I Tried 5 Best WordPress Community Plugins (So You Don’t Have To)

A lot of peo­p­le try to build online com­mu­ni­ties in Word­Press, but most never gain trac­tion. The pro­blem usual­ly isn’t the idea—it’s the set­up. Wit­hout the right plat­form, it’s hard to spark real con­ver­sa­ti­ons or keep your mem­bers enga­ged over time.

That’s why choo­sing the right com­mu­ni­ty plug­in mat­ters so much. It can turn a quiet web­site into an acti­ve space whe­re peo­p­le want to join con­ver­sa­ti­ons, share ide­as, and keep coming back.

To find out what real­ly works, I’ve spent weeks test­ing and com­pa­ring the top Word­Press com­mu­ni­ty plug­ins available today. I instal­led each one on a real Word­Press site, crea­ted test com­mu­ni­ties, and put them through sce­na­ri­os that mir­ror what actu­al site owners face.

In this post, I’m sha­ring my top picks to help you crea­te a thri­ving, vibrant online community.

Quick Overview – The Best WordPress Community Plugins

If you’re in a hur­ry, here’s my quick pick:

Why Build an Online Community?

Buil­ding an online com­mu­ni­ty can turn your Word­Press web­site into an inter­ac­ti­ve space whe­re visi­tors beco­me acti­ve par­ti­ci­pan­ts. Ins­tead of just rea­ding your con­tent and lea­ving, users can con­nect and build rela­ti­onships around your brand.

Here are the main bene­fits of crea­ting an online community:

• More user enga­ge­ment: Forums, groups, and mem­ber pro­files give visi­tors spe­ci­fic, strong reasons to keep coming back to your community. 
• Brand loyal­ty: Acti­ve com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers often beco­me your big­gest sup­port­ers. This may invol­ve taking posi­ti­ve actions like pos­ting comm­ents, enga­ging with you on social media, or even buy­ing your pro­ducts. I’ve spo­ken to many store owners who say their com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers are their best repeat customers.
• Your com­mu­ni­ty crea­tes valuable con­tent for you: Every dis­cus­sion and com­ment from your mem­bers is fresh, user-gene­ra­ted con­tent for your web­site. Search engi­nes are now giving hig­her ran­kings to this type of authen­tic con­tent, which can impro­ve your SEO and bring more visi­tors to your site. This is the same model that helps power popu­lar com­mu­ni­ties like Red­dit and Quora.
• Crea­te reve­nue oppor­tu­ni­ties: You can set up new inco­me sources like paid mem­ber­ships, online cour­ses, and mem­bers-only content. 

Why Use WordPress for Your Online Community?

Buil­ding your com­mu­ni­ty on Word­Press gives you full con­trol. Ever­y­thing, from your mem­ber data to your con­tent, stays on your site ins­tead of a hos­ted plat­form that can chan­ge its rules or shut down overnight.

It also keeps your com­mu­ni­ty clo­se to the rest of your web­site. Mem­bers can move easi­ly bet­ween your blog, store, and online cour­ses wit­hout having to log in to ano­ther platform.

Hos­ted plat­forms like Dis­cord or Migh­ty Net­works may seem easier at first, but you don’t own the plat­form, can’t cus­to­mi­ze it free­ly, and have to work around their pri­cing and fea­ture limits. With Word­Press, you set the rules and keep full con­trol over how your com­mu­ni­ty grows.

My Testing Methodology for Evaluating Community Plugins

Choo­sing the wrong com­mu­ni­ty plug­in can kill enga­ge­ment befo­re it even starts. I know this from per­so­nal expe­ri­ence: when I first tried to launch a forum, I ended up with silent, emp­ty pages and zero activity.

That’s why I don’t just look at a plugin’s list of fea­tures. Ins­tead, I per­so­nal­ly build test com­mu­ni­ties and put each plug­in through real-life sce­na­ri­os that mir­ror what you’ll face as a site owner.

