30+ Best WordPress Forum Plugins for Community

Looking for a way to build an online community, which helps people to be connected through discussions? Then this article will guide you to choose the best plugin for forums. However, why are forums important? When you do a quick search on the internet about forums, you will find a large list of forums like for basketball, web design, email marketing, etc. The list is endless but they are important because they allow people to find like-minded individuals who want to discuss certain topics.

Therefore, forums are of great help as they help to build a strong online community. To top it all off, they log conversations and they can be easily integrated into any website. They are an effective way to increase engagement on your site, by allowing site visitors to participate by posting questions, sharing solutions, new ideas, among many other features, depending on the plugin that you will choose.

However, if you want to turn your entire website into a forum, you need to find the best WordPress Forum Theme. For example, sites like Quora, Reddit, and Stack Overflow are a great example of forum sites that help to increase engagement among site visitors. There are many ways that you can implement a forum and this could be a Q&A platform, discussion board, knowledge-sharing space, or a problem-solving support zone.

Why Add a Forum to Your Website?

You will get many advantages from having a forum on your site. Maybe, you have built a great plugin and you want to hear reviews or responses from your customers, a forum would be a great way to implement this. Users can even report bugs here and this would be an added advantage to your development cycle.

The WordPress forum helps your website users to engage and participate in heated discussions and they are more likely to come back, buy your products, and recommend them to their friends and family.

It offers the best way to provide support to your customers. If customers have a question, they can hop on to your forum to ask technical questions, thereby improving customer support.

Additionally, it gives some SEO value to your entire site, if a discussion thread becomes popular, and this would help to bring popular search engines to your site. On most occasions, these threads outrank other types of content in search results.

With all that being said, this article contains a curated list of the best forum plugins with the best features, and how much some of them will cost you. Most of these form plugins are well known and will offer unique features to your site. They have been extensively tested and we would highly recommend that you go through the details so that you can pick the best plugin for you.

1. bbPress

bbPress is an elegant forum plugin for WordPress that has a streamlined direction board that users of your site will love. With more than 300,000 active installations in the WordPress community, this plugin is very popular because it is very easy to use.

Additionally, this is a scalable solution, even if you have a growing community. This powerful plugin has been around for a while and has gathered many trusted users over the years. It has a great interface design that is simple yet packed with a lot of features.

Moreover, this is a completely free solution, which does not have any upsells popping up along the way. What you see is what you get. You will also get constant updates and support without paying anything.

Here are some of the features:

It offers you more than 200 free extensions.
It is very easy and simple to use.
It offers you many customizable templates.
It is integrated with Akismet to prevent spam messages.

2. wpForo Forum

wpForo Forum is one of the best forum plugins that is simple and easy to use. Over the recent past, it has gained some popularity, and more than 20,000 website owners trust this plugin. This lightweight plugin is very easy to install and with just a few clicks.

Additionally, this plugin has a responsive and modern design that works across all devices. Moreover, it offers you forum layouts and designs that you can customize to fit your brand. This is the best choice that we would recommend if you need to run an efficient and highly professional community.

Here are some of the features:

It can be integrated with many profile builders and membership plugins.
It is translation ready.
It is designed to scale up if your forum community grows.
It offers you different layouts and designs.
It is responsive.
It has built-in SEO functions.
It has an inbuilt cache system and an antispam filter.
It has a live notification system.
It has a drag and drop feature that is easy to use.
It is customizable.
It is GDPR compliant to ensure that users’ data is kept safe.

3. Asgaros Forum

Asgaros Forum is a popular forum plugin that helps you to manage all the content in the front-end of your forum website. With more than 10,000 active installations, this feature-rich plugin is lightweight and does not slow down your site.

Additionally, it only requires a few minutes to set up this plugin, as you only have to download it and activate the plugin. It has some SEO features that will help web crawlers identify key discussions and rank them highly on search results.

Here are some of the features:

It allows you to get notifications.
It has a powerful editor.
It is SEO friendly.
Users can upload files.
It has an effective search function.
It has widgets that you can place anywhere on your site.
It has an ad management system.
It has moderation features.
It is translation ready.
It is responsive.
It can be used on multiple sites.

