Profile Builder

Building an online community is a powerful way to engage with your audience, encourage meaningful interactions, and inspire long-term loyalty.

WPBeginner has a long history of experimenting with different community platforms and plugins. Our WPBeginner Engage group has over 98,000 members, and we’ve also tried creating social networks with BuddyBoss, and use MemberPress to power our video tutorial site.

This first-hand experience means we know exactly what makes a great user registration and membership plugin. That said, in this Profile Builder review we’re putting this popular user management and community plugin to the test.

By the end of this Profile Builder review, you’ll know whether this plugin is the right choice to power your online community.

Profile Builder Review: Why Use It in WordPress?

Profile Builder is an all-in-one profile and user registration plugin for WordPress. It lets you add user registration, login, and edit profile forms to your website, so people can join your community and manage their personal information with ease.

This is ideal if you want to create online communities, job boards, membership directories, or similar sites.

All the forms work out of the box, or you can customize them with your own fields to collect exactly the information you need.

In addition, Profile Builder lets you restrict content based on user role or logged in status, so you can create exclusive, members-only content. This motivates visitors to create an account on your blog, website, or online store. For example, you might publish members-only blog posts, coupon codes, videos, downloadable ebooks, or similar content.

If you’re just getting started or have a limited budget, then you can download the lite version from WordPress.org.

This free plugin comes with ready-made registration, login, password reset, and edit profile forms. You can make some basic changes to these default form fields, restrict access to your content, and automatically send notifications to your users and WordPress admin.

However, if you upgrade to the premium plugin then you’ll get access to more features. This includes customizing your forms with extra fields, offering social login, and protecting your forms using reCAPTCHA.

Profile Builder Review: The Right Registration and Profile Plugin for Your Website?

Do you want to build a strong online community? No matter whether you’re creating a searchable directory, membership website, or a private online store, you’ll need a powerful user registration and profile plugin.

With that said, in this Profile Builder review we’ll dive deep into this popular plugin, to see if it meets your website’s needs.

1. Customizable Design

Profile Builder is fully customizable so you can fine-tune it to perfectly suit your company or personal branding. To start, you can choose from a range of form styles.

Going further, you can choose to inherit values from your current WordPress theme or add a custom stylesheet for even more control.

Beyond that, you can also add and remove fields from the various forms, and rearrange fields using drag and drop.

2. Ready-Made Forms

Profile Builder comes with all the forms you need to offer and manage user registration. This includes GDPR-compliant registration forms, login forms, and customizable user profiles.

Even better, Profile Builder lets you add these forms to any page or post using either a shortcode or WordPress block.

3. Customizable Form Fields

Do you need to add more fields to a form? Profile Builder lets you add all kinds of fields including hidden input, user role select, map, HTML, date picker, and currency select.

Simply choose a field and then fill in the properties, such as the default value and whether it’s mandatory or required.

Alternatively, you can edit any of the fields that Profile Builder adds by default.

After configuring your fields, you can rearrange them using drag and drop. That way, you can use the combination of default and custom fields that perfectly fits your WordPress website’s needs.

4. Create GDPR Compliant Forms

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law that aims to give EU citizens control over their personal data. If you violate GDPR, then you may get a fine or even jail time.

With that said, Profile Builder has a dedicated GDPR checkbox that you can add to any form. This lets you request the user’s content to collect and store their data.

Once they’re registered, users have the right to access their data and the right to be forgotten. To help you achieve this, Profile Builder lets users access, edit, and delete all the data that makes up their personal profile.

5. Supports Conditional Logic

Conditional logic lets you show or hide each field dynamically, based on how the visitor completed the previous fields. In this way, you can remove irrelevant or unnecessary fields, which reduces form friction and may increase your form completion rates.

The good news is that Profile Builder lets you show or hide any field based on user input, no matter whether you’re working with custom or default fields.

You can add as many conditions as you like, to create advanced logic chains and make registration feel effortless.

6. Customizable Login Form

Profile Builder lets you make several small, but important changes to the login form.

By default, visitors can log in using either their username or email address. This can remove friction from the login process, since members can access their account in the way that’s easiest for them.

Alternatively, you can restrict logins to either username or email address only.

You can also add registration and lost password links to the login form. This can improve the user experience for both members who have forgotten their password, and visitors who want to join your community.

Finally, you can add a ‘Remember Me’ checkbox.

7. Offer Social Login

Adding social logins to your site makes the registration process easier for your visitors, and often boosts your signup rates. With that said, you’ll be happy to learn that Profile Builder lets people create an account using their existing social profiles such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook.

After configuring Profile Builder’s social login feature, you can control exactly where these login buttons appear.

You can also fine-tune how the buttons look.

For example, you can choose different button styles, change the text, and reorder them if you support multiple social platforms.

8. Login New Users Automatically

After creating an account, new users will typically want to log in straight away. To help them out, Profile Builder can automatically log new users into your site, following a successful registration.

9. Automatic Redirects

Profile Builder can automatically redirect