Membership & community plugin with user profiles, registration & login, member directories, content re...
Free
200k+ installs 4.4★ (1,444)
Discussion Board
Discussion Board is a simple, effective way to add a forum or discussion board to your site, helping you build and engage an active community.
The facts
- Rating
- 4.6★ from 43
- Active installs
- 2k+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 21 Aug 2026
- Added
- Jan 2016
- Requires WP
- 5.6
- Tested up to
- WP 7.1
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 170,390
Our analysis
AI-assistedDiscussion Board is a WordPress plugin designed to add a forum to your website. It features one-click installation and allows users to register, log in, and post new topics through a front-end interface. Each forum topic is displayed on its own page, enabling other users to reply easily.
The plugin also offers user management capabilities, allowing you to control who can view and post in the forum based on user roles. It includes options for user registration and spam reduction, making it suitable for those looking to create a community space on their WordPress site.
Best for: This plugin is suitable for anyone wanting to create a forum on their WordPress site.
What it does well
- ✓One-click installation for quick setup
- ✓Front-end registration and log-in system
- ✓User role management for viewing and posting
- ✓Spam reduction features
- ✓Free to use from the WordPress.org directory
Where it falls short
- •Limited feature set compared to Pro version
- •No information on additional features or support
Verdict
Discussion Board provides a straightforward way to add forum functionality to your site, though it may lack some advanced features found in premium options.
From the developer
Marketing Fire's own description of Discussion Board, lightly tidied.
Discussion Board is an easy way to add a forum to your WordPress site. It has a one-click installation and stacks of essential features that make it the leading WordPress forum plugin. In brief:
- Users can register and log in via a front-end form
- Users post new forum topics via a simple form
- Each forum topic is displayed on its own page where other users can reply
WordPress forum plugin demo
Test out a live demo version of our forum plugin here. Note that this demo includes some features only available with the Pro version. Feel free to register and post some sample content.
One-click installation
Discussion Board has a unique, one-click set-up. When you activate the plugin, it will automatically create the three pages you need to get your WordPress forum up and running:
- A log-in page
- A page with a form for users to post new topics
- A page to view existing topics.
Your WordPress forum is up and running straightaway with no need to do any further configuration if you don’t want to.
User management
A key feature of Discussion Board is the ability to control separately who can view your WordPress forum and who can actually post to it. You can specify the required role for users to post new topics and, separately, you can specify the required role for users to view topics. So, for instance, you could allow anyone to view the content but only permit specific user roles to post content.
Registration
You can specify which role new users will be assigned when they register. You can also require users to activate their registration by verifying their email address – this drastically reduces spam registrations.
In the Pro version, you also have the option to approve new registrations yourself if you want.
Front end log-in
Discussion Board has a complete front-end registration and log-in system. You can choose whether to use the standard WordPress system or keep everything on the front-end.
Spam reduction
Tagged as
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