NodeBB
NodeBB is an open-source, self-hosted app in the Social & Forums category, licensed GPL-3.0 and written mainly in JavaScript. It is a self-hosted alternative to Reddit and ships a Docker image. It has 15,243 GitHub stars and its last commit was on Oct 25, 2026 (data as of Oct 26, 2026).
- Social & Forums
- JavaScript
- GPL-3.0
- Docker
- Active
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 15,243
- Forks
- 3,007
- Open issues
- 83
- Commits, last 12 months
- 3,424
- Last commit
- Oct 25, 2026
- Latest release
- v4.16.4Oct 23, 2026
- Created
- Apr 22, 2013
- License
- GPL-3.0Open source
Data as of from the GitHub API. Report an error
Project health
ActiveActive: last commit Oct 25, 2026, 3,424 commits in 12 months.
- Regular releases10 or more releases in 12 months
- Security policyPublishes a security policy on GitHub
| Last commit | Oct 25, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 12 months | 3,424 |
| Latest release | v4.16.4 (Oct 23, 2026) |
| Releases, last 12 months | 10 or more |
| Releases, all time | 377 |
| Open issues | 83 |
| Open pull requests | 29 |
| Good first issues | 0 |
| Contributing guide | Yes |
| Security policy | Yes |
| Created | Apr 22, 2013 |
Health as of , from the GitHub API. A label describes activity, not quality or security. How we label project health · Report a data error
About NodeBB
Forum software built for the modern web.
Description adapted from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0). Source code: github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.
Topics
- nodebb
- javascript
- redis
- forum
- node
- mongodb
- websockets
- socket-io
- community
- nodejs
Open-source alternative to
NodeBB can replace these commercial products. Compare every option on each page.
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Is NodeBB free and open source?
Yes. NodeBB is open-source software released under the GPL-3.0 license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run NodeBB with Docker?
Yes. NodeBB provides a Docker image, so you can run it on any Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose installed. The project README lists the image name and the environment variables to set.
What are the best alternatives to NodeBB?
Popular self-hosted alternatives to NodeBB include Mastodon, Discourse and Flarum. NodeBB itself is a self-hosted alternative to Reddit.
Is NodeBB actively maintained?
The most recent commit to NodeBB was on Oct 25, 2026 with 3,424 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is v4.16.4, published Oct 23, 2026. It had 83 open issues on GitHub. appsgit's project-health label for it is "Active" as of Oct 26, 2026.