Here’s how I test every plug­in in this review:

• Instal­la­ti­on and set­up time: I track how long it takes me to get a basic com­mu­ni­ty up and run­ning. I also make a note of any tech­ni­cal road­blocks that might con­fu­se someone who is just start­ing out.
• User expe­ri­ence test­ing: I always crea­te a test mem­ber account and approach the com­mu­ni­ty just like a new user would. This helps me check if the fea­tures feel easy to use, or if they’re confusing. 
• Per­for­mance impact: I run a web­site speed test befo­re and after I install the plug­in. This is becau­se com­mu­ni­ty fea­tures can slow down your site if they’re not set up properly.
• Mobi­le respon­si­ve­ness: I test every fea­ture on mobi­le devices, as most com­mu­ni­ty inter­ac­tions hap­pen on pho­nes and tablets.
• Sca­la­bi­li­ty poten­ti­al: I try to simu­la­te what hap­pens when a com­mu­ni­ty grows quick­ly. In this way, I can see how each plug­in hand­les lots of new mem­bers and content.
• Value for money: I compa­re total cost to capa­bi­li­ty: upfront licen­se pri­ces, any add-ons you’ll likely need, hos­ting requi­re­ments, and how much you can accom­plish at each tier as your com­mu­ni­ty grows.

My main goal is to find plug­ins that are simp­le and work well for beg­in­ners, but can also grow with your com­mu­ni­ty as you get more members.

1. BuddyBoss: Best WordPress Community Plugin for Building a Full-Featured Social Network

Bud­dy­Boss is the best com­mu­ni­ty plug­in for crea­ting an ‘all-in-one’ social net­work direct­ly insi­de your Word­Press site. It allows you to build your own social media web­site, inclu­ding fea­tures such as detail­ed acti­vi­ty feeds, pri­va­te mes­sa­ging, pro­files, groups, and events.

I’ve tes­ted Bud­dy­Boss exten­si­ve­ly, and it stands out for its clean, modern design and rich user-facing fea­tures. For more details, you can see my com­ple­te Bud­dy­Boss review.

My Experience

The initi­al set­up pro­cess was very straight­for­ward, and I didn’t need any tech­ni­cal exper­ti­se to get Bud­dy­Boss up and run­ning. I also real­ly app­re­cia­ted that the plug­in loo­ked gre­at, right out of the box.

When I tes­ted its acti­vi­ty feeds, I was impres­sed by how seam­less­ly recent posts and comm­ents flowed across all are­as of my community.

I also lik­ed that you can crea­te an online school with col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve lear­ning, gami­fi­ca­ti­on, and an enga­ging stu­dent dash­board to impro­ve the lear­ner experience.

Ano­ther bene­fit is that Bud­dy­Boss allows you to turn your com­mu­ni­ty web­site into an app. This can be a gre­at opti­on for boos­ting enga­ge­ment and get­ting more signups.

Just keep in mind that Bud­dy­Boss tends to use a lot of ser­ver resour­ces, so you’ll need powerful Word­Press hos­ting to run it well. I recom­mend using Rapyd Cloud hos­ting sin­ce they have a plan desi­gned spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for BuddyBoss.

Why I Recom­mend Bud­dy­Boss: This plug­in crea­tes an easy-to-use social net­work expe­ri­ence for your visi­tors. In my opi­ni­on, BuddyBoss’s big­gest strength is com­bi­ning all the essen­ti­al com­mu­ni­ty fea­tures into one modern, well-inte­gra­ted platform.

2. MemberPress: Best for Creating a Premium Membership Community

Mem­ber­Press is a powerful mem­ber­ship plug­in that allows you to set up pre­mi­um mem­ber­ship com­mu­ni­ties. It gives you pre­cise con­trol over who sees your con­tent, inclu­ding online cour­ses, vide­os, and mem­bers-only dis­cus­sion forums.

At WPBeg­in­ner, we use Mem­ber­Press for our video trai­ning site, even though the con­tent is free. This pro­ves you can use Mem­ber­Press to mana­ge any kind of com­mu­ni­ty, no mat­ter whe­ther you char­ge a fee or not.

For more details on our expe­ri­ence, see our com­ple­te Mem­ber­Press review.

My Experience

When I set up Mem­ber­Press on my web­site, the instal­la­ti­on pro­cess was incre­di­bly straight­for­ward. Mem­ber­Press show­ed me how to crea­te mem­ber­ship tiers and set access rules wit­hout any confusion.

Unli­ke other mem­ber­ship plug­ins I’ve tried, Mem­ber­Press made it simp­le to rest­rict spe­ci­fic pages and posts. I could easi­ly deci­de which con­tent mem­bers could access with just a few clicks.

The inte­gra­ti­on with pay­ment gate­ways like Stri­pe work­ed wit­hout any tech­ni­cal headaches.

I expe­ri­men­ted with set­ting up dif­fe­rent pay­ment opti­ons, and the who­le pro­cess was incre­di­bly straightforward.

