7 Best WordPress Community Plugins to Grow Your Community Website

Quality content can go a long way, but creating a community around your site is another effective way to grow your business. It can make it easier to retain and engage your visitors and enable you to form long-lasting relationships with your users.

The good news is that you can add this functionality to WordPress using a selection of high-quality WordPress community plugins. Better yet, there are multiple ways to execute this strategy. You might start a forum, build your own social network, or mix a few different options.

In this post, you’ll learn what an online community is. Then, we’ll explore the best WordPress community plugins and show you how to make the most out of your new community site.

What is an Online Community?

An online community is a group of people who communicate and interact via various digital tools. It might be through a forum, chat, email, or a social network.

Building an online community also offers a flexible way to grow your site. For example , you can offer community benefits for free or charge a fee. Plus, you’ll find free and paid community plugins that do the job.

As we mentioned, there are plenty of formats that you can use, including:

• WordPress forums (both free and subscriber-based)
• Niche-focused social networks
• Subscriber-only email newsletters
• Subscriber-only WooCommerce stores

The most important question for you to answer is: what type of community do you want to create?

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you build your community site:

• What value do you want to provide to members? You might offer exclusive private content, a like-minded community, and more.
• What’s the purpose of your community? Does it already exist online?
• Do you want to create a paid community or make it free forever? Or do you want a mix of both?
• How will you attract new members?
• What type of content will you create for members?

It’s best to define a clear direction for your community site before you start building and adding features.

Why WordPress is Perfect for Building a Community Website

Right out of the box, WordPress is equipped with features that make it easy to create a community website. For example, it provides a built-in post and commenting system, along with a robust content management system (CMS).

So, the base for your community website is taken care of with WordPress as your foundation. On top of that, there are certain features you’ll need to create a thriving online community:

• A way for members to sign up, log in, and create a user profile
• Ways for you to engage with the community (and for your community to engage with each other) through likes, comments, or shares
• A way for members to chat privately or send non-public messages

These features aren’t native to WordPress, but there are various WordPress community plugins you can use to add these features to your site.

7 Best WordPress Community Plugins

If you want to create a community website, here are seven of the best WordPress community plugins around. Note that you can integrate most of these tools with one another to enhance overall functionality.

1. Profile Builder Pro

Profile Builder Pro is a powerful user management tool that lets you create detailed user registration forms, login forms, user profile pages, and member directories. What’s more, the flexibility of the tool allows you to add registration forms to nearly any location on your website:

Additionally, Profile Builder Pro includes all kinds of advanced modules you can take advantage of when building your community site, including:

• Front-end user listing pages and member directories
• Ability to create multiple user registration forms
• Ability to create multiple edit profile forms
• Map functionality which you can add to user profiles
• Custom login forms to add anywhere on your site
• Shortcodes and blocks to add profiles or forms wherever you want
• A user role editor to customize roles on your site

You’ll also find a handful of advanced add-ons to extend the functionality of the plugin. Here are some popular options:

• WooCommerce Sync allows you to manage the WooCommerce Shipping and Billing fields, and add custom fields to the WooCommerce checkout page.
• Social Connect offers social login options to users for platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
• Email marketing service integrations let you sync Profile Builder fields to your email lists. The plugin supports Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and MailPoet.
• bbPress allows you to add advanced Profile Builder user profile tools to forum profiles.
• BuddyPress enables you to extend BuddyPress user profiles with Profile Builder user fields.

Price: There’s a free version that will work for a lot of sites, as well as a premium version that starts at €99.

2. BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a free, open-source plugin that can transform your WordPress site into its own social network. This plugin is packed with extensions and features that enable you to create a truly unique social community.

It’s a highly flexible plugin, so you can create a fairly simple community. But, you can also enable all the features to offer multiple communication methods to users, change color schemes, utilize detailed content management, and more.