4. Discussion Board

Discussion Board is one of the best forum plugins that add discussion features to your WordPress site. With more than 2,000 active installations, this plugin is very easy to install and stacks all of the essential features that make it the leading WordPress forum plugin.

Additionally, users can register and log in through the front-end and they can post new forum topics that other users can discuss and give a reply. Moreover, it can be used for community forums, school sites, training websites, support forums, discussion forums, niche sites, ecommerce sites, and many more.

This plugin has a premium version that unlocks features like multiple discussion boards, you can set statuses for topics, it has categories, users can upload images, you can manage user profiles, admin approvals, among other features.

Here are some of the features:

It has a one-click installation.
You can manage all the users in the forum.
It has a registration form and you can specify the roles.
It has a front-end login.
It reduces spam.
It offers you many styles for customization.
It generates shortcodes, which you can place anywhere on your site.
It has SEO benefits.
It allows you to market products easily.

5. Simple:Press

Simple: Press is a forum plugin for WordPress that offers enterprise-level forum features to your site. This plugin has some security features and it can easily scale up to have many users. Additionally, this feature-rich plugin is built for performance as it has custom tables that are SEO friendly to increase your site rankings.

This plugin has a premium version that when purchased, unlocks many features that will take your forum platform to the next level. It offers you many features like integrated analytics features, which help you to gain insight on your site. This will help you to make well-informed decisions.

Moreover, you will enjoy other features like Ad management, private management system, push notifications through emails, warnings, suspensions, answer topics, post ratings, up to 9 nested reply threads, among many other features.

Here are some of the features:

You can create unlimited forums.
It allows you to manage users.
You can have unlimited topics in a forum.
It has a moderation feature to ensure that the forums are not clustered.
It offers you comprehensive administration options.
You can merge forms.
It is integrated with registration and login forms.
It supports multiple sites.
It has ranking and gamification features.
It is SEO friendly.
It is compatible with many themes.
It is customizable.

6. Forum Beginner Posts

Forum Beginner Posts is a forum plugin for WordPress sites that enables the Visual Editor pane in bbPress. With more than 600 active installations, this plugin also allows the novice users to create and format forum posts using an intuitive user interface that users will love. This makes it easier, even for WordPress beginners to use this plugin.

Additionally, this plugin defaults to the paste-as-text mode for Visual Editor forum post-editing, to ensure that text copied from applications such as word processors, web browsers, and email clients are not garbled with mark-up code or break the overall page styling or layout. However, this feature can be disabled in the backend.

7. Vanilla Forums

Vanilla Forums is a forum plugin that has an intuitive design that offers engaging features that users on your site will love. More than 500,000 sites use this plugin for all their forum need, and it has more than 600 active installations in the WordPress community. This unique plugin allows you to create a customized community that rewards positive participation on your site.

Additionally, the Vanilla Forums plugin automatically curates content and lets members drive moderation. This open-source community forum plugin is built for flexibility, offering you a powerful solution that is very easy to install. More than 10,000 developers took part in making this plugin, with more than 500 add-ons that make this a complete solution.

Moreover, this fully customizable plugin allows you to export content to other plugins like bbPress.

Here are some of the features:

It has a blog comment system that will increase interaction on your site.
It is very easy to install.
You can embed your forum anywhere on your site.
You can add forum widgets as well.
It is easy to manage all your forums right at the WordPress Dashboard.

8. Website Toolbox Forum

Website Toolbox Forum is one of the best forum plugins for WordPress sites that is unique. It has gathered popularity over the years because it used a cloud-based system that is very powerful. This plugin has a very intuitive design that is maintenance-free and does not slow does not your site.

Since it is built on a cloud-based platform, you do not need a database or a server to access information and no coding skills are required. This plugin allows you to embed forums seamlessly into your WordPress site. It allows users to sign in and new users can register themselves.

Here are some of the features.

It is very easy to set up and install.
It has a phone and email support.
It is SEO friendly.
It is fully customizable.
It is responsive.
It has an add management system that can help you make money.
It has instant messaging features.
It has a chatroom.
It has a theme editor.
You can create polls.
You can moderate the content of your users.
It allows you to import or export data.
You can set permissions for users.

9. BuddyPress

BuddyPress is one of the most popular forum plugins that you can include on your WordPress site. With more than 300,000 active installations in the WordPress community, this robust plugin contains a lot of features and add-ons that you can use for extended functionality.