I also real­ly like Mem­ber­Press’ drip con­tent fea­ture. It lets you sche­du­le les­sons to be released slow­ly over time, which is a gre­at way to keep mem­bers enga­ged over the long term.

Plus, it sup­ports many dif­fe­rent inte­gra­ti­ons, inclu­ding with online com­mu­ni­ty soft­ware like Bud­dy­Boss, Bud­dy­Press, and Discord.

Why I Recom­mend Mem­ber­Press: This plug­in makes it easy to crea­te any kind of com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber­ship web­site. Mem­ber­Press also works per­fect­ly with other com­mu­ni­ty tools you might want to add later on.

3. BuddyPress: Best for Building a Free Social Network

Bud­dy­Press is the best free and open-source tool for crea­ting social net­works. It gives you basic online com­mu­ni­ty fea­tures wit­hout any licen­sing costs.

Unli­ke pre­mi­um alter­na­ti­ves I’ve tes­ted, Bud­dy­Press focu­ses on pro­vi­ding a sta­ble, solid foun­da­ti­on rather than lots of flas­hy features.

My Experience

I used Bud­dy­Press to build a test site whe­re Word­Press fans could con­nect with each other. Bud­dy­Press imme­dia­te­ly gave me relia­ble fea­tures like group crea­ti­on, fri­end­ship sys­tems, and mem­ber noti­fi­ca­ti­ons right out of the box.

Bud­dy­Press’ core fea­tures work­ed very well, let­ting me crea­te public, pri­va­te, and hid­den groups wit­hout any dif­fi­cult setup.

I also easi­ly inte­gra­ted it with the free bbPress plug­in to add dis­cus­sion forums direct­ly insi­de my social groups. I belie­ve this com­bi­na­ti­on is key, as it makes the com­mu­ni­ty expe­ri­ence feel more complete.

Keep in mind that the default sty­ling is basic, which I think is a fair trade-off for being free. For site owners who are com­for­ta­ble with adding some minor sty­ling chan­ges, Bud­dy­Press is a gre­at option.

Why I Recom­mend Bud­dy­Press: This plug­in gives you essen­ti­al social fea­tures com­ple­te­ly free. Over­all, Bud­dy­Press is per­fect if you’re on a tight bud­get or just start­ing out.

4. Thrive Comments: Best WordPress Community Plugin for Boosting Engagement

Thri­ve Comm­ents is the best solu­ti­on for tur­ning your regu­lar blog com­ment sec­tion into an enga­ging com­mu­ni­ty space.

Ins­tead of the basic Word­Press comm­ents that most visi­tors sim­ply igno­re, Thri­ve crea­tes an inter­ac­ti­ve envi­ron­ment whe­re rea­ders genui­ne­ly want to par­ti­ci­pa­te. For exam­p­le, it includes com­ment likes / dis­li­kes, com­ment bad­ges, and more.

For more about our expe­ri­ence with Thri­ve Comm­ents, see our full Thri­ve The­mes Suite review.

My Experience

To test how well Thri­ve Comm­ents per­forms, I loa­ded a review page that I had inten­tio­nal­ly fil­led with over 300 comm­ents. Thrive’s built-in lazy loa­ding fea­ture work­ed exact­ly as adver­ti­sed, kee­ping the initi­al page load fast and snappy.

Plus, I lik­ed that Thri­ve Comm­ents includes han­dy upvo­ting and down­vo­ting fea­tures that help high­light the most valuable respon­ses. Qua­li­ty comm­ents natu­ral­ly rise to the top, encou­ra­ging bet­ter discussions.

During my test­ing, I also found Thrive’s built-in gami­fi­ca­ti­on sys­tem to be very effec­ti­ve at encou­ra­ging participation.

Users can earn bad­ges based on their acti­vi­ty, which adds an ele­ment of fun that keeps peo­p­le coming back to enga­ge and see their progress.

I was also real­ly impres­sed by the post-com­ment actions, which instant­ly turn enga­ged com­ment­ers into poten­ti­al email sub­scri­bers. After someone lea­ves a thoughtful com­ment, you can auto­ma­ti­cal­ly redi­rect them to a spe­cial thank you page or show them an optin form.

Why I Recom­mend Thri­ve Comm­ents: This plug­in suc­cessful­ly turns your pas­si­ve blog rea­ders into acti­ve com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers. Plus, its abili­ty to cap­tu­re email sub­scri­bers from your most enga­ged visi­tors is a huge bonus.

