What if you want a forum on your blog? Well there are plenty of open source forum systems available. But what about integrating your blog cms with your new forum? There are some effective WordPress plugins to help you accomplish this. But choosing the right one is critical. There are many plugins to help you accomplish this, but I found 5 that actually do what they say they do!
1. bbPress – Far & Away The BEST Option
http://bbpress.org/
Pound for pound bbPress is your best option for integrating a full fledged forum into your blog. bbPress has a very simple interface which makes it very popular amongst it’s users. The templates are easy to customize. In fact they are just as easy to customize as WordPress templates. And the plugin actually integrates the forum database with your WordPress database, that way the integration is seamless.
2. Forum Server
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/forum-server/
Forum Server is a plugin for WordPress that is a more advanced and up-to-date plugin of the original WP-Forum plugin. It will integrate with your WordPress Users database table so that users who are registered with your blog will also be registered with the forum. The plugin is a little bit more complex to use than bbPress, but you will find a few different characteristics of this forum that you might like and choose over bbPress.
3. Simple: Press Forum
http://simplepressforum.com/
If you like lots of icons in your forums than you will enjoy this plugin. Again this one is not as easy to use as bbPress. But for those who are accustomed to more traditional looking and functioning forums than this will be a great choice for you. This plugin can too integrate with WordPress user registrations and logins. This forum appears to have the most overall features than any of the other WordPress forum plugins. If it is a more advanced forum you are after, then go with Press Forum.
4. phpBB Recent Topics
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/phpbb-recent-topics/
There may be a situation where it’s best to install your forum with an open source application, separate from the blog entirely. phpBB is by far the most popular and notable of the open source forum apps. This plugin for WordPress called phpBB Recent Topics will allow you to include in your blog (anywhere of your choice) a list of the most recent threads or topics from your phpBB forum! This is the quickest and least painful way of integrating a forum with your blog.
5. Wp2BB
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp2bb/
Wp2BB provides another way for you to integrate your phpBB forum with your WordPress blog. What this plugin does is that it automatically creates new topics in your phpBB forum for every new post that you write in your WordPress blog. It can also coexist with the WordPress comments system or replace it completely. In a nutshell this plugin would increase the conversation in your forum rather than where normally takes place in your blog posts comment threads.
Tip: Use BBPress and the Coda Theme
BBpress has the ability to integrate well with any WordPress theme both pre-built and custom. One theme that BBpress integrates really well with is the Coda theme from WooThemes. This is a premium theme that costs about $70. After you download and install you are literally looking sharp in seconds. Here is a screenshot of what the theme looks like…
The Coda theme contains a wide (960px) width that allows the perfect amount of space for having a BBpress forum. This theme comes with 10 different styles to help you quickly customize the look and feel/color scheme to match your needs. You can click here for more details on this theme.
Rhys
September 19, 2009
Big BIG fan of bbPress. I love it, it’s so simple, and like you’ve said – it’s easy to integrate with WordPress blogs. I wonder why it hasn’t been picked up more? phpBB is a ballache to edit & vBulletin is expensive!
Mark
October 28, 2009
Tried bbPress on one of our sites after seeing it here and I must say I really like it very much. Very simple and effective.
admin
October 29, 2009
That’s really good to hear. It’s such a good feeling to setup a new open source app and that thing to work perfectly! Gotta love it!
Johan L
December 4, 2009
Just a note on Forum Server. It has quite a few security holes if you use user groups and protected forum categories. See my post att wordpress.org – http://wordpress.org/support/topic/338055?replies=1
Apart from that it’s easy to use, looks good and integrates well with WP.
/johan
Honey
January 6, 2010
Nice, compilation, i’ve tried bbpress but doesn’t work for me.
Bill Joyce
January 26, 2010
I’ve been trying to figure out how to use WP as a forum. Blog Posts, comments, Hmmm.
I want something that looks and feels more blog like (and less belletin board like) that has the interaction of a ommunity.
I’m off to try BB Press and see how that goes. Your list was helpful.
Thanks
HKBP
February 7, 2010
wow, i like this article …
very interesting to build my community in wordpress!
