Discussion Board vs Vanilla Forums
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Discussion Board v2.6.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.6/5 Visit Details | Vanilla Forums v1.3.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 2.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 1,000+ | 100+ |
| Last updated | October 23, 2026 | July 3, 2020 |
| Editions | Discussion Board · Discussion Board Pro ($) | Vanilla Forums |
| Pros | One-click setup creates the forum pages on activation; Front-end registration with email verification; Topic and reply notifications by email, with opt-out; Shortcodes place the forum on any page | Embeds the forum or replaces blog comments with forum threads; Forum widgets for discussions, activity and active users; Single sign-on through jsConnect |
| Cons | Registration approval and reCAPTCHA are Pro only; Free licence key is requested from the vendor site by email | Needs a Vanilla forum, hosted or self-hosted, to connect to; Last tested with WordPress 5.3 per the readme; Replaces native comments once a forum URL is set |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Front-end new topic form, Front-end registration and login forms, Creates login, new topic and topic list pages, Pending user role for new registrations, Email notifications on new topics and replies, Notification opt-out for topic authors, Discussion topics custom post type | Embed the Vanilla forum inside a WordPress page, Replace native blog comments with Vanilla threads, Discussion, activity and active-user widgets, Single sign-on with jsConnect, Choose forum category for embedded content and widgets |
| Integrations | ||
| Brevo mailing list (via wpdiscussionboard.com) | — | |
| Other | Google reCAPTCHA ($) | Vanilla Forums |
| Requires WordPress | 5.6 | 3 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 5.3 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | www.google.com, wpdiscussionboard.com | — |
| Shortcodes | 10 | — |