Good Options for Free NodeBB Hosting?

[PHRHD]

So, I'm currently looking into creating a new, very small, niche forum utilizing a modern community software, and NodeBB is at the top of my list. However, as it is very niche, I'm not willing to invest money quite yet, and just want to test waters for now.

Are there any good options for hosting small NodeBB installations that can be fully customized for free?

[jarey]

You can try openshift. You can host there an instance of nodebb with little activity.

https://docs.nodebb.org/en/latest/installing/cloud/openshift.html

You can test performance on my test forum hosted on the openshift free plan if you want:
http://nodebb-forumax.rhcloud.com/ (no real content on there, and is in spanish)

[drew]

@jarey Which version of NodeBB are you running there? Does it support 0.7.1? I only ask because I know the node version is 0.10 still so I'm wondering what else is on earlier versions and if it still all works on the latest NodeBB. @PHRHD let us know!

[jarey]

@drew my installation is running version 0.6.1 if i'm not wrong. It is not 0.7.0 or 0.7.1 for sure.

I think 0.7.1 should run ok. The dependency wiht the node version is:

"engines": {
"node": ">=0.10"
},

So it would run without any problem I think.

[drew]

@jarey Cool, and you can install latest redis too, right?

[jarey]

@drew im not completely sure about that. Maybe youre linked to the available redis version on openshift. In case the necessary version of redis is not available you can tey it with mongodb.

Having a look on the internet, you can always install the 3.0.2 version of redis on openshift, for example pointing this repo https://github.com/gerardogc2378/openshift-redis-cart, there's a tutorial explayning how on openshift blog. (https://blog.openshift.com/enabling-redis-for-your-app/)

[PAEz]

If you want to install on OpenShift I found this to make it easier....
https://github.com/ahwayakchih/openshift-nodebb
...works great and even comes with instructions on updating and managing plugins, very helpful.

The redis cart it points to is out of date, so try this one...
https://github.com/transformatordesign/openshift-redis-cart
...that will get you 2.8.x. If you want 3.x your going to have to look around. That one pointed to by jarey is broken. Theres a pull request to fix it and I forked the fix to here....
https://github.com/PAEz/openshift-redis-cart
...so I can use it while I wait for the other to be fixed (hope he fixes it, its linked to all over the place concerning installing nodebb on openshift).

[drew]

@PAEz thanks for looking into and doing all that.

If you're interested in supporting NodeBB then feel free to contribute code.
If you're interested in helping with a plugin then take a look at NodeBB's new redactor composer plugin, fork and code away

[PAEz]

From C9 to Openshift
If your looking to do this free then you may be real poor like me and how much data you use counts (I buy my net in lots of 500meg, ever meg counts), c9 can help with that.
c9 is an online IDE, using it as your middle man with installing nodebb can allow you to avoid having to down and then up all the nodebb code. Without c9 each test install cost me around 70meg (I think thats what it was), using c9 its under 5.
And the best thing is theres not trick to it, its simple...you do exactly the same steps but from c9's bash tab instead of your computer.

Create an account with c9.
Create a NodeJS workspace.
Open it.
Now just do all the usual steps you'd do in your cli in c9's bash console and you''ll avoid having to down/up anything.....plus you'll get to experience c9's amazing work.

@drew Im sure Ill end up making a plugin at some point, but right now Im just learning Openshift and how to deal with updating and all dat.