Thanks so much!
Encyclopedia
February 28, 2010
Thank you. i like w2bb forum.
thanks.
Huw
March 4, 2010
Some very good info here – handy to find too since I am in the process of choosing a forum for the New Beats site.
H
Neil
April 1, 2010
Im using SimplePress but its too slow!! BBpress is too basic.
Does phpBB user database link in with WP like SimplePress does?
Shanae
April 1, 2010
I’ve tried all of these and did not like any of them. Do you know of any other “WordPress” plug ins? Not the stand alone like bbpress. Thanks!
Neil
April 2, 2010
Stand alones are probably the way to go as they have more features. Ive looked into it and you can use phpBB with a plugin called WP-United, this links the user db etc.
Im gonna give it a shot if I cant get SPF to run faster
Rachel
April 17, 2010
I’ve used SimplePress in the past. Its a little more complicated to use and all updates must be done through the FTP and not right in WordPress.
I’m excited to try bbpress based on this article and its reviews. Looking forward to sharing my results!
Neil
April 18, 2010
I have been working with the Simple Press Creators a lot over the past few weeks and we have found that in some cases (mine) their is a problem with the SPF Default and Uploaded Avatars.
If you have SPF forum and are experiencing slow down then switch Avatar display off or put the two mentioned above lower in the list.
SPF is the superior forum script for WordPress, its a complete package! BBPress is too basic. Also the support for SPF is awesome. Who cares if you need to FTP the newest version…it aint hard, what did everybody do before WP had an auto install?
Huw
April 18, 2010
Neil,
Interesting what you say about the avatar speed issues. Do you have any more information as to what the problem is (or might be) at all ?
Any work rounds or ways to see if this is the issue for a specific site ?
BTW: Totally agree on the FTP issue
H
Neil
April 18, 2010
Hi Huw,
Yes Im going to right a post about it on effutio.com but my experience with SPF is mainly with my other site honeybeekeeping.co.uk
To test if your site is slow because of the avatars then simply turn them off and test topic load speed. It only really affects a minority of users. My topic loads (with 10+ posts) were around 35 secs. When I turned avatars off they loaded in 5 secs. So you will know if this is affecting you.
I have just found a code hack that now allows me to display the avatars and it still loads relatively quick around 5-8 secs. But I shall hold this back for my blog post on effutio
Huw
April 18, 2010
Neil,
honeybeekeeping.co.uk ! Cool as my profile saysin many places “wana be bee keeper”
Do you keep bees or is this just an info blog if I may ask ?
As for the speed test 16 seconds for a 17 post topic BUT that is with FF Web Dev plugin DISABLING all local cache for the site.
With the cache ENABLED the same 17 post topic loads in a mere 7 seconds (hostgator shred hosting and I am only on a 1 meg connection) so I guess this is not the reason I see the occasional slowdown.
Sure be interesting to read your post though – when do you think it will be ready ?
H
Neil
April 19, 2010
Hi Huw,
I keep bees too but in no way an expert but wanted a place that was easy to navigate and share good info so created the site.
Wow 17 secs sounds a little excessive, it shouldnt have too much to do with Web Dev in FF as I tested my site and it hardly made any difference.
Can you visit here: http://www.honeybeekeeping.co.uk/cms/forum/general-beekeeping/queen-rearing/ and see how long it takes, also you could find a quicker connection and test your forum on that. They say people only wait 3 secs for a webpage to load, personally I think its more like 5-10secs but then after that you get a little frustrated!!
Ive just finished the post on effutio.com go check it out.
Zingiri
April 25, 2010
Try Zingiri Forum at http://www.zingiri.com/products/forum. Latest version provides full integration with WP user administration.
Dave
May 11, 2010
WP Forum Server looks like a interesting plugin that I need to try out.
Vinnie
May 18, 2010
And a recent addition to the WP forum plugin offerings is Tal.ki
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/talki-embeddable-forums/
The great thing about it is that it works with both wordpress signons (SSO) and social networking sites like facebook & twitter.
Dave M.
May 21, 2010
Very helpful list, Chase, thanks.
