13 Best WordPress Forum Plugins 🥇 2022 (Free & Pro)

The bbPress Forum WordPress plugin stands out from the other discussion forums because it is easy to set up and use and familiar to anyone who uses WordPress.

It is developed by the same people whose expertise went into the development of WordPress.org.

bbPress is a simple and intuitive forum plugin that features an easy-to-use interface, so users can easily access the online community.

Everyone can install bbPress and begin using it almost immediately. In addition to a user-friendly dashboard, the application offers a range of customization options and allows the user to manage all content on the forum.

You have a choice between themes and extensions for customizing the forum’s appearance and making it your own.

There is, however, one notable disadvantage of the bbPress plugin. As a result of the plugin’s limited ability to perform its core functions, an additional extension is needed to enhance the plugin’s functionality.

💵 There is a Free plugin named bbPress.

BuddyPress is a platform that is ideal for bloggers and business owners who want to build communities around their content. This plugin enables you to integrate your website with your own social networking account.

BuddyPress can be used to build an online community, which includes functions such as profiles, stream of activities, user groups, messaging, and social networking capabilities.

Additionally, this discussion forum plugin is also quite simple when installed. Still, it can easily be expanded through extensions, making it suitable for creating various communities.

BuddyPress and bbPress work seamlessly together, allowing users to communicate freely and engage with one another as they navigate your website. These two plugins enable you to build a website with excellent forum capabilities.

💵 With many features and free support, this is an excellent plugin. Download it now for free.

The Asgaros Forum WordPress plugin lets customers take advantage of the basic benefits of a forum without getting bogged down in too many details. This plugin does its job well despite its limitations.

WordPress users can install the plugin easily, and the discussion forum is comprehensive. In addition to a shortcode that can be easily installed, there is a user profile page, groups, lists, reporting tools, moderators, announcements, search, pools, and more, as well as various customization features.

Several plugins are available that are usually associated with discussion boards. Such plugins include bbPress and BuddyPress, but there are alternative ways to implement these features and one of the best alternatives is Asgaros Forum.

In any case, it would serve a smaller community quite well, despite the fact that it was not designed to handle large and busy forums.

💵 Free download of this plugin is available.

Simple:Press is a highly functional plugin which offers a large number of functionalities while still being extremely simple to use and learn for a complete novice.

Several versions of this plugin are available, so you can select one that suits your requirements.

In spite of the limited functionality of the free versions, you are welcome to use them as a trial to observe how they function before investing in the full versions.

With Simple:Press, you can create and manage an unlimited number of online communities, groups, sub-forums, and private discussion areas, as well as manage users in various ways.

Additionally, an administrator’s panel is included, which includes options for tracking topics, moderating posts, and many other functions.

💵 Download the Lite version for free, the Pro version for a small fee like $29/M.

The wpForo Forum WordPress plugin allows you to add forums to your website, create subforums, manage them, and display all the options, features, and settings you want.

This plugin is straightforward and has all the features you will probably need from an online community. WordPress plugins such as this free social network plugin allow for a great deal of customized functionality.

A variety of views are available in the wpForo Forum, including a listing, a grouped view, a list of questions and answers, and a detailed view.

This plugin can differentiate each set of layouts by their own styles, features, and color schemes. It includes six different groups of themes, including dark themes.

Additionally, one of the significant downfalls of wpForo is that all extensions are premium.

💵 Free download is available for this plugin.

You can create a Q&A (questions and answers) forum directly on your WordPress website using the CM Answers plugin.

This social network plugin looks and functions much like a forum. However, it is geared toward questions rather than topics.

By using CM Answers plugin basic features, you can set up a Stack Exchange-style forum for your website in a couple of minutes. You can easily create multiple forums on any topic by simply installing the plugin.

The plugin allows users to ask questions, provide answers, share files, subscribe to categories, and send private messages. For those who wish to have additional features, there is an upgraded version of CM Answers.

In addition to managing users, customizing questions and answers, and deleting unwanted content, administrators can also manage content.

It is important to note that just like some of the online community plugins listed here, this plugin provides paid subscribers with the most useful features available.

💵 There are two versions available: a Pro version for $39 and a Free version.

WP Symposium Pro Forum WordPress plugin is designed to provide more of an experience similar to BuddyPress than bbPress or Asgaros Forum.

The plugin enables each of your users to manage their own profiles and wall posts, add friends, receive email alerts, and similarly participate in online communities to Facebook.

