BuddyPress vs wpForo
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 | wpForo v3.2.2 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.7/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 90,000+ | 20,000+ |
| Last updated | October 23, 2026 | September 28, 2026 |
| Editions | BuddyPress | wpForo · wpForo AI Features ($) |
| Pros | Free and open source with a large add-on ecosystem; Member profiles, groups, activity and messages in one plugin; Blocks and admin tools for building community pages | Boards, topics, replies, profiles and user groups in one plugin; Shortcodes and blocks for forum and login pages; Works with BuddyPress and Yoast SEO |
| Cons | Many features to configure before a site feels finished; Heavy database footprint with many custom tables; Needs theme and add-on work for a polished front end | AI features need a paid subscription and send content to an external AI service; Add-ons are sold separately; Admin screens cover many settings, so setup takes time |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Member profiles with extended profile fields, Activity streams, Groups with membership management, Private messages between members, Friendships between members, On-site notifications, Member sign-up and activation, Akismet spam checks on activity posts | Boards, forums and topics managed from wp-admin, Member profiles and member list, User groups and per-forum access rules, Forum and password-reset shortcodes, Gutenberg blocks for recent topics and online members, Google reCAPTCHA check on forum posts, AI smart search, moderation, summaries and translation ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Plugins | bbPress | BuddyPress, Yoast SEO, Advanced Custom Fields |
| Other | Akismet | Google reCAPTCHA, gVectors AI API ($), gVectors store and licence API ($), Google and Bing sitemap ping |
| Requires WordPress | 6.1 | 5.2 |
| Requires PHP | 5.6 | 7.1 |
| Tested up to | 7.0 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | — | www.google.com, www.bing.com, api.gvectors.com, store.gvectors.com |
| Blocks | 15 | 7 |
| Shortcodes | — | 4 |
| Custom tables | 19 | — |