Additionally, it is very powerful, but users will find it simple to use. This plugin also allows users to register and log in to the forum. They can make social connections and crest social groups that will increase user engagement on your site. Moreover, users can send private messages to other users, making it a social box that will help you create an online community.

In addition to the features offered, developers can add custom features with the built-in API that is developer-friendly. It also comes with spam protection features as it is built to support Akismet.

10. DW Question and Answer

DW Question and Answer is another popular plugin that builds a complete question and answer system that seamlessly integrated into your WordPress site. With more than 10,000 active installations, this plugin supports more than 11 languages and works like Quora or Stackoverflow.

Additionally, it generates shortcodes for you that you can add anywhere on your site to add the forums. Moreover, you can receive email notifications that are very secure to ensure that spam is not sent to your inbox.

Here are some of the features.

It has Google ReCaptcha support.
It has a filter that helps you to find the answers that you need.
It allows users to vote on a certain topic.
It generates shortcodes.
Users can have a private session with each other.
You can add a sticky question.
It is a multilingual plugin.
It has an effective email notification system.
It is frequently updated.

11. WP Symposium Pro Social Network Plugin

WP Symposium Pro Social Network Plugin is a forum plugin that has similar social networking features like BuddyPress. With more than 700 active installations in the WordPress community, this plugin includes a full forum and activity wall, with additional elements like those found on Facebook.

Additionally, users can create their profiles on your site and they can manage it. Moreover, users can add friends and they can communicate with them privately. It also sends you email notifications when actions are taken in the forum, for example when you send a message.

This plugin also has customization options that will help you to make it fit your brand. The premium version is priced at $29, which includes some decent support.

Here are some of the features:

It has shortcodes that you can place anywhere on your site.
It is fully customizable.
You can add access and permission features.
You can add custom fields.
You can add YouTube video attachments and selective sharing.
You can like or dislike, which you can turn off.

12. Sabai Discuss

Sabai Discuss is a premium plugin that is worth mentioning, because of all the amazing reviews about this plugin. It has a one-time payment of $24 and has more than 3,000 sales over at code canyon. This is the only premium plugin on CodeCanyon that we can recommend. This plugin offers the users of your site to ask and answer questions similar to Stack Overflow or Yahoo Answers.

Additionally, it offers outstanding customer support, before and after a sale is made. Moreover, it has a voting system that moves answers up and down to show the best answers. It has access control features that help you to restrict content if you do not want some users seeing all of the boards. This plugin also has some moderation and it has a platform to report abuse.

Here are some of the features:

It has shortcodes that you can add anywhere on your site.
It has a responsive design.
It allows you to search for questions and answers by keywords.
It has a filter system that allows you to find the answers you are looking for.
It allows users to post and answer questions on the front-end.
It has hierarchical categories.
It has a reputation system.
Users can manage their profiles.
Users can add file attachments.
It has an access control feature.
It is translation ready.

13. Forums from WPMU Dev

Forums from WPMU Dev is an open-source plugin that was developed by WPMU Dev. However, they retired from this plugin and WPMU Dev, as of May 2019 no longer supports it. It is available on Github for those who might want to tweak and maintain it for their needs.

Additionally, it is one of the best plugins to use for forums, but you will have to sign up and pay for WPMU Dev membership. It is priced at $49 per month and this will be a no brainer for developers as you will be able to enjoy the access of many plugins for security, marketing, SEO, backups, and more. Moreover, you can get amazing themes that you can implement on your site.

Here are some of the features:

It has customization options.
It is easy to use.
You can embed a forum into any post or page.
You can set the maximum number of forums that you can create.
It can be used in multiple sites.
It has a quick and powerful forum search bar.

14. ForumEngine

ForumEngine helps to turn your WordPress site into a discussion forum. It is built to show the forum threads on the homepage. Here users can interact with each other like ForumEngine. Additionally, this plugin has an AJAX search that gives you instant results as you type the keywords.

Moreover, users can send private messages to each other and they can manage their profiles easily. It offers you many styling options that can help you to change the appearance of your forum and make it look attractive to fit your brand. Additionally, you can use it to manage advertisements that can help you have extra income.

However, this is a forum specific theme. This means that is hard to create a regular business or ecommerce site with this because it cannot display products. It is a paid theme but it can be used for a blog.