5. AccessAlly: Best WordPress Plugin for All-in-One Courses and Communities

Access­Al­ly is one of the most com­ple­te Word­Press solu­ti­ons for buil­ding online lear­ning com­mu­ni­ties. Its Com­mu­ni­ty­Al­ly add-on allows you to set up group feeds, mem­ber pro­files, and dis­cus­sion are­as direct­ly insi­de your online cour­se or mem­ber­ship area.

My Experience

To test Access­Al­ly, I tried buil­ding a small group lear­ning com­mu­ni­ty with dis­cus­sion groups lin­ked to spe­ci­fic cour­ses. Set­ting it up took more time than with simp­ler plug­ins, but the extra con­trol over struc­tu­re made it worth it.

Each group auto­ma­ti­cal­ly added or remo­ved mem­bers based on cour­se enroll­ment, and users could post updates or start dis­cus­sions insi­de their cohort.

I also lik­ed that Access­Al­ly includes strong gami­fi­ca­ti­on tools. I was able to award points when mem­bers com­ple­ted les­sons or par­ti­ci­pa­ted in dis­cus­sions, and set up lea­der­boards for each community.

Just keep in mind that Access­Al­ly is more expen­si­ve and com­plex than some of the other com­mu­ni­ty plug­ins on this list. I think it could be worth it for lar­ger com­pa­nies or pro­fes­sio­nal coa­ches, but it may not be the best fit for small businesses.

Why I Recom­mend Access­Al­ly: It’s ide­al for mana­ging cour­ses, mem­ber­ships, and com­mu­ni­ty spaces in one sys­tem. Access­Al­ly offers deeper enga­ge­ment tools than most LMS or mem­ber­ship plug­ins, and its auto­ma­ti­on opti­ons make it easy to grow an acti­ve, loy­al com­mu­ni­ty over time.

Other Community Plugins I Tested

If you’re still explo­ring your opti­ons, here are a few other plug­ins worth mentioning.

The­se didn’t make my top recom­men­da­ti­ons, but they can work well in spe­ci­fic situa­tions or for smal­ler projects.

wpForo Forum

Best For: Tra­di­tio­nal forums and dis­cus­sion boards

The Good: Clean forum struc­tu­re, built-in SEO tools, and migra­ti­on opti­ons from bbPress.
The Bad: Limi­t­ed social fea­tures and requi­res paid addons for advan­ced lay­outs or pri­va­te mes­sa­ging.
Sui­ta­ble For: Online com­mu­ni­ties loo­king for a clas­sic dis­cus­sion-board for­mat with mode­ra­ti­on tools. 

ProfileGrid

Best For: Small social net­works and mem­ber directories

The Good: Com­bi­nes user pro­files, pri­va­te groups, and mes­sa­ging in one plug­in. Includes Woo­Com­mer­ce and mem­ber­ship exten­si­ons.
The Bad: The inter­face feels dated, and cus­to­miza­ti­on opti­ons can be con­fu­sing for beg­in­ners.
Sui­ta­ble For: Niche or small-sca­le com­mu­ni­ties whe­re user pro­files and group chats mat­ter more than lar­ge-sca­le discussions. 

Ultimate Member

Best For: Mem­ber­ship sites with social pro­fi­le features

The Good: Cus­tom user roles, regis­tra­ti­on forms, and pro­fi­le cus­to­miza­ti­on. Inte­gra­tes with Woo­Com­mer­ce and Lear­nDa­sh.
The Bad: Can con­flict with other plug­ins and may need paid exten­si­ons for fea­tures like pri­va­te mes­sa­ging.
Sui­ta­ble For: Mem­ber­ship com­mu­ni­ties that requi­re fle­xi­ble pro­fi­le manage­ment and role-based access, rather than full social feeds or forums. 

FluentCommunity

Best For: All-in-one social com­mu­ni­ty and cour­se platform.

The Good: Includes acti­vi­ty feeds, spaces, chats, polls, lea­der­boards, and full LMS tools. Deep­ly inte­gra­ted with the Flu­ent suite for auto­ma­ti­ons and email enga­ge­ment.
The Bad: Newer pro­duct with a smal­ler eco­sys­tem and fewer third-par­ty exten­si­ons than Bud­dy­Boss or Mem­ber­Press.
Best For: Buil­ding a modern online com­mu­ni­ty and cour­se hub wit­hout rely­ing on mul­ti­ple plugins. 

