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Simple Machines Forum VS NodeBB

Compare Simple Machines Forum VS NodeBB and see what are their differences

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Simple Machines Forum logo Simple Machines Forum

Simple Machines offers free open source software such as SMF, the powerful and easy to use community forum written in PHP. Start interesting discussions on your website!

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.
  • Simple Machines Forum Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-14
  • NodeBB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-23

Simple Machines Forum features and specs

  • Free and Open Source
    Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is freely available and its source code is open for anyone to inspect, modify, and improve. This allows high customization and community-driven enhancements.
  • Feature-Rich
    SMF provides a wide range of features out of the box, including user management, moderation tools, private messaging, and advanced permissions.
  • Community Support
    SMF has a strong and active user community that provides support, themes, and plugins. This can be particularly helpful for troubleshooting and extending the forum's functionality.
  • Customizability
    The forum is highly customizable, allowing users to change the look and feel with themes, as well as add new functionalities with plugins.
  • Performance
    SMF is designed to be lightweight and fast, which ensures good performance even with high traffic.

Possible disadvantages of Simple Machines Forum

  • Complexity for Beginners
    SMF can be difficult for beginners to set up and configure, especially those without prior experience in managing web servers or databases.
  • Limited Modern Features
    While feature-rich, SMF may lack some modern features found in newer forum software, such as real-time notifications or advanced integrations with other platforms.
  • Security Concerns
    Open source software can be a double-edged sword: while it benefits from community scrutiny, it is also publicly available for malicious actors to study and exploit potential vulnerabilities.
  • Maintenance
    Running an SMF forum requires regular updates and maintenance to ensure security and functionality. This can be time-consuming and may require technical skills.
  • Design Limitations
    Even though SMF is customizable, the default themes and layouts may feel outdated compared to more modern forum platforms, which might require additional effort to modernize.

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.

Analysis of NodeBB

Overall verdict

  • NodeBB is a strong choice for those looking to implement a modern, scalable forum solution that can be customized to fit various needs.

Why this product is good

  • NodeBB is considered good by many because it offers a modern, real-time, and highly customizable forum experience. It is built on Node.js, leading to efficient handling of concurrent connections. Its plugin system allows extensive customization, while its responsive design ensures a seamless experience on both desktops and mobile devices. Additionally, it supports real-time notifications, social media integration, and has an active development community.

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.

Simple Machines Forum videos

+ Add

Forum Tutorials - Simple Machines Forums, Tutorial and Overview

NodeBB videos

+ Add

NodeBB reputation basics

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Simple Machines Forum and NodeBB)

Simple Machines Forum

NodeBB

Forums And Forum Software
39 39%
Forums And Forum Software
61% 61
Forums
39 39%
Forums
61% 61
Community Platform
39 39%
Community Platform
61% 61
Online Services
100 100%
Online Services
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Simple Machines Forum Reviews

We have no reviews of Simple Machines Forum 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

Simple Machines Forum might be a bit more popular than NodeBB. We know about 4 links to it since March 2021 and only 3 links to NodeBB. 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.

Simple Machines Forum mentions (4)

  • Just remember forums exist
    Https://simplemachines.org/ This looks nice. Doesn't look like it has tags/flair though. Lots of questions in regards to how it compares to the other options. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Is there a painless way to set up a forum website on a raspberry pi?
    I've always been a fan of SMF. Install is pretty straight forward. Source: over 2 years ago
  • The Platformer #25: High-Impact Hacking
    This project, called YaBB — Yet another Bulletin Board (I’ve always been good at naming things) — is pretty much dead. A few months ago the website was still up, but it appears to be down now. Yes, the project was forked into YaBB SE (a direct PHP port), and ultimately evolved into Simple Machines Forum, which still seems to be under development today (and powers Bitcoin Talk — if you’re still into the crypto thing). - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Integrating Forums in an android app?
    Is it possible to integrate forums like Simple Machines Forum in an app or any other forum? Or is there any package/plugin that makes it easier to develop it and integrate it with firebase/firestore. Source: over 3 years ago

NodeBB mentions (3)

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Simple Machines Forum and NodeBB, you can also consider the following products

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

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

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

MyBB - MyBB is a discussion board software that runs on PHP and MySQL

phpBB - 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.

FluxBB - FluxBB is a fast, light, user-friendly forum application for your website.

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