Xenforo vs NodeBB vs Invision in 2025 (and Beyond)

RobinHood said:
Agree with all apart from waiting for XF3.0, that could easily be another 6 months.

Nothing wrong with building on XF2.3 and 2.4 for now, I would just keep it as stock as possible in terms plugins and custom styling to make the upgrade easier when it does come.
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One of the things they specifically mentioned is re-doing the profile page, and without knowing what 3.0 brings it is something I would definitely wait on. The hope is that 3.0 being a huge design change means they may finally make the profile page worth using.
 
AWS said:
If you want the same stagnate forum home that is more than 2 decades old and don't mind gaining extra features by installing addons that modern communities need then go with xenforo.

If you want to start out with a feature rich more modern design if you choose fluid or grid view then go with Invision.

I can't comment on NodeBB. never really looked into it. I have heard it is fine software, but, like xenforo needs addnons for extra functionality.

I like Discourse. It is what the future of forums will be. Sites like Reddit and StacK Exchange are the future. Old school forumers like you'll find here will argue to their death that it's not.

In any case go with what's best for you. Look at the support forums for other software. You'll find that Invisions are more professional and don't really want the sort of stuff you find here. The staff are cordial and quick to answer a support question. Almost real time. This is in no way me bashing xenforo or staff. It's what I observe by being active on other forum software support forums.
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Thanks for the input. I think the era of Reddit/Stack type sites might continue but also those sites are so impersonal I do think there's a large group of people wanting a more personal community online that you cannot currently get from any social media sites. Twitter trying to start this with their "groups/communities" feature but it's a joke.

But yes we are looking for something modern that can attract people used to social media sites, which if we go with XF, would require a massive UI overhaul.
 
ANONYMOUSKOREAN said:
Thanks for the input. I think the era of Reddit/Stack type sites might continue but also those sites are so impersonal I do think there's a large group of people wanting a more personal community online that you cannot currently get from any social media sites. Twitter trying to start this with their "groups/communities" feature but it's a joke.

But yes we are looking for something modern that can attract people used to social media sites, which if we go with XF, would require a massive UI overhaul.
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With a custom style and add ins you might be able to achieve a social media feel but to what extent I don’t know.
 
AWS said:
I like Discourse. It is what the future of forums will be. Sites like Reddit and StacK Exchange are the future. Old school forumers like you'll find here will argue to their death that it's not.
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I’ve been hearing that claim since before Discourse 1.0 came out. Which was more than a decade ago at this point, and it hasn’t made the penetration into the market to justify claims of being “the future” yet.
 
Something I think worth emphasizing is that although Invision is far more of a complete package, what you see is largely what you get, especially as they move away from the self-hosted option.

While Xenforo maybe more basic in terms of what you get, its potential to expand goes along way beyond what Invision has to offer. There's more commitment towards maintaining the self-hosted option and it has a thriving third party infrastructure.

As far as NodeBB is concerned, I like it as a user but it's rare to see a forum that doesn't look like the default which makes me question it's suitability for adaptation and expansion.
 
ANONYMOUSKOREAN said:
Waterhole got my attention, but it's written in Laravel which I'd have to learn. Another thing is the pricing is really strange. For that pricing I'd expect more than what the demo shows. It's made by the original dev of Flarum but doesn't really do much more. At least not for the asking price.
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Agree.

I think your best option for now is the one from your thread title :).
Wait for XF 3.0 and re-evaluate, but that could mean more years of waiting.
 
If i were new to this software i'd keep adding stuff and experiment on other free forums.
Things like threads that you want could be useful on xenforo so start them on other forum software for experimental usage.
Don't go with Invision because it's way too expensive. I know it's the way of the future but their costs are over the top.
beerForo said:
I can't remember the exact quote but 3.0 was stated as releasing "very soon after" 2.3 so hopefully your wait is not too long. But why not jump on 2.3? It's rockin!
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If you read the latest have you seen you will see that that's in the later part of the year.
You've gotta trust @Chris D and his crew of hard working developers.
You might laugh at this but they are not working at vBulletin who brings out everything monthly.
 
ANONYMOUSKOREAN said:
Waterhole got my attention, but it's written in Laravel which I'd have to learn. Another thing is the pricing is really strange. For that pricing I'd expect more than what the demo shows. It's made by the original dev of Flarum but doesn't really do much more. At least not for the asking price.
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Well, both Flarum and Waterhole are written in Laravel, but honestly learning to tweak Laravel is no harder than learning to tweak XF - both are still just PHP under the hood.

I think the Waterhole dev thinks of it as “a forum framework” than “a forum application” and a lot of effort has gone into making specific areas specifically extensible, in a way that XF maybe doesn’t (at least not overtly), and it is at least in part geared to being able to be added into existing Laravel apps which is a different beast entirely compared to XF.

It is free for a local demo (which does contain all the functionality but is tied to a non public domain) so maybe give that a go?
 
You have to give them a credit card to use their free trial?

Yeah no.
 

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Arantor said:
I’ve been hearing that claim since before Discourse 1.0 came out. Which was more than a decade ago at this point, and it hasn’t made the penetration into the market to justify claims of being “the future” yet.
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For mom and pop it hasn't and I don't think it was meant to be. For enterprise I believe it leads the way. Discourse has always stated they were there for the the enterprise clients. Invision is slowly moving to catering to the enterprise group. They realize that's where the money is. While we, as admins and users of forums, tend to have tunnel vision and can't see the big picture.
 
AWS said:
For mom and pop it hasn't and I don't think it was meant to be. For enterprise I believe it leads the way. Discourse has always stated they were there for the the enterprise clients. Invision is slowly moving to catering to the enterprise group. They realize that's where the money is. While we, as admins and users of forums, tend to have tunnel vision and can't see the big picture.
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I don’t see it as being about not seeing the big picture. I see it as different markets with different needs and different wants. The rise of enterprise clients doesn’t detract from the hobbyist sector.
 
Dixie McCall said:
You have to give them a credit card to use their free trial?

Yeah no.
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NodeBB is free and open source to use, what you're looking at is a hosting service.

Arantor said:
Well, both Flarum and Waterhole are written in Laravel, but honestly learning to tweak Laravel is no harder than learning to tweak XF - both are still just PHP under the hood.

I think the Waterhole dev thinks of it as “a forum framework” than “a forum application” and a lot of effort has gone into making specific areas specifically extensible, in a way that XF maybe doesn’t (at least not overtly), and it is at least in part geared to being able to be added into existing Laravel apps which is a different beast entirely compared to XF.

It is free for a local demo (which does contain all the functionality but is tied to a non public domain) so maybe give that a go?
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Yeah I think we're going to demo both, thanks!
 

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