Online communities have become a great way to engage with people around shared interests, causes, or brands. BuddyPress is a sister project of WordPress that lets you build online social networks on top of your WordPress website without writing any code.
BuddyPress is a great solution for integrating social features into your WordPress website. It allows extended user profiles, private messaging, and friend requests, as well as activity feeds that buzz with the latest discussions.
The best part is that there are several WordPress themes built specifically for BuddyPress websites. A theme can give you a head start in setting up your site so you can move forward to the next step of your business.
We tested different themes for aesthetics, functionality, and compatibility with BuddyPress. The goal is simple: To give you the best choices so you know where to start.
In this article, we will share some of the best BuddyPress themes for your WordPress website.
Building Your Online Community With BuddyPress and WordPress
WordPress is the top website builder on the market. It’s super flexible and allows you to create an online social community with BuddyPress.
There are two kinds of WordPress websites. WordPress.com is a hosting solution, and WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform. You should check out our guide on the difference between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org for detailed instructions.
To use the BuddyPress plugin, you will need a self-hosted WordPress.org website. It gives you access to all of WordPress’s features and functionality. Plus, it works with BuddyPress straight out of the box.
BuddyPress allows users to create extended member profiles on your site, use messaging features, add members as friends, and much more.
It’s the ideal option if you want people to be able to socialize on your site. You could also use it as part of an e-learning site with an LMS plugin like LearnDash.
Before you start, you will also need to buy a domain name and web hosting. A domain name is your site’s address on the web, like wpbeginner.com or google.com. Web hosting is the storage for all your website files.
We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an official WordPress-recommended hosting service.
For WPBeginner users, Bluehost offers a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and a BIG discount on web hosting.
After buying hosting, you can go ahead and install WordPress. Then, you should follow our step-by-step guide on how to make a website.
Next, you need to install and activate the BuddyPress plugin. For more details, check out our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
We also have a dedicated guide on how to turn your WordPress site into a social network.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress themes for BuddyPress that will make your website look great.
1. BuddyBoss
BuddyBoss is an online community platform that comes with a WordPress theme for creating websites like Facebook. Suitable for membership, community, and NGO sites, BuddyBoss is also fully compatible with BuddyPress. Overall, it makes a great BuddyPress WordPress theme.
It has ready-made features to build connections, send friend requests, and post on your activity feed. The theme also allows all users to make profiles by adding a cover photo, profile photo, experience, and more.
2. Divi
Divi is a popular WordPress theme that comes with a powerful built-in page builder. It’s a 1-stop package to set up an online BuddyPress community from scratch without editing any code.
The theme has a visual editor that gives you an upper hand in making changes to your website. Just click on any element and start customizing right away on the front end. It offers hundreds of page templates available with one click to set up your site quickly and easily.
Divi is also SEO-friendly, so your WordPress site will rank well in Google and other search engines.
3. Neve
Neve is an excellent WordPress theme with a mobile-first approach, making it one of the best choices for a BuddyPress website. It’s fast and lightweight, so the page load time is minimal.
With flexible theme options, it’s easy to set up even for absolute beginners with no knowledge of code. Neve also seamlessly integrates with many page builders, including Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, and Divi Builder.
4. OceanWP
OceanWP is a classic, free WordPress theme designed for any type of website. It includes free and paid demo sites with a 1-click importer. The theme also offers premium extensions for advanced features.
It’s super fast and easy to set up. OceanWP is well-suited for an online community website with BuddyPress integration and support for powerful WordPress page builders.
5. Ultra
Ultra is a stunning multipurpose WordPress theme. It comes with a few ready-made website templates for music, photography, restaurants, digital agencies, lifestyle, fashion, and other businesses.
It has a pack of addons that you can use to extend the functionality of your site. With a built-in Themify Builder, it’s easier to set up and customize an online community or online course website.
6. BuddyX
BuddyX is a free WordPress social networking theme that allows BuddyPress and bbPress to create community websites. You can also create membership sites, social learning sites, online gaming sites, and eCommerce marketplaces.
The theme is flexible and has powerful integrations with popular LMS plugins like LearnDash, LifterLMS, and more. It also lets you sell courses and create multivendor eCommerce marketplaces.
7. Magazine Pro
Magazine Pro is a fantastic WordPress magazine theme. It’s built on top of the Genesis Framework, which makes it a powerful and reliable option to run an online business community.
It has a spacious layout that makes your content highly readable. The theme also offers multiple ad spaces to display professional ads and make extra money online.
StudioPress is now part of WP Engine, the most popular managed WordPress hosting company. You can get this theme and all 35+ other StudioPress themes when you sign up for WP Engine hosting to build your website.
Bonus: WPBeginner users also get an additional 20% OFF. Get started with WP Engine today!