15. CM Answers

CM Answers is a forum plugin for WordPress sites that enables you to add questions and answers, which are similar in design like those of stack overflow. With more than 1,000 active installations, this plugin allows users to post questions and answers, leave comments, vote, and upload files in a discussion board format.

Additionally, it has powerful moderation access and you can restrict user capabilities. You can create multiple forum categories. The admin can also customize the question and answers, filter any unwanted content, add answers, and easily keep track of users’ actions in the forum all in the WordPress dashboard.

Moreover, this plugin allows users to vote on questions and answers and users can upload files. They can also send private messages to each other and they can subscribe to categories or certain topics. It has a premium version that has features like anonymous posting, private answers, advertisement management, multiple attachments, comment section, spam report, access control, AJAX support, shortcodes, among other features.

Here are some of the features:

It adds a StackOverflow style to your site.
You can offer paid support.
You can check how many people have viewed your questions and answers.
Admins can moderate questions and answers.
You can receive email notifications.
It has sorting options.
It is translation ready.

16. PeepSo

PeepSo is one of the best social networking platforms that is free and allows you to create your online community, like that of Facebook inside your WordPress site. With more than 5,000 active installations in the WordPress Community, this plugin is something a little different compared to the WordPress forum plugins that you find in this collection.

Additionally, this plugin is very easy to install, as it will only take a few clicks to install it. Moreover, it offers you beautifully designed widgets that you can place anywhere on your site. These widgets showcase users’ photos, videos, and friends. This modern plugin allows for scalability, as most social networks have a lot of users. It reduces cost, as you do not need a developer, because no coding is required.

Here are some of the features:

It allows users to register and login to the front-end.
It displays profiles of different users and users can manage their profile.
It has an effective search engine and filtering capabilities.
It allows users to create hashtags for trending posts.
It has real-time notifications on the site.
Users can receive email notifications about their site.
It has built-in security features, to prevent brute force attacks.
It shows users members that are online.
It is SEO friendly.
It is GDPR compliant.
It has moods for different posts.

17. AnsPress

AnsPress is a question and answer plugin for WordPress that has a developer-friendly design. With more than 4,000 active installations, this plugin adds a full question and answer system, similar to StackOverflow and Quora, or be a single page in the existing site.

Additionally, this plugin can be used as a BugTracker, QA board, support tickets, FAQ, among other uses. Moreover, it is a lightweight plugin that will not affect the performance of your site as it has been tested on different server environments and it works fine without any downtime. It also reduces the number of MySQL queries to increase loading speed.

This plugin is developer-friendly, as it can be extended to add more functionalities, with the use of add-ons. It is built on WordPress best practices to ensure that it works on all versions.

Here are some of the features:

It has a filter that makes searching an easy task.
Users can answer or leave a comment.
It allows users to vote and select the best answer.
It supports more than 10 different languages.
It supports captcha.
It has shortcodes that you can add anywhere on your site.
It allows users to report questions and answers.
It has add-ons that you can add to increase functionality.

18. Simple Forum

Simple Forum is a premium forum plugin that offers you many features that will add a responsive bulletin board and help you create an online community. This plugin is priced at $24 and has more than 600 sales over at CodeCanyon.

Additionally, this plugin has an elegant design that offers you more than 8 color styles, with three modes (public, private, and maintenance). Moreover, this plugin enhances interaction and engagement as users can add topics and the can restrict who can see these posts. Other users can add quick replies to any thread.

Here are some of the features:

It allows you to create custom fields.
It allows users to rate a thread.
Users can have private conversations with each other.
It allows you to create new categories and manage them.
It is multilingual.
Users can socially share links.
It offers you email notification templates that you can use.
It has sticky threads.
It has links to social profiles that can be shared.
You can add sticky threads.

19. PeerBoard

PeerBoard is a forum plugin for WordPress that helps you to build an effective online community, which helps you to connect with your customers. It is very simple to set up this plugin and you do not need any coding skills to use this plugin. Anyone can register and have access to members’ information, contacts, and statistics.

The unique feature of this plugin is that it has a Facebook feed like that of Facebook. Moreover, you can send email invitations to find new members. It has a modern design that has rich user profiles, and users can manage their profiles.

