BuddyPress vs CM Answers
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | BuddyPress v14.5.4 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.1/5 Visit Details | CM Answers v3.4.3 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 3.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 90,000+ | 300+ |
| Last updated | October 23, 2026 | October 13, 2026 |
| Editions | BuddyPress | CM Answers · CM Answers Pro ($) |
| Pros | Free and open source with a large add-on ecosystem; Member profiles, groups, activity and messages in one plugin; Blocks and admin tools for building community pages | Question and answer threads with voting on answers; Shortcodes to embed the Q&A index and answers; BuddyPress integration for community sites |
| Cons | Many features to configure before a site feels finished; Heavy database footprint with many custom tables; Needs theme and add-on work for a polished front end | Categories, difficulty levels and logs need the paid Pro edition; Free version shows upgrade prompts in several admin screens; Registration screen and uninstall survey contact the vendor |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Member profiles with extended profile fields, Activity streams, Groups with membership management, Private messages between members, Friendships between members, On-site notifications, Member sign-up and activation, Akismet spam checks on activity posts | Question and answer threads with answers, Voting on answers, Shortcodes to embed the Q&A index and answers, Question categories (Pro, upgrade screen in free) ($), Difficulty levels (Pro, upgrade screen in free) ($), Reassign content between users (Pro, upgrade screen in free) ($), Logs screen (Pro, upgrade screen in free) ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Plugins | bbPress | BuddyPress |
| Other | Akismet | CreativeMinds registration API |
| Requires WordPress | 6.1 | 5.4.0 |
| Requires PHP | 5.6 | 5.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | — | www.cminds.com, www.paypal.com, fonts.googleapis.com |
| Blocks | 15 | — |
| Shortcodes | — | 5 |
| Custom tables | 19 | — |