Don’t know if you’re aware of this, or maybe gave him permission, but another blogger appears to have copied this post word for word:
http://crenk.com/top-5-wordpress-forum-plugins/
Nasif
June 16, 2010
BBpress is the best
khmervids
June 18, 2010
I agreed, BBpress is the best!
jenna
June 27, 2010
i tried wp united with phpbb it is very good even under load. And phpbb has a lot more features and mods
Naoshad Nayeem
July 7, 2010
Looking into simplepress. Till now looks great to me. will try bbpress as well if I can manage time. Didnt try wp united yet but have plan to do it.
thanks to author for this informative post!
samsung ln46c650
July 10, 2010
i tried wp united with phpbb it is very good even under load.
kopele7
July 23, 2010
Hello guys. I’m building my first web site and I want to include some youtube videos. I searched Google and I found some services but none of them is friendly enough for a beginner like me… I can’t understand anything since I don’t have any experience with html/php coding… so if any of you knows a good site with tutorials for newbies please share! Thanks.
Nick
August 12, 2010
I can’t believe how much of an absolute ballache it is to incorporate ANY forum within my current wordpress theme. Even willing to pay someone to do it for me now. What a joke.
ThePath
August 12, 2010
Hi Nick,
It really shouldnt be that difficult. What forum do you want and what is your theme? Also what issues are you having?
Gravity
August 15, 2010
I recently wrote an article on integrating forums with WordPress, and review some of the choices, related to my own experiences, including phpbb, simplepress and bbpress and others.
I think bbpress is a lovely forum, but it’s dying. It’s release schedule is terrible, many addon developers have abandoned it. I wouldn’t want to entwine myself into that forum.
http://pwnwear.com/forum/forum-integration-with-wordpress-t554.html
Bryan M
August 19, 2010
I’m experimenting with bbpress right now, and like others enjoy it’s simplicity. However I have been very surprised by the lack of features/plugins/ themes. There’s no WYSIWYG editor, no signatures, the registration process is strange, there are no great free themes.. I don’t know if I will stick with it or not. I’ve added several plugins but most are written for versions of bbpress before 1.0.2.
arrran
August 20, 2010
looks like development of bbpress stoped or at least it’s very slow, last update was only in 09. I decided to stick with Simple-Press, enough features, many options also design is improved in last version.
cartpauj
August 20, 2010
You can replace Forum Server with the new and MUCH improved Mingle Forum http://cartpauj.com/projects/mingle-forum-plugin/ OR http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mingle-forum/
Thanks!
Robin
September 26, 2010
I’d like to try bbpress, but cannot get it to install. I got the error “missing header file” when I tried to activate the current download (1.02) and couldn’t even install version 0.9. Seems pretty flaky, considering that I’ve installed so many other plugins with no problems at all.
siddu
October 11, 2010
Nice, compilation,i like this article..Some very good info here and I agreed,BBpress is the best!
Steven Milanese
October 15, 2010
I recently released the WordPress Twitter Forums Plugin as an alternative to a full scale forums solution. The Retweet.@ forums re-format tweets into a threaded conversation allowing for unlimited nesting.
The WordPress Twitter Forums Plugin places a unique floating Twitter Forums button on the right edge of your WordPress Blog that expands with a animated slide-in effect to reveal a Retweet.@ Twitter powered forum.
Retweet.@ is a free service developed and provided by SumtnSumtn UG (haftungsbeschrŠnkt). This plugin takes advantage of this powerful social media resource and incorporates it into your WordPress website in a unique way that allows you to create an ongoing conversation with users, engaging them interactively with your website’s content.
It’s available in the repository @ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-twitter-forums-plugin/
D Gibbons
October 20, 2010
Thanks, great list – will try BB press
Drew Spencer
October 27, 2010
Thanks for this, and mainly for the very clear instruction at the top that bbpress is the way to go! So many of these types of posts try to be neutral and thus end up not being any help at all.
I’ve just uninstalled simple:press from my business website at http://utilitiessavings.co.uk because it’s just so complex and clunky!