Here are some of the features:

It requires no coding skills to set up and run this plugin.
It can be used for private conversations.
It allows users to post public questions.
It allows you to add access control to your site.
It allows users to register themselves in the front-end.
It has an intelligent feed that shoots the highest value posts to the top.
It offers real-time updates to users.
It has an easy to use admin panel.
It is SEO friendly.

20. YITH WooCommerce Questions and Answers

YITH WooCommerce Questions and Answers is a forum plugin that allows users in your WooCommerce store to ask questions about products that other users or the admin can answer. With more than 1,000 active installations, this plugin is a useful tool that helps you to disseminate knowledge to other users about your products.

Additionally, it can be used to have a Frequently Asked Questions page that can show information that many other users might need concerning your products. It also allows users to add reviews and feedback about the products they have purchased. Many users look at reviews before they can purchase a product, and in this way, they can remove any doubts they have about the product.

Here are some of the features:

It allows users to ask questions about a specific product.
It allows users to answer a question that has been asked about a product.
It has a FAQ mode.
It is compatible with most themes.

21. ProfileGrid

ProfileGrid is a plugin that can be used to create user profiles, groups, and online communities and it helps you to manage them effectively. With more than 6,000 active installations in the WordPress community, this plugin can also be used to create paid memberships, directories, WooCommerce user-profiles, and bbPress profiles.

Additionally, you can restrict content that can be viewed by certain individuals and it provides you with sign-up pages that potential users can register themselves. Users can also submit blogs that they have created for other users to see. They can also send private messages to other users.

Here are some of the features:

It allows users to have many profiles.
It supports groups.
It allows you to set custom fields.
Each group has a group manager or moderator.
Groups can have membership limits.
Users can join multiple groups that they want.
It offers you email templates.
It allows you to restrict content.
It has a private messaging system.
It has a security feature.
It SEO friendly features.
It supports the major payment systems.

22. Ultra Community

Ultra Community is a community plugin, which is very easy to use. With more than 300 active installations in the WordPress community, this plugin does not require any programming knowledge and has many stunning features like user profiles, login and registration forms, notifications, and many more.

Here are some of the features:

It has a front-end login.
It has a front-end registration.
Users can create and manage their profiles.
It allows you to create multiple user roles and give each role its permissions and capabilities.
It allows users to create groups.
It has a member’s directory.
It has a group directory.
It can send email notifications.
It is multisite compatible.

23. Youzer

Youzer is a very powerful premium social plugin that will bring in many amazing features to your social or forum site. It is priced at $49, with more than 4,000 sales over at CodeCanyon. This is one of the best plugins if you wish to have social features around your forum. Moreover, the plugin offers you a comprehensive admin panel where you can manage everything for your site with ease.

Additionally, if your site has the user profile section, it offers you tons of amazing features to enhance the profile section with custom designs, header options, and a lot of other features. Moreover, this plugin offers you over 15 great looking header design options that will give a custom look to your site making it look very attractive.

Here are some of the features:

It allows users to create groups.
It allows users to send private messages.
Users can follow other users as friends.
It has social login and registration options.
It is simple to use.
It has a responsive design.

24. Discourse Platform

Discourse Platform is not a forum WordPress plugin but a forum software that can be integrated with WordPress perfectly. This forum platform has free and paid packages and is used by many leading websites to power their forum sections. It is user-friendly and looks great. Additionally, the neat and professional design of the forum software makes it one of the top choices while creating a forum site.

Here are some of the features:

It has conversations instead of pages.
It has dynamic notifications.
Anyone can use this simple software.
It is responsive.
It allows users to sign in and register.
It has a trust system that helps to maintain loyal customers.
It has moderation features.
It has spam-blocking features.
It has a summarize feature that condenses long topics.
It has a two-factor authentication system.
It is developer-friendly as it has a comprehensive API.

25. ForumWP

ForumWP is a premium plugin that comes with a refreshingly modern design to offer a great experience to your forum members. This plugin gives you a much-needed break from the old outdated style. It has a clean and elegant design that will make your forum look very professional.

Additionally, this plugin is light and loads very fast, so your audience will be happy with the overall performance and it will have a positive impact on the overall SEO of your site as well. It inherits the styling of your main site, the button text color, etc to make it look like an integral part of the site. Moreover, all the users will have their profile section where they can check all the topics that the user has contributed to.