Because of the added shortcodes in WP Symposium Pro, this plugin has a high degree of versatility and can be used for any type of website. It is expandable and includes premium extensions.

In conjunction with other plugins or themes for WordPress, this plugin can be integrated into a WordPress site.

Using extensions, users can enhance the functionality of their web pages by adding private messages, groups, YouTube and image attachments, galleries, etc.

💵 Free Lite, cost of premium. The pro version costs $169.99.

The DW Question and Answers page provides a platform for discussions and debates among readers by posting questions and asking for answers. Furthermore, you should be aware that the DW Question and Answer forum is more of a Quora-style forum.

Due to how this plugin works, users are allowed to give their opinions on answers, unlike other forum plugins. Thus, the most popular solution shows up, and the lowest rated response will appear last.

In addition to being easy to install, the plugin comes with a very robust administration panel, offers many tools for monitoring topics, supports three styles, and can be customized to work with any WordPress theme.

DW Q&A possesses a sophisticated permission system with many types of permissions to choose from. Administrators can easily control which permissions each role is granted.

If you allow guest users to post questions or answer questions, you will also be able to accept answers to these questions

💵 It’s free for Version Lite. Version Premium is for a $39.

Installing and setting up the Discussion Board Forum WordPress plugin is simple, and your forum will operate within a few minutes.

Among its many advantages is its extensive use of shortcodes, which makes constructing and administering forums extremely convenient.

It is a matter of design that the Discussion Board uses minimalistic forms to make it compatible with any theme and to allow customization of colors.

Several features are available in the premium version, including user profiles, a WYSIWYG editor, upload functionality, and enhanced security.

Also, Discussion Board allows you to limit the amount of spam and abuse by controlling the number of postings, approvals, and declines a user may make.

Using this plugin, you can allow front-end registration and login systems to attract more users.

💵 The Lite version is free, and the Premium version costs $69.

Forym WordPress plugin for forums provides a simple yet powerful approach for users who are seeking a simple yet robust solution.

Users of this plugin will be able to manage their online reputation, use profanity filters, create a post template, and choose between a light or dark theme.

However, even though it does not create question-and-answer-based forums in the same manner as some other plugins, Forym does allow users to vote on answers, placing the most popular answers at the top.

There is nothing fancy about the front-end appearance of these forums, but in comparison with other plugins, it is appealing. Most users find the Forym forum’s front-end appearance superior to some other plugins listed here.

💵 After purchasing the Forym plugin for $19, you will always have free plugin updates for 12 months.

Users can post questions and answers on discussion boards created by Sabai Discuss, a WordPress plugin for discussion forums.

In addition to providing a decent user profile section, a mechanism for setting up user settings, moderating comments, and establishing users’ reputations, the plugin is well-designed and implemented.

For an easy-to-read arrangement of questions and answers, you may choose to use a plugin such as Sabai Discuss.

If you make use of this plugin, your site will experience increased user interaction and visitors will be more engaged.

According to the popularity of the questions and answers, the plugin automatically decides which questions and answers should appear on the front page.

💵 The price of this premium plugin is $24.

PeepSo allows you to create a social network that is unique to your WordPress site, and is somewhat different compared to the other plugins in this collection.

Using the Free plan, users can take advantage of a number of features, but the Premium plan offers even more capabilities. You can use the plugin whenever you like for as long as you like.

The PeepSo service will help you build a social network for your WordPress website that is easy to use, attractive, and modern.

Hiring programmers or designers to accomplish the task is no longer necessary using a simple yet powerful plugin.

In addition to creating profiles, customizing reactions, incorporating blog posts, receiving email notifications, getting real-time notifications and supporting RTL, PeepSo enables you to do so much more.

💵 There are two versions of the plugin available. The Premium version costs $129, whereas the Lite version is free.

It is possible to integrate AnsPress Forum WordPress plugin into an existing website to enable a question-and-answer system similar to Stack Overflow.

A website does not need to be created from scratch since AnsPress forum can be accessed via a simple page added to an existing site. If you wish to use this option for your support ticket system or your internal QA board, you should consider it.

Furthermore, the AnsPress social network plugin offers several useful features and the ability to work with any type of website and theme.

On the site, there are several features, such as tags, categories, labels, comments, featured questions, sorting options, voting for questions and answers, and a reputation system.

💵 Free support is available in the WP.org forums for this plugin.