Top 5 WordPress Forum plugins 2020 as the Best Solution for Your Website
- What is a WordPress forum, and why do you need it
- How can the forum be useful
- Best WordPress forum plugins
If you have a website or blog, then at a certain point you find a group of regular readers or commentators. The question arises, how do you develop it further? What can you do to make it more convenient for the readers to chat? The first idea that comes to mind is to create and install a forum.
What is a WordPress forum, and why do you need it
Today the forum is a very popular solution for communication and interaction with your audience and between commentators. In simple words, WordPress Forum is a website where you can create new topics or posts and get answers to them. Forums are some of the most attractive types of platforms that can be created. They are an ideal environment where you can discuss all kinds of topics. For example, you might find cooking and recipes, hobbies, medicine, tips for novice programmers, and much more. Also on forums people can discuss topics that bother them and share their worries and problems. That's what forums are all about. Discuss some topic and find a solution for it.
In most cases, forums are similar to social networks. WordPress Forums allow you to share images, find friends, and share and discuss information.
Creating a forum is most suitable for a web site with a social orientation because social topics are always discussed and your audience will surely want to have a discussion about any topic.
Another question about WordPress Forum may be how you can create a forum in WordPress. Now you can see a list of some of the best forum plugins for WordPress.
How can the forum be useful
Online forums are an effective tool for community building. Your site visitors can participate in the forum by posting questions, sharing solutions, new ideas, and many other interesting things. Your forum may be a question and answer platform, a forum for discussion, a place to share knowledge, or a support area for solving many kinds of the problems.
There are several advantages to adding a forum to your site.
First of all, a forum can help users leave their mark on your site. When they attend and interact, they are more likely to come back, buy some of your products, and recommend your site to their friends and acquaintances.
Secondly, it is one of the most common and efficient ways to provide customer support. If your customers have questions, they can go to the forum and check if a similar problem has already been published. If it is a new problem, they can ask their question and you have the opportunity to respond.
Last, it is good for SEO when a unique problem is discussed and the topic becomes popular. In many cases, forum topics are ahead of other types of content in search results. Sometimes the custom content makes more sense than formal posts on the blog.
Best WordPress forum plugins
bbPress
This is a great plugin that allows you to add forum functionality to your WP site and easily integrate with almost any theme. Moreover, it is fast and very easy. It's easy to work with and manage. It's also completely free. Well, at least for its basic functionality. If you need it, you can always extend it with paid add-ons. Over 200 bbPress extensions are available for almost any tasks.
Among such additions are bbPress Ultimate, bbPress shortcodes for Visual Composer, and bbPress Access - Limit Forum Access. This is free open source software, so you can use it without limitations for free.
BuddyPress
If you want more features than provided with the basic bbPress and you want it to be free, try BuddyPress. BuddyPress is one of the best WordPress forum plugins. It is created by the Automattic team, so you don't have to worry about compatibility. It also has all the features that bbPress can only provide with paid extensions. BuddyPress is able to create not only a forum in the typical meaning, but also a full-fledged social network, with user profiles, activity streams, messages and network options, supporting self-service registration, group creation, private conversations, and much more. Like Facebook, it allows your users to add friends, send personal messages, create groups, and receive notifications.
You can use BuddyPress and bbPress together and create a multi-functional online forum.
Simple:Press
This is a multifunctional plugin for managing a forum or bulletin board that integrates fully with WordPress, using its database and user accounts. The plugin easily handles a large number of users, and a flexible privilege system allows you to organize both public and private discussions with the possibility of anonymous participation. This is truly the best forum plugin for WordPress.
It is an easy solution to add a forum to your WordPress site. It comes in both free and premium versions, so you can choose an option to suit your needs.
Using Simple:Press, you can easily create an unlimited number of forums and subforums. You can also lockdown and secure any forum. It has a powerful permission system so you can manage users. Your users can create advanced time zone profiles and much more.
wpForo Forum
This is a free forum plugin for WordPress that offers many design and customization options. It has three design layouts for your forum: advanced, simplified, and question/answer. Each layout has its own unique design and features. There are also six sets of forum color styles, including dark style.
Using this plugin, you can easily create useful and original forums where your users can participate, receive support, and contribute. Users may post different questions, give answers, vote, subscribe to themes, receive notifications, share topics on social networks, etc.
CM Answers
This plugin helps you create a forum in WordPress in the best way. This plugin allows you to create a powerful forum like questions/answers in WordPress. The main free plugin comes with enough features to set up a forum quickly. It allows users to post questions, answer questions, vote, upload files, subscribe to categories, send personal messages, and so forth. As an administrator, you can customize questions, answers, filter out unwanted content, and manage users. If you need additional features, such as anonymous publishing and payment, you can buy add-ons to the plugin.
The plugin allows you to filter and sort discussions by various criteria: most discussed, most viewed or with the highest user rating. In addition to the free-version, there is the Pro version with advanced features: authorization with social network accounts, advanced privilege management, shortcodes, attaching multiple files to a single message, a text editor in front-end for formatted message input, integration with BuddyPress, advanced statistics, and more.
Plugins are not all you need to create a cool forum, or a website with a forum. For this you need to find an amazing, fresh, and unique template. TemplateMonster will help you with this. On this website you will find a lot of awesome themes with great functionality.
I also recommend you use TemplateMonster to search for plugins. Here you can find many interesting and necessary plugins that will help you upgrade and improve your site.
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Hi there! I'm a freelance copywriter with a passion for languages. Loving to write useful posts, to be creative in any task, and to develop myself.
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