This plugin has a fully responsive design that will make sure your forum looks great on all modern devices including mobile phones. Its pricing starts at $99 per year for 1 site, $149 per year for 3 sites, and $249 per year for 10 sites.

26. Knowledge Base Wiki WordPress Plugin

Knowledge Base Wiki WordPress is a plugin that offers information about your product or services to your customers and potential customers. It allows you to create a discussion around your product to engage your visitors. You can use this plugin with any WordPress theme and quickly add the knowledge section to your site.

This plugin has a one-time payment of $69 and has accumulated more than 1,000 sales over at CodeCanyon.

Here are some of the features:

It has a live search function.
No coding skills are required.
It supports tools like Elementor and Google Analytics.
It has content restriction features.
It has a FAQ model.
It has a modern design.
It offers you shortcodes that you can place anywhere on your site.
It supports multiple websites.

27. WP Pro Forum System

Looking for a plugin and willing to spare some bucks for some unique additional features? Then WP Pro Forum System will give you more than what you need. Additionally, the admin options for this plugin will help you to manage everything you need to make a perfect forum.

Moreover, the interface and front-end are minimalistic, clean and user-friendly packed with essential features. The developers of this plugin provide you with regular updates and premium support making it one of the best premium forum plugins for the price.

Here are some of the features:

It has a drag and drop feature.
It has a front-end editor.
It has a moderator.
It has a user reputation system.
It has a voting system.
It is SEO optimized.
It allows you to block users.
It has a light and Dark Theme.
It has a content profanity filter.

28. Groups Forums

Another premium plugin you might want to consider is Groups Forums. This plugin has a lightweight so will not slow down your site but still offers plenty of features that you will love. This plugin allows you to submit topics from the front-end and the back-end.

Additionally, you can establish moderators and sticky topics, and users can subscribe to topics if they want to monitor the conversation. It also has notification features, specifically for new comments, pending topics, published topics, and more. Moreover, several widgets and shortcodes are also included for simpler integration. It is priced at $29 and has more than 100 sales.

29. bbp style pack

bbp style pack is an add-on plugin for bbPress that allows you to style bbPress and add some display features. With more than 8,000 active installations, this plugin offers you amazing features like creating vertical lists, adding create new topic links, hiding counts and much more

30. GD bbPress Attachments

GD bbPress Attachments is a plugin that allows you to implement files upload for bbPress Forums topics and replies. With more than 10,000 active installations in the WordPress Community, this plugin offers you customization options from the main plugin settings panel. Moreover, you can change some attachments settings for each forum,

Here are some of the features:

It handles attachments in the media library.
It allows you to limit the number of files at once.
It allows you to embed a list of attached files into topics.
It displays uploaded images as thumbnails.

Conclusion

That concludes the list of 30 of the best forum plugins for WordPress. We hope that this list helped you to find the best forum plugin that you can add to your site. These plugins will offer you a great way to build up an audience and keep your website on a reader’s radar and improve SEO.

If you are looking for the most trusted plugin, then bbPress is the ultimate solution for you. If you are looking for a social network with the best value, then BuddyPress is the solution for you. For questions and answers, then DW Question and answer is the solution for you.

We hope that this expert pick helped you to narrow down your search for the best WordPress forum plugin.

Editorial Staff

30+ Best Forum WordPress Plugins for Building a Community

Why Add a Forum to Your Website?

1. bbPress

2. wpForo Forum

3. Asgaros Forum

4. Discussion Board

5. Simple:Press

6. Forum Beginner Posts

7. Vanilla Forums

8. Website Toolbox Forum

9. BuddyPress

10. DW Question and Answer

11. WP Symposium Pro Social Network Plugin

12. Sabai Discuss

13. Forums from WPMU Dev

14. ForumEngine

15. CM Answers

16. PeepSo

17. AnsPress

18. Simple Forum

19. PeerBoard

20. YITH WooCommerce Questions and Answers

21. ProfileGrid

22. Ultra Community

23. Youzer

24. Discourse Platform

25. ForumWP

26. Knowledge Base Wiki WordPress Plugin

27. WP Pro Forum System

28. Groups Forums

29. bbp style pack

30. GD bbPress Attachments

Conclusion

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