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Best Free WordPress Plugins for Online Communities And Forums

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Community & Forum

All 15 Free only Premium only 8

Choosing a WordPress plugin for online communities and forums comes down to a few things: whether it is still actively maintained, whether real users rate it well, and whether it does the specific job you need without dragging the rest of the site down.

We ranked 15 plugins using our WPScore, which weighs the user rating (adjusted for how many people actually rated it), how many sites run it, how recently it was updated, and which WordPress version it is tested against. 15 of them have enough public data to be scored; the rest are listed below the ranked block, clearly marked, rather than being given a number we cannot justify.

How this list is funded. Some links here earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not move anything up the list — the order comes from the WPScore, which is calculated from public ratings, install counts and update history. See the method.

At a glance

  1. 1. Ultimate Member Best overall 88/100
  2. 2. Better Messages 88/100
  3. 3. wpForo Forum 87/100
  4. 4. FluentCommunity 85/100
  5. 5. bbp style pack 85/100
  6. 6. BP Profile Search 85/100
  7. 7. BuddyPress 84/100
  8. 8. Social Media Auto Poster 83/100
  9. 9. WPML Multilingual for BuddyPress and BuddyBoss 83/100
  10. 10. ProfileGrid 83/100
  11. 11. Asgaros Forum 82/100
  12. 12. Restrict User Access 82/100
  13. 13. Youzify 82/100
  14. 14. GEO my WP 82/100
  15. 15. Inline Image Upload for BBPress 82/100
1 Ultimate Member
Best overall Free by Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Membership & community plugin with user profiles, registration & login, member directories, content restriction, user roles and much more.

4.4★
from 1,444 ratings
200k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
88

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
2 Better Messages
Free by wordplus

Better Messages

Real-time messaging and chat rooms for WordPress ecosystem: private conversations, public and private chat rooms, video & audio calls, and more.

4.8★
from 141 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
88

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
3 wpForo Forum
Free by Tomdever

wpForo Forum

Number one WordPress forum plugin with AI features. Full-fledged forum solution with modern forum design. Community builder WordPress forum plugin.

4.7★
from 390 ratings
20k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
87

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
4 FluentCommunity
Free by WPManageNinja

FluentCommunity

Get a fast & all-in-one community plugin. Create unlimited communities, and courses with robust social networking and LMS features.

4.9★
from 89 ratings
8k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
85

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
8 Social Media Auto Poster
Free by WP Zinc

Social Media Auto Poster

Automatically post and schedule your WordPress content to Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, and more social networks using Buffer.

4.5★
from 124 ratings
7k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
83

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
10 ProfileGrid
Free by Metagauss

ProfileGrid

Custom user profiles plugin ❤ with paid memberships, groups, communities, content restriction, user registration, messaging, WooCommerce memberships, …

4.6★
from 236 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
83

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
11 Asgaros Forum
Free by Asgaros

Asgaros Forum

Asgaros Forum is the best forum-plugin for WordPress! It comes with dozens of features in a beautiful design and stays simple and fast.

4.8★
from 208 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Mar 2026
Tested to
WP 6.9.7
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
12 Restrict User Access
Free by Joachim Jensen

Restrict User Access

Create Access Levels and restrict any post, page, category, etc. Supports bbPress, BuddyPress, WooCommerce, WPML, and more.

4.3★
from 94 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
13 Youzify
Free by Youzify

Youzify

The best BuddyPress plugin for building online communities, user profile, social networks, and membership sites on WordPress with tons of features.

4.9★
from 193 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Mar 2026
Tested to
WP 6.9.7
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
14 GEO my WP
Free by Eyal Fitoussi

GEO my WP

Advanced geolocation, mapping, and proximity search plugin. Geotag post types and BuddyPress members, and create advanced proximity search forms.

4.6★
from 138 ratings
3k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org