A Guide to WordPress Forums & Community Plugins

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Importance of Adding Forums and Communities to WordPress

What are Forums and Communities?

We have seen how most businesses today disregard the importance of social media. Similarly, organizations fail to realize the role forums play in driving traffic to their site. So we have gathered a comprehensive guide about WordPress forums and community plugins.

A web forum/community is a discussion webpage where people worldwide share their views on a particular topic. People can ask questions, discuss different issues, and ask for advice on forums. This implies that discussions can give a scope of suppositions and points of view on a topic. Forums and communities make it easier to reach your audience and build a network. It plays an essential role in driving traffic to your site. Connecting to like-minded people online can help you grow professionally as well.

Importance of Adding Forums and Communities to WordPress

Whenever we have a problem, for example, our Wi-Fi device is not working correctly, we search on Google to find a solution. Typically, the remedy is located on a forum where a user with the same device has resolved the issue and published the online forum solution.

Let's come back to WordPress Forums and Community Plugins. You can build your WordPress site on a theme that's built on the forum. This will convert your site into a platform for discussions, but most people don't want that. So, let's come to our second option. You can have many plugins that help you add a forum to your site. Each plugin has its functionalities, pros and cons, and unique ways of integrating into your site. Let's go through our list of plugins quickly, so it's easier for you to decide what you want on your WordPress site.

bbPress

If you're searching for an exquisite and seamless conversation board, bbPress is what we recommend to you. With all these features, you won't be able to find a better plugin for free. This plugin tops our list because of the following reasons:

  • You can add a community to your WordPress site with just a few clicks by using this plugin.
  • Today, 7 million people have installed this plugin on their WordPress sites.
  • bbPress is faster than all other plugins.
  • Easy to use and install.
  • Additional extensions for customization purposes.
  • Very light-weighed plugin.
  • Good page load speed.

Asgaros Forum

Asgaro forum lets you make boundless forums and compose them into various groups and categories. You can likewise make sub-forums within different forums. Like bbPress, this plug-is entirely free for use. Asgaros hasn't launched any premium version. It's a great pick if you're planning to add a forum without spending money.

  • You have full control over the forums on your WordPress site. To add restrictions to your forums, you can close the forum or restrict access.
  • Management of different discussions is easy.
  • The option of guest posting is allowed.
  • There's a statistics page that gives you insights into your audience.
  • It's a great way to keep a check on your users.
  • You can upload/add different file types.
  • It's light-weighed and built on a traditional layout that most of the forums use.

BuddyPress

If you want to build an online community, we believe that BuddyPress is the second-best choice. Although it has many desirable features similar to bbPress, it works differently. Depending on your preference of components, you may want to opt for bbPress or Buddy Press. It's mostly used to build an online social network. It also supports sending friend requests and has the feature to create discussion forums for what interests a particular group of people. Although many features are available in the free version, you will need to pay for the more advanced functionalities this plugin offers.

  • The flexibility of this plugin makes it very powerful. This plugin supports all the features that no one other plugin has, and it can adapt without causing any problems.
  • The best thing about this plugin is the feature of creating profiles for users. Online communities have user-profiles and customized settings.
  • Everyone can join what interests them with the help of this platform.
  • You can even add connections, have conversations with like-minded people and make friends online.
  • This plugin supports third-party plugins as well.

WP Symposium Pro Social Network Plugin

This plugin is somewhat like BuddyPress. It transforms your WordPress site into a kind of social network. This incorporates a full forum, activity log, and some features that Facebook has. After being introduced, clients can make customizable profiles, add other users as friends, easily network with experts on the topics of discussion, and most importantly, engage in your ever-growing community.

  • It can work as a complete social network for your site.
  • One of the unique features is attaching YouTube videos.
  • It supports customization.
  • Like and dislike feature can also be enabled if you want.
  • It comes with a price that's quite reasonable.
How the Experts can Help

Clarity WordPress Experts

Whether you want to add a social network or a simple discussion forum, you can now easily choose what suits your WordPress site best. If you are looking for an excellent place to start, we recommend bbPress. For both moderators and end-users, the discussion forum is very user-friendly and intuitive. For more advanced functionalities, you can opt for buddyPress and WP Symposium. Asgaros is also a great pick if you're looking for a completely free and professional looking discussion forum. It all depends on the features you want to have in your forum/community.

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