Here are some unique functions that your members can take advantage of with BuddyPress:

• Send direct messages to each other
• Create friends lists and add/remove friends
• Create groups and join groups
• Answer questions in the forum or create forum threads
• Sign up for email notifications

Another great thing about BuddyPress is that it has its own collection of plugins that add even more features to your site such as:

• BuddyBoss Wall: This premium plugin lets users write on each other’s walls, similar to what you can do on Facebook.
• BuddyPress User Blog: This plugin allows you to give your members the ability to create their own blog with an interface similar to Medium.

Be aware that you’ll need to use a BuddyPress-compatible theme if you are going to use this plugin. You can also integrate BuddyPress with the Profile Builder plugin to get more control over your community’s registration and edit profile forms.

Price: The core BuddyPress plugin is completely free, but many third-party BuddyPress plugins are paid.

3. BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss is technically more of a WordPress-powered community “platform” than a standalone plugin. More specifically, it’s a combination of a WordPress theme and a plugin, as well as an optional mobile app that lets people access your community on the go.

It’s a fork of the BuddyPress plugin above and shares a lot of the same development team members. The BuddyBoss team was frustrated at the slower development pace of BuddyPress, which is why they decided to launch BuddyBoss.

Because everything is bundled together, you can quickly get started with a fully functioning community site. Here are a handful of the features offered:

• Custom member profiles and activity streams with fully customizable fields
• Social groups that let members create groups within groups and set up private groups
• Private messages can be sent to individual users or groups
• Users can upload photos and create albums (similar to Facebook)
• Users can create interactive forum discussions and communicate with other members
• Responsive designs across a range of platforms

There are also other advanced features:

• Subscriptions that let you create members-only content and generate revenue
• Online courses with the LearnDash LMS integration
• Gamification features like rankings, points, and rewards when users accomplish specific tasks
• And much more.

Note that BuddyBoss also works with pretty much all BuddyPress extensions.

Price: The BuddyBoss theme and plugin start at $299/year. If you want the mobile app, that’s an additional $179 per month.

4. bbPress

bbPress is a free, open-source WordPress plugin that you can use to add a forum to your WordPress site. It’s a very lightweight plugin which is designed to be as fast as possible.

Many other forum plugins are clunky and can significantly slow down your site, harming the user experience and pushing away visitors from your discussion board. bbPress’s slimline code makes it fast and responsive for the best experience possible.

bbPress’s unique features include:

• Support for over 55 different languages
• Compatibility with almost every WordPress theme
• Over 100 add-ons and templates to add even more features to your forum

This last point is worth emphasizing. Since bbPress has been around for so long, you can find tons of third-party extensions to add features like:

• Private messaging between users
• Customizable notifications
• Content flagging in discussion boards
• User reports

You can also integrate bbPress with Paid Member Subscriptions (the next plugin on our list) to restrict access to forums based on a member’s level.

Price: The core bbPress plugin is free, but many third-party bbPress plugins are paid.

5. Paid Member Subscriptions

Paid Member Subscriptions is a full WordPress membership plugin that can easily integrate into your existing website. It allows you to add membership functionality to any area of your website, including existing content, bbPress forums, and even WooCommerce products.

As the admin, you have complete control over the kind of memberships you want to create. You can offer free plans as well as one-time or recurring paid plans.

Plus, users will have access to their accounts to edit their account information and upgrade/downgrade their subscriptions:

Here are a few ways you can create membership-based content:

• Restrict premium content for members of a certain level
• Control or restrict post and page content
• Restrict custom post types

You can also create an ecommerce-based community in the following ways:

• Control or restrict who can purchase products
• Restrict product viewing
• Restrict access to your entire WooCommerce shop
• Add member discounts based on subscription levels
• Add member discounts based on individual products

Do you have a product-based community centered around your WooCommerce store, such as a members-only discount club? If so, this plugin is for you because you can create multiple subscription tiers.

Price: There’s a free version that works for simple membership sites, as well as a premium version starting at €99/year.

