NodeBB

NodeBB is forum software powered by Node.js for building discussion communities on the web. It keeps the bulletin board model of categorical hierarchies, local user accounts, and asynchronous messaging, while adding real-time streaming discussions, mobile responsiveness, and rich RESTful read and write APIs.

Web sockets drive instant interactions and real-time notifications, so threads update live as people post. The core ships a common set of forum features, and integrations and extra functionality come from third-party plugins. A flexible theming engine extends base templates and styles them with SCSS or CSS, on a Bootstrap 5 default theme.

The forum can run on Redis, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL, so you can pick the data store that fits your stack. Install it yourself on Node.js 22 or later with a supported database, optionally via Docker, or use premium hosting from NodeBB. It is licensed under GPL-3, with sublicensing available for restrictive environments.