8. Noozbeat
Noozbeat is a modern WordPress magazine theme that is compatible with BuddyPress. It features a magazine layout focusing on keeping users engaged with your content. It has unlimited color choices, multiple category layouts, an attractive sidebar, and ready-to-use advertising spots.
Inside, you will also find custom widgets for social networking, Twitter, Instagram, content discovery, and more. It has a custom theme options panel allowing you to turn elements on or off, add your logo, change backgrounds, and more.
9. Astra
Astra is a modern WordPress theme built with a multipurpose approach and an easy setup. It comes with multiple templates for different organizations and businesses. Each template is unique in terms of design and features.
The best thing about the Astra theme is its compatibility with drag-and-drop page builders like Elementor Pro and Beaver Builder. The theme also supports third-party WordPress plugins straight out of the box, including BuddyPress, to let you create an online community easily.
10. Minimalistique
Minimalistique is a free WordPress theme for food, fashion, lifestyle, bbPress, and BuddyPress websites. It has a simple layout for the homepage, archives, single pages, bbPress, and BuddyPress.
It lets you add a responsive slider on the homepage. The theme is widget-friendly and also supports WooCommerce out of the box.
11. Monochrome Pro
Monochrome Pro has an attractive minimalist design. It features beautiful typography and a spacious layout for a clean and sophisticated look.
It’s built on top of the rock-solid foundation of the Genesis Framework, so your site will be lightning fast. Monochrome Pro has the perfect theme options that you’ll need for creating a BuddyPress website where people can socialize online.
12. Modules
Modules is a modern multipurpose BuddyPress theme that is truly flexible and easy to use. It comes with ready-made sites that you can import in one click and replace the content with your own to get started.
You’ll also like the built-in modules that come with the theme. The Modules theme is fully compatible with BuddyPress, WooCommerce and other eCommerce plugins, and all major WordPress plugins.
13. Hestia Pro
Hestia Pro is a stylish and responsive WordPress theme designed for business and professional websites. It fully supports third-party drag-and-drop page builders for easy customization options.
The theme is compatible with the BuddyPress plugin to start an online community. Inside, you will find multiple page layout choices that you can use as a base for your website.
Hestia Pro also integrates with WooCommerce if you want to add an online store to your community site and sell products. Plus, it’s retina-ready and uses a responsive design, so your BuddyPress site will look great on all devices.
14. Spencer
Spencer is a beautiful WordPress theme for entrepreneurs and bloggers. It fully supports BuddyPress to create an online community website in just a few clicks.
The theme has a fullscreen layout with a custom background image. It also includes multiple responsive layouts, a sticky navigation menu, call-to-action buttons, and more.
Spencer is a multilingual theme that integrates with WPML. It works with RTL languages to help you create a global community.
15. ExS
ExS is a free WordPress multipurpose theme built for any type of website. It supports BuddyPress as well as the bbPress plugin and other WordPress plugins to start your own social network easily. You could even use it for a company intranet or extranet site.
The theme features include an event calendar, header and footer layouts, blog layouts, and unlimited color options. When it comes to customization, ExS is compatible with popular page builders like WPBakery, Brizy, and more.
16. Inspiro
Inspiro is a professional WordPress theme for photo and video websites. It has a custom fullscreen video background and a video slideshow that supports YouTube, Vimeo, and self-hosted videos.
It integrates with image gallery plugins, portfolio plugins, and so on. Inspiro also supports the BuddyPress plugin out of the box.
17. Vasco
Vasco is a travel blog theme for WordPress websites. It integrates with BuddyPress to build travel-related social networks and online communities.
It has a widgetized homepage and lets you drag and drop custom widgets to set up the front page quickly. The theme also offers customizable shapes to make a stunning logo for your website.
We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress themes for BuddyPress. You may also want to check out our other WordPress guides for your BuddyPress community site.
Best WordPress Guides for BuddyPress
- How to Turn Your WordPress Site Into a Social Network
- Best Email Marketing Services for Small Businesses
- Best Business Phone Services for Small Businesses
- How to Add Your Social Media Feeds to WordPress (Step by Step)
- The Complete Social Media Cheat Sheet for WordPress (Updated)
- How to Run a Social Media Contest to Grow Your Site (Best Practices)
- Best Social Media Monitoring Tools For WordPress Users
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Perinho Garang
Hello, i’m new to wordpress and i need to build a big social network site on wordpress using buddypress, now i’m using IAMSocial Theme and i have installed buddypress on my wordpress site, then i visit my website but no change i have seen on my site. So what can i do now to make my website as a big social network in the world, also later if the platform get popular it will cause any error and how can i manage it, thank
libra
Word press I have a webiste I have headings like about us, commercial, Residential. Underneather commercial the category got messed up. About us heading has brick and stone and I should be under residential? Any help fixing tis
Bigby
Please WP I reaaly need help creating courses on WordPress.. Please could u make videos on creating courses for your WordPress blog. Thanks