I do have one question for the blog owner/anyone else who cares to help: How do you get a forum going? My business is a commercial energy broker, so is aimed at busines owners. Just wondering if people can point me to any resources or tips for getting those first few users?
Great site btw, I have bookmarked you
slc
October 28, 2010
What about private posts. Can ANY wordpress plugin forums do that (besides wp forum, which I can’t get to work)? This is the only feature I really need. I really wish wp forum wasn’t so buggy.
john
October 28, 2010
slc, Mingle Forum is a nice solution. It does have private groups as well. It is a cleaned up and working redo of WP Forum.
choppedcode
December 10, 2010
Do try ccForum, available here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zingiri-forum/. It integrates MyBB pretty seamlessly with WordPress.
MarcL
December 12, 2010
I have to agree with gravity. bbPress is nice, but you can see the lack of support for the product when you compare the installation of plugins and themes with the way Word Press works. Also, a lot of the plugins are not up to date. This is unfortunate because the installation is easy and the integration with Word Press is pretty simple. Unfortunately there are a couple of features that I need that only come via plugins, so this product may not work for me.
I’m also trying phpbb but the set up is a lot more complicated and the integration options are not simple.
Has anyone looked at the WP Forum Server plugin in detail? That is where I’m headed next, but I have not found much of a discussion about it on the web, and don’t know where it has weaknesses. (gravity – did this even make your short list of options?)
John
December 13, 2010
Marc, Forum Server is garbage — I would look into Mingle Forum instead. Both plugins are off-shoots of the old WP Forum plugin but Mingle Forum has come MUCH farther and offers a descent, simple set of features. The author is cartpauj http://cartpauj.com/forum/
MarcL
December 14, 2010
John,
I appreciate the input. Can you be more technical that “garbage”. I am going to play with Forum Server and Mingle, and I suspect that I will end up with Mingle, but I won’t know until I see if either of them meets my needs. bbPress looked really promising until I started to poke around the plug-ins, and I saw the lack of support for the program.
Thanks,
Marc
John
December 14, 2010
Marc, it’s easy to see the difference just by viewing the update histories, feature sets, and changelogs. Not to mention cartpauj offers really fast support and is constantly adding new features (and has the backing from the fast-growing Mingle community).
Forum Server is on it’s 3rd set of hands now as far as I can tell and not much has been improved on it. They made a small push recently but if you peek in their code it’s easy to see that they are planning to move the forum to a Pro (paid for) version next without offering much more, and certainly not more than Mingle Forum already offers. So Mingle Forum is, yes simple and lacks some of the features the phpBB, SMF or even SimplePress, but for it’s seamless WP integration and price I don’t think it can be beat.
BizBoost
December 23, 2010
Do any of the aforementioned WordPress-based forum solutions include ad space management? If not, is there still a solution such as a WordPress-based ad management plugin from which I can place tokens *anywhere* I wish in the forum code?
Thanks,
Eric
The Path
December 23, 2010
@Eric
Yes Simple Press uses easy to use Forum Hooks. You can place your adsense or affiliate code in there and blammo its on the site. There are various positions available too. See the Simple Press Wiki for details
John
December 23, 2010
I’ve seen adsense areas on the todo list for Mingle Forum as well.
Latest Jobs in Nigeria- Jetheights
January 12, 2011
Thanks boss for this beautifully pieced article, At the moment I use Forum Server, it’s okay but am not entirely pleased. I think Press Forum looks a lil better organised for what I need.
Thanks for sharing.
John
January 12, 2011
Forum Server is garbage and should be removed from this list. Plus I was looking at their code the other day and there’s a lot of new “Pro” references for the next big release. Which basically means they’re going to charge (take advantage of really) people for a piece of garbage soon.
Scott
January 13, 2011
All I will say is look at the massive number of posts at bbpress.org from people having installation problems and look at how few of them are answered or resolved.
Religion Gone Crazy
January 15, 2011
BBpress was the easiest forum to install, configure, and theme out. I mean like super easy. Don’t really understand why people are having problems installing it. I had it up and running in less than 5 minutes with another 30 to get the default theme to match the original custom site theme. Other than that, we have just started using it so I can’t reply on how good it is during actual use. So far so good though. If you need help with setting this up lets us know!
