Nowadays, we see a lot of online communities around. An online community is a way for people with the same interest to connect and share what they love. This has increased beyond just the popular online community platforms like Discord, Reddit, Circle and Meetup.
Do you also want to do the same and build an online community? Your search ends here!
A WordPress community plugin is exactly what you need to create a flourishing community. With the best WordPress community plugin, you can create multiple types of communities such as:
- Forums for discussions
- Social networks for friends to connect
- or membership sites for special groups too.
All you need is the right fit WordPress community social plugin to grow an engaging and loyal online community. However there are dozens of community plugins claiming to be the best, so which one to choose?
Luckily, you don’t have to rack your brain. We have a list of best WordPress community plugins to create your own online community in no time. So get ready to dive in!
Quick Pick: 7 Best WordPress Community Plugins
On the go? No problem! Here’s the short list of the best WordPress community plugins to grow your online community.
| Plugin | Best For | Free | Starting Price |
| BuddyBoss | All-in-one social network with LMS, groups & events | ❌ | $299/yr |
| PeepSo | Modern lightweight social network | ✅ | $99.50/yr |
| ARMember | Membership-based communities & gated content | ✅ | $69/yr |
| BuddyPress | Free flexible social networking | ✅ | Free |
| wpForo Forum | Structured forums & topic discussions | ✅ | Add-ons |
| FluentCommunity | Social + forum hybrid with LMS tools | ✅ | $159/yr |
| bbPress | Simple, fast discussion forums | ✅ | Free |
Best WordPress Community Plugins to Build your Online Community
BuddyBoss
BuddyBoss is the best WordPress community plugins with social networking solutions. It’s a perfect WordPress social community plugin for any kind of online community you like to build. From courses to communities, BuddyBoss lets you give you unlimited members, courses, groups, admins, events with endless possibilities. If you want to combine forums, groups, events, LMS and memberships into one, BuddyBoss is the perfect hit for creating an online community.
Key Features
- Create dynamic online community with deep social integrations
- Easy to organize groups in public, private and hidden
- Each group gets its own activity feed, forum and messaging feature
- Customize user profiles with extensive fields, avatars and social links
- Secure private messaging system for 1-on-1 and group communication
- Smooth integration with popular LMS plugins
- Highly customizable designs with simple drag and drop interface
Pricing
Even though BuddyBoss has no free version, you can go with its premium plans starting at $299/Year. (Renews at regular price)
Best For
If you want to build a premium social network with courses, events and memberships all in one place, BuddyBoss is your all-in-one community building plugin.
PeepSo
PeepSo is another modern and lightweight WordPress community social plugin. It allows you to add your social network right inside your WordPress site. You can create complete online communities with activity streams, real time chats, live notifications and more. The best part, is you can use it for almost everything from eLearning, eCommerce to show ads for creating your community the way you want.
Key Features
- Activity streams for users to write posts on their profiles, groups and community stream.
- Reporting tools to flag any offensive content
- Highly customizable user profiles to enhance personalization
- Real time chats and messages with multimedia support for photos, videos and GIF
- Interactive polls to gather community opinions
- Send live notification to keep community members informed
- Integrated with multiple third party tools like Learndash, TutorLMS, WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads
Pricing
PeepSo offers a free plan with additional paid bundles starting from $99.50/Year.
Best For
If you’re looking to create a modern, lightweight social network that your members will actually love to use, PeepSo is your perfect match.
ARMember
ARMember is one of the best WordPress membership plugins to boost your online community. It lets you create unlimited membership plans to build an exclusive community. Further, it offers awesome gamification elements like badges, rewards and points. Apart from this, you get public member profiles, directory templates along with flawless BuddyPress and BuddyBoss forum support.
Key Features
- Perfect for creating membership based communities
- Unlimited membership plans with different access rights and price
- Recurring payment with billing flexibility
- Powerful content restriction and drip content
- Advanced built-in security options
- Full customizable user profiles and directory templates
- Member profile, private messaging, activity streams, friend connection and more.
- Send automated messages and notifications via Email, SMS, and WhatsApp.
- Let members create subsites to run their own network
Pricing
ARMember offers a free version and its paid plans start from $69/Year only.
Best For
If monetizing gated content and managing multiple membership plans is your goal, ARMember is your all-in-one membership sidekick.
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is the best WordPress community plugin which is 100% free and open source. It is a perfect tool for creating online communities for niche groups such as schools, businesses and more. Best of all, you can easily enable or disable specific features with just a click. Further, it is a highly flexible tool with tons of plugins and extensions for full customization.
Key Features
- Let members manage and customize their user profiles with avatars, cover images and more.
