bbPress vs Vanilla Forums
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | bbPress v2.6.20 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 3.9/5 Visit Details | Vanilla Forums v1.3.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 2.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 100,000+ | 100+ |
| Last updated | October 15, 2026 | July 3, 2020 |
| Editions | bbPress | Vanilla Forums |
| Pros | Free and open source, from the WordPress contributors; Uses WordPress users and roles, and works with BuddyPress | Embeds the forum or replaces blog comments with forum threads; Forum widgets for discussions, activity and active users; Single sign-on through jsConnect |
| Cons | Lean feature set compared with dedicated community suites; Forum styling depends on the theme | Needs a Vanilla forum, hosted or self-hosted, to connect to; Last tested with WordPress 5.3 per the readme; Replaces native comments once a forum URL is set |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Forum, topic, reply and stats widgets, Login widget, Akismet spam checking for posts, BuddyPress activity integration, Theme compatibility layer | Embed the Vanilla forum inside a WordPress page, Replace native blog comments with Vanilla threads, Discussion, activity and active-user widgets, Single sign-on with jsConnect, Choose forum category for embedded content and widgets |
| Integrations | ||
| Plugins | Akismet, BuddyPress | — |
| Other | — | Vanilla Forums |
| Requires WordPress | 6.0 | 3 |
| Requires PHP | 7.2 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 5.3 |
| Phones home | No | No |