John
January 15, 2011
@Eric,
I looked at cartpauj.com this morning and he already has implemented adsense areas into Mingle Forum.
@Religion Gone Crazy,
— which is why I toot the MF horn a lot. It works and it’s easy, plus cartpauj is always adding new features.
It’s not that BBPress is hard to setup for the people who know what they’re doing — but trust me there’s a lot of blind leading the blind in the WP community
Guillaume
February 10, 2011
Forum Server is for me the best one !
Thanks.
Larry
February 10, 2011
Forum Server is garbage…
TS-21
February 22, 2011
Very helpful list, Chase, thanks
Gensets for home use
March 2, 2011
i try the 5 plugin but i switch it to mingle forum.
juan
March 8, 2011
I installed BBpress puging But it shows an eror!
Daniel
March 31, 2011
I think we are going to go with simple:press forum. Skins best on our site and seems to have decent options.
Thanks for the info!
Isabelle
April 12, 2011
BBPress sucks…. shouldn’t have installed it X|
sajan kota
April 15, 2011
BBPress is the best, it is very simple to install, very very user friendly. nice post by the way.
Rais
April 20, 2011
It’s been two years since this was first published. If you had to rewrite the rankings, what would you pick and why?
Kasper
April 21, 2011
Rais,
1 – SimplePress:Forum – hard to configure but by far has the largest feature set.
2 – Mingle Forum – Super easy to configure and setup, constantly being updated and improved. I use Mingle Forum 90% of the time when setting up sites for my clients because it’s so easy for them to use and it has a descent feature set.
3 – BBPress – pain to integrate with WP currently though so I would avoid this one for now. Nice skin but just not there yet.
ImpossibleMe
April 29, 2011
Helping to get the brand new blog going and spend quite a few hours studying various WP forum solutions and reading feedbacks on different systems.
bbPress seems to take its place in the tops of most reviewers and it indeed seems like a good choice.
I’d probably agree with one comment above that it has the feeling of a board rather that of a blog, but in my case this is exactly what I am looking for (the plan is to have one or few blog publishers, yet provide communication platform for the rest of the readers).
Off to installing bbPress
For the feel of the blog-like community, I’d say BuddyPress is the best choice.
Andrew Kay
May 16, 2011
tried bbpress on my site t2fr.com but could never quite get it to work right for some reason
Honor
June 30, 2011
My biggest problem with BBPress is that it looks and acts nothing like a proper forum. This might be no big deal if none of the visitors to your site are familiar with ‘real’ web forums, but it can be a real participation killer when they are.
Mummy Ninja
July 6, 2011
I hope SMF can be easily integrated in WP with a plugin.
Alexis
August 5, 2011
hello
Our company has a great new anti-spam plugin called, SiteBrains. We are able to block external links that lead to irrelevant content, as well as a slew of other rules, and even customizeable regex’s. We are at http://www.sitebrains.com or you can search us under ‘SiteBrains’ on the wordpress directory of plug-in’s.
Katie @ women magazine
August 9, 2011
I tried Wp-Forum, SimplePress and bbpress all in the past but had issues with almost all of them. Finally i also settled with bbpress.
MJ
September 25, 2011
I am considering adding a forum in my blog, but keep the magazine look of it, with blog and forum etc. so in your opinion, which plugin is my best bet??
Shane Mac
November 24, 2011
Nobody has mentioned “Vanilla Forums”? I quickly placed this on a site last year, at the time I thought it was the leading plugin. Vanilla Forums claimed to be the winner of awards, etc. I will be installing a new forum soon on a new WP release, now I am shopping around again. Good Info…
Jon
December 25, 2011
I have tried both bbpress and phpbb, I do prefer phpbb. BBpress is ok as a plugin, but it is a little too basic. I would really like it, if phpbb could be used as a plugin..
Kailas
January 30, 2012
Wow. This is an unreal list of comments. Amazing amount of hours people have put into forum-ware.
Does anyone know which forum plugin provides solid moderation of user content?
Kailas