- Activity streams for posts, comments, friendship and group memberships.
- Create public, private or hidden user groups
- Send friend requests and manage connections
- Private messaging system for 1-on-1 or multiple user communication
- Alert notification for member’s events
- Seamlessly works with almost all WordPress themes
Pricing
BuddyPress is completely free to use.
Best For
Businesses who are looking for a free and flexible social networking solution with activity feeds, groups, and forums.
wpForo Forum
wpForo Forum is the best WordPress forum plugin. It is an easy to use and lightweight forum solution. The best part? You can create multiple separate forums boards with beautiful member profiles. Moreover, you can also set different points for likes, dislikes, new topics and posts as well.
Key Features
- Multiple forum layouts such as extended, simplified, Q&A and threaded for different types of discussions
- Fully responsive designs
- Advanced user profile with points-based reputation and badges
- Live user notifications
- Quick topic overview and topic bookmarking
- Let you users mention(@) other users in posts
- Friendly drag and drop interface
Pricing
wpForo Forum is free to use with over 20+ premium paid addons to extend it’s features.
Best For
If your community thrives on structured forums, discussion boards and topic-based interactions, wpForo is your go-to conversation hub.
FluentCommunity
FluentCommunity is another best community plugin for WordPress with a friendly user interface. It is a good to go plugin with social networking tools, built-in LMS and forum functionalities. With this tool, you can create and manage an exclusive online community with ease.
Key Features
- Real time activity feeds of posts, comments and updates
- Real time 1-on-1 and group messaging
- personalized members profiles
- Mentions(@), hashtags (#) with built-in GIF and emoji support
- Gamify your community experience with leaderboards and badges
- Easy to create polls and surveys
- Built-in LMS features with course builder, progress tracking, drip content and more.
- Dark and light modes along with full customization
Pricing
FluentCommunity offers a free version. Further if you want all features, its paid plans start from $159/Year.
Best For
If you’re aiming for a social network meets forum hybrid with modern design and smooth integrations, FluentCommunity is the best WordPress community plugin for you.
bbPress
bbPress is one of the fastest and lightweight WordPress community plugins for creating simple forums. It is super easy to set up, use and create online communities. Moreover, it gives you a unified experience by sharing the same admin area, user account and theme as your main site. What we like the most about this tool is it’s simple, beginner friendly, fast and lightweight.
Key Features
- Beginner friendly user interface
- Easy to setup with zero coding
- Lightweight to super speed your WordPress site
- Automatically inherits the look to match your WordPress theme
- Built-in spam protection support via Akismet
- Create and manage separate forums for each site in your network
Pricing
bbPress is 100% free to use and go!
Best For
If all you need is a lightweight, dependable forum without the extra bells and whistles, bbPress is your trusted discussion hub.
How to Choose the Right WordPress Community Plugin
In a nutshell, you need the best WordPress community plugins to create a loyal and engaged online community. In this list, we’ve delivered the list of best WordPress community plugins to create, scale and grow your online community with ease.
Still wondering which one is the right WordPress community management plugin for you? We’ve got you covered!
Here are some things to keep in mind when handpicking your best-fit WordPress community plugin:
- Ease of use: Always look for a WordPress community social plugin with beginner friendly user interface so even your non-tech savvy teams can manage it.
- Budget: Opt for a WordPress community forum plugin which fits in your company’s budget. Also, If it offers a free version, that’s your golden chance.
- Community’s Goal: Decide whether you want to build a social network, discussion forum or membership site to avoid any confusion.
- Core Features: Make it has basic core features such as private messaging, user profiles, groups, or paid subscriptions
- Integrations: Look for plugins that integrates with the tools you will need in future or currently to automate your workflow
So that’s it for today! All the best WordPress community plugins we have shared are top of their games; popular for creating successful online communities. So no need to think twice! Find your best pick and make an online community that grows, scales and flourishes.
FAQs About WordPress Community Plugins
What is a WordPress community plugin?
A WordPress community plugin is a tool that allows you to create your own online community like a social media platform in WordPress. Moreover,
What is the best community plugin for WordPress?
Here are the best community plugin for WordPress:
- BuddyBoss
- PeepSo
- ARMember
- BuddyPress
- wpForo Forum
- FluentCommunity
- bbPress
Is bbPress free?
Yes , Absolutely ! bbPress is completely free to use and go. It is one of the fastest and lightweight WordPress community plugins for creating simple forums.
What is BuddyPress?
BuddyPress is the best WordPress community plugin which is completely free and open source. Furthermore, It is a perfect tool for creating online communities for niche groups such as schools, businesses and more.
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