Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Form Tools VS NodeBB

Compare Form Tools VS NodeBB and see what are their differences

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Form Tools logo Form Tools

Form Tools is a powerful, flexible, free and open source PHP/MySQL script you install on your...

NodeBB logo NodeBB

NodeBB Forum Software - A better community platform for the modern web. NodeBB is a next generation forum software that's free and easy to use.
  • Form Tools Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-06
  • NodeBB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-23

Form Tools features and specs

  • Open Source
    Form Tools is an open-source platform, which means it is free to use and customize according to your specific needs. The open-source nature also means there is a community of developers contributing to its improvement.
  • Flexible Data Management
    Form Tools offers extensive data management capabilities, allowing users to view, edit, and export form submission data easily. This flexibility is suitable for diverse applications and industries.
  • Ease of Integration
    Form Tools can be integrated into existing websites and applications with minimal effort, making it a convenient solution for organizations looking to add form capabilities quickly.
  • Customizability
    The platform allows extensive customization through modules and themes, enabling users to tailor the forms and interface to fit their brand and functional requirements.
  • Community Support
    There is an active community and a wealth of resources, such as forums and documentation, which can be invaluable for troubleshooting and learning best practices from other users.

Possible disadvantages of Form Tools

  • Technical Skills Required
    Setting up Form Tools and customizing it to suit specific needs may require a certain level of technical expertise, which could be a barrier for users without a technical background.
  • No Built-In Hosting
    Unlike some other form builder options, Form Tools requires users to host the solution themselves, which might involve additional cost and complexity for server setup and maintenance.
  • Limited Form Building Features
    While Form Tools excels in data management, it might lack some advanced form-building features out-of-the-box compared to dedicated commercial form builders that offer advanced automation and design tools.
  • Dependency on Modules
    A lot of functionalities in Form Tools depend on external modules, which means ensuring compatibility and consistent updates might be challenging as modules are managed separately from the core software.
  • User Interface
    The default user interface and design of Form Tools might not be as modern or intuitive as some commercial alternatives, potentially requiring additional customization to improve aesthetics and usability.

NodeBB features and specs

  • Real-time Interaction
    NodeBB is built using Node.js and WebSockets, which allows for real-time interactions and live updates without the need for page refreshes.
  • Ease of Customization
    It offers a highly customizable setup with numerous plugins and themes available, enabling users to tailor their forums to specific needs.
  • Modern User Interface
    NodeBB features a sleek, modern, and responsive user interface that is mobile-friendly.
  • SEO Friendly
    NodeBB is designed with SEO best practices in mind, making it easier for forums to be crawled and indexed by search engines.
  • Scalability
    Due to its non-blocking nature and efficient handling of numerous connections, NodeBB scales well for large communities.
  • Active Development
    NodeBB is regularly updated and maintained by an active community and a dedicated development team.
  • Social Media Integration
    The platform includes excellent integration capabilities with social media platforms, allowing users to log in via various social accounts.

Possible disadvantages of NodeBB

  • Limited Ecosystem
    While NodeBB has a growing repository of plugins and themes, its ecosystem is not as extensive as some older platforms.
  • Complex Setup
    Setting up NodeBB can be complicated for users who are not familiar with Node.js and its ecosystem. It often requires a deeper understanding of server management.
  • Resource Intensive
    NodeBB can be resource-intensive, especially when dealing with large communities, which may require more powerful servers or more optimized configurations.
  • Dependency Management
    NodeBB's reliance on Node.js and npm means that you need to keep track of dependencies, which can sometimes lead to compatibility issues or security vulnerabilities.
  • Learning Curve
    For users not familiar with modern JavaScript frameworks and Node.js, there is a significant learning curve involved in managing and customizing NodeBB.
  • Cost of Plugins
    Some of the more advanced or premium plugins may have associated costs, which can add up depending on the features you need.

Form Tools videos

Grinder Preparation for the Cannon Barrel Form tools

More videos:

  • Review - Form Tools Podcast.mov

NodeBB videos

NodeBB reputation basics

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Form Tools and NodeBB)
Surveys
100 100%
0% 0
Forums And Forum Software
Form Builder
100 100%
0% 0
Forums
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Form Tools and NodeBB

Form Tools Reviews

We have no reviews of Form Tools yet.
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NodeBB Reviews

  1. Gloryfrancis
    SPACEBAR COUNTER

    NodeBB is a next-generation discussion platform that utilizes web sockets for instant interactions and real-time notifications. NodeBB forums have many modern features out of the box such as social network integration and streaming discussions. NodeBB is an open source project which can be forked on GitHub.

  2. Scott Alan Miller
    · COO at NTG LLC ·
    Best Forum Experience

    I was lucky enough to stumble on NodeBB in the early days right as we were transitioning a large user base from another forum and needed a platform that could handle the volume and speed of interactions that our users demanded. We took a big risk on NodeBB in 2014 when it was brand new and it has paid off in spades over the years. For seven years our users have consistently raved about ease of use and performance of the platform while on the back end we have been thrilled with the ease of management and low resource needs of hosting even for a site hitting hundreds of millions of hits per month. It is modern, regularly updated, has a great community and team behind it. We've always gotten lots of support and know that we made the right choice and continue to choose NodeBB as our forum of choice.

    🏁 Competitors: Discourse
    👍 Pros:    Ease of use|High performance|Great customer support|Open-source|Free|Scalable|Seo friendly

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Form Tools should be more popular than NodeBB. It has been mentiond 5 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Form Tools mentions (5)

  • Collecting data from staff using forms, sending reminders etc
    I previously used formtools.org for a similar project but that was a one off and it didn't have auto reminders as part of the work flow. When I search for workflow tools I get what appears to be something completely different. When I search for for builder its often elements to allow your full app to easily present forms (I don't have my own app). Source: over 1 year ago
  • Looking to use Base but what about it's end-user side?
    I think that you are asking for https://formtools.org/ on the end user stuff. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • self hosted forms?
    Give FormTools a try. I've been using it with forms embedded in a website, but I believe it also lets you generate forms directly within the software. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • self hosted form builder
    There's also formtools but it has been unmaintained for some time now. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Web interface for MySQL DB
    Don't know if this would be right thing for you, but I Googled "open source mysql forms" and this looks cool: https://formtools.org. Source: about 4 years ago

NodeBB mentions (3)

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Form Tools and NodeBB, you can also consider the following products

Typeform - Create beautiful, next-generation online forms with Typeform, the form & survey builder that makes asking questions easy & human on any device. Try it FREE!

Discourse - Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.

Google Forms - Simple web forms from Google.

Flarum - Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun. It's simple, fast, and free.

Paperform - A digital Swiss Army Knife for Small Businesses

XenForo - Intuitive. Social. Engaging. Fast. XenForo brings a fresh outlook to forum software.