
Discourse
XenForo
phpBB
Flarum
MyBB
Vanilla Forums
Vanilla
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.

Pencraft
Lazyjot
Scrivener
Ilena.app
Final Draft
Rhyme Genie & TuneSmith
Rap Pad
MasterWriter offers a suite of writing tools.

Which is more popular?
Based on our record, NodeBB seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 4 times since March 2021.
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
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| Website | nodebb.org | masterwriter.com |
| Pricing | — | |
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What each product offers, as listed by its team.


Possible disadvantages
Possible disadvantages
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
NodeBB is recommended for businesses, communities, and developers who require a customizable and real-time forum solution. It's particularly suitable for tech-savvy users who want to leverage Node.js and those looking to integrate forums with existing web applications.
No analysis of Masterwriter yet.
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
NodeBB reputation basics
MasterWriter 3 Tutorial & Overview
More videos
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


Share your experience with using NodeBB and Masterwriter. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.


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...
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...
Where the verdicts come from: the Ilena column is hands-on use of the shipped product. The five other columns are desk research on each vendor’s own public site — LyricStudio and MasterWriter observed on 2026-08-12,...
My name is Micheal Towers. I am the original creator of Masterwriter. I now believe that Masterwriter is a complete waste of time and money. Let me say it again Masterwriter is a complete waste of time and money, as...
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.


You could take a look at https://nodebb.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
> I'm a big fan of https://nodebb.org/ TIL to what shit Netgate moved pfSense forums to. I'm glad you are fine with it, but not only my FullHD monitor is not a smartphone, so I don't need 400% fonts on everything (and post dates on the... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
I wrote about this a while ago for Slack/forums: https://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/3451 but the points still hold. HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29154216 Full featured OSS forum you can self-host or let... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
Tracking Masterwriter since Mar 2021.
When comparing NodeBB and Masterwriter, you can also consider the following products.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.
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Pencraft is software that helps creative writers overcome writer’s block. Pencraft is perfect for copywriters, lyricists, novelists, poets, and more. Sign up for free!
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Intuitive. Social. Engaging. Fast. XenForo brings a fresh outlook to forum software.
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Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a cheap, credit-card sized computer. The official website uses phpBB for their discussion forums. phpBB is not affiliated with nor responsible for any of the sites listed on the showcase.
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Scrivener is a content-generation tool for composing and structuring documents.
Compare Scrivener to NodeBB or Masterwriter: