Because, NODE, that is why...

Discourse is very bloated, while NodeBB is lighter.

Here's my take. Discourse requires a docker container to run, plus ruby etc to get it working. Anything outside of this (if you even manage to get it to run) is not supported by the discourse team and therefore, if your install breaks, you are on your own.

For me, this is an absolute non starter as it's far too restrictive for my use case.

NodeBB works perfectly out of the box and is extremely well supported by the developers themselves, and a very strong community. NodeBB was also the first forum software to have full GDPR compliance, and is extremely fast with great SEO support (compare it to Flarum and it's so called "support" for SEO and you'll see what I mean. They are two completely different animals with NodeBB offering full support as part of it's core whilst flarum requires an extension).

NodeBB is fully extendable, allowing for a variety of arbitrary code to be executed after the core has loaded meaning you can make it your own without many restrictions.

Finally, NodeBB is way faster than discourse and flarum (in particular the latter which uses a mithril front end with a php backend and if you want to make one simple change, it needs an extension).

Don't just take my word for it. Just use NodeBB for an hour and you won't be looking at anything else.

• Easy to install and get it running.
• Looks like the classic forum experience (Coming from when MyBB, vbulletin, IPB reign supreme) but cleaner.
• Easy to turn it into an app, I just run PWABuilder on the site and published it on Google Play Store - Microsoft Store. I don't know how Discourse would look on an android app. NodeBB looks decent, but I'd like to tweak more on the CSS.
• Can also turn it onto an executable application, published mine as a tool/software on itch, I wonder if I could use the same build and publish it on Steam as a software, but I have no funds for Steam Direct fee.

:smile: What else to ask. Maybe ActivityPub for the future. Still don't know exactly how it works, I'm rather new but they said about how people in Fediverse can connect to each other regardless of the software as long as it implements the protocol.

I think the composer is an important difference. The NodeBB 'Quick reply' is much simpler to post a reply. The Discourse composer can appear unnecessarily busy, especially for a new or beginner user trying to digest all the text and graphics on the page.