6. Youzify

Youzify, formerly known as Youzer, is a popular WordPress community plugin at Envato’s CodeCanyon marketplace. Initially, it only came in a premium version, but the developer has since launched a limited free version at WordPress.org.

Youzify is not a standalone plugin. Instead, it’s based on the free BuddyPress plugin that we discussed above. However, Youzify builds on the foundation of BuddyPress to make it more user-friendly.

It offers the following features:

• User activity streams
• Member directories
• Friend requests/connections
• Private messaging
• Option to follow users
• Points and badges for gamification
• Notifications
• Likes, comments, and replies

Basically, Youzify turns BuddyPress into a more social, user-friendly experience.

Price: Youzify has a limited free version at WordPress.org. To add more features, there’s a premium version that costs $49.

7. ProfileGrid

ProfileGrid is a freemium WordPress community plugin that helps you create frontend user profiles and member groups/communities. It also includes social network features like private messaging, activity feeds, a friends system, and it even includes blog creation for members.

In terms of member groups, you get a good amount of flexibility. For example, each group can have its own registration workflow, its own membership limits, different privacy levels, manual admin approval for new group members, and so on.

So if you want to create a community where users can create their own groups, this might be a good option for you.

Other notable features include:

• Custom registration pages
• Public member lists
• Paid access to groups
• Content restriction

Price: ProfileGrid has a limited free version at WordPress.org. To add more features, you can purchase a bundle of all add-ons starting at $79.

How to Get the Most Out of Your WordPress Community Website (4 Tips)

Now, let’s go over a few tips to help your online community thrive.

1. Have a Clear Goal

Your community needs to serve a specific purpose – it shouldn’t be for just anyone. if that were the case, your users might as well be using Facebook.

There should be a specific reason for your community to exist, for example:

• A community workspace for female online entrepreneurs
• A freelance writer forum where writers can share tips and tricks
• An ecommerce store that sells discount products to paying members

With the Profile Builder Pro or Paid Member Subscriptions (PMS), setting up all types of community websites is easy. Plus, it makes it simple for users to register on your site:

As you can see above, PMS enables you to create a registration page that features your different membership plans.

2. Introduce Community Rules

One way to help cultivate a community is to create a set of community rules and guidelines. This will establish the tone for the community: what’s allowed and what isn’t.

It goes without saying that you may wish to have rules against inappropriate or offensive content. However, some successful online communities make a name for themselves with unusual community guidelines or content restrictions.

For example, if you run a hyper-short story forum, you might limit post length to just 100 words. Or, you might require all posts to be formatted as if they were a play script.

3. Manage Your Community Wisely

It’s not enough just to add community functionality, open the doors to members, and call it a day. You not only need to be active in the community, but you need to manage it as well.

This means you might have to moderate new users, approve comments, and even deal with trolls or ban certain users. This is especially the case if members have violated the community guidelines you created.

4. Keep in Touch with Members and Listen to Feedback

You’ll probably spend a lot of time engaging with your community and members. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to pay close attention to any criticism or feedback they have. Even if it’s negative, you can use this to improve your community and add new features.

Build an Online Community with WordPress Community Plugins

A WordPress community site can help to engage and retain your visitors over the long run. Plus, it’s a great way to earn more revenue. Better yet, it’s easy to create a feature-rich community site using the best WordPress community plugins.

To recap, here are seven excellent options (which you can also pair together):

• Profile Builder Pro lets you create custom user registration forms and easily manage your users.
• BuddyPress provides basic social networking features for free.
• BuddyBoss adds a fully-featured social network to your site right out of the box.
• bbPress is a free plugin that lets you add a forum to your WordPress site.
• Paid Member Subscriptions enables you to add membership functionality to any content area of your site, including WooCommerce.
• Youzify builds on the BuddyPress plugin to create a more user-friendly experience.
• ProfileGrid focuses on multiple user groups that have their own rules and requirements.

Have you tried any of these WordPress community plugins? Let us know about your experience in the comments section below!