions installed anyways.

Wellwisher

They're both well established. It depends on what your needs are and why you need a forum in the first place.

Flarum is designed with "mobile first" mindset. It's solves numerous, cutting edge, UX/UI problems.
NodebBB is at least 5 years behind the current online meta.

ernestdefoe

peteryang you're right there are some really nice customizations on that site that I am in the process of implementing on my site. Thank you for the link.