What Is the Best WordPress Community Plugin?

The best plug­in for you real­ly depends on what kind of com­mu­ni­ty you’re try­ing to build. This will vary depen­ding on whe­ther you want to focus on online trai­ning, sel­ling pre­mi­um con­tent, crea­ting a free social net­work, or some­thing else entirely.

Here is a quick summary:

• If you want to build a social net­work on Word­Press, then Bud­dy­Boss is my top pick. It’s an all-in-one solu­ti­on that pro­mi­ses to trans­form your site into an enga­ging com­mu­ni­ty, simi­lar to a pri­va­te Face­book that you ful­ly own. 
• If you want to crea­te a pre­mi­um, paid com­mu­ni­ty, then Mem­ber­Press real­ly stands out. It’s what I recom­mend if you need simp­le-to-use con­tent rest­ric­tion and powerful sub­scrip­ti­on management.
• If you want to focus on online lear­ning, then Access­Al­ly is my top pick. It allows you to build com­mu­ni­ties within your online cour­ses and encou­ra­ge group learning. 
• If you want to build a com­mu­ni­ty wit­hout pay­ing any licen­se fees, Bud­dy­Press is the per­fect opti­on. This free, open-source foun­da­ti­on gives you core fea­tures like pro­files, groups, and acti­vi­ty feeds. I also recom­mend adding the free bbPress plug­in if you need dis­cus­sion forums.

Frequently Asked Questions About Online Communities

Choo­sing the right tools for your online com­mu­ni­ty can be con­fu­sing, so it’s com­ple­te­ly nor­mal to still have some questions.

To help you out, I’ve gathe­red ans­wers to the most com­mon ques­ti­ons our rea­ders ask us about run­ning a com­mu­ni­ty on WordPress.

Do I need spe­cial hos­ting for run­ning online com­mu­ni­ties on WordPress?

Yes, you’ll need relia­ble, high-per­for­mance hos­ting for run­ning an acti­ve Word­Press com­mu­ni­ty. Com­mu­ni­ty plug­ins pro­cess con­stant acti­vi­ty, like posts, mes­sa­ges, and noti­fi­ca­ti­ons, that can quick­ly slow down basic shared hosting.

I recom­mend Rapyd Cloud. It’s built for high-traf­fic, dyna­mic web­sites and hand­led resour­ce-hea­vy plug­ins like Bud­dy­Boss smooth­ly in my tests.

Can I mone­ti­ze my Word­Press community?

Yes, abso­lut­e­ly! In my expe­ri­ence, the best way to make money online is by using a mem­ber­ship plug­in to sell access to your con­tent or com­mu­ni­ty groups.

Tools like Mem­ber­Press and Access­Al­ly all pro­vi­de the neces­sa­ry fea­tures to hand­le this. The­se plug­ins offer simp­le sub­scrip­ti­on manage­ment, detail­ed con­tent pro­tec­tion to lock down exclu­si­ve posts, and other fea­tures you need to run a suc­cessful paid community.

Which is the best free Word­Press com­mu­ni­ty plugin?

Bud­dy­Press is the best free opti­on. It’s open source and very well-docu­men­ted by the lar­ger Word­Press community.

More Resources for Building WordPress Communities

My big­gest advice is to remem­ber that the­se plug­ins are just the start­ing point. Buil­ding a suc­cessful Word­Press com­mu­ni­ty requi­res fin­ding the right mix of tools, smart hos­ting, and genui­ne enga­ge­ment strategies.

With that said, I recom­mend using the resour­ces below to impro­ve your site and grow your brand-new community:

• The Ulti­ma­te Gui­de to Boost Word­Press Speed & Performance
• Best Mem­ber­ship Site Examp­les That You Should Check Out
• How to Make a Social Media Web­site (Beginner’s Guide)
• How to Increase Your Blog Traf­fic – The Easy Way
• Tes­ted and Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List Faster
• How to Crea­te Your Own Pri­va­te Com­mu­ni­ty with WordPress
• Best Online Com­mu­ni­ty Plat­forms (Pros and Cons)

If you lik­ed this artic­le, then plea­se sub­scri­be to our You­Tube Chan­nel for Word­Press video tuto­ri­als. You can also find us on Twit­ter and Face­book.

The post I Tried 5 Best Word­Press Com­mu­ni­ty Plug­ins (So You Don’t Have To) first appeared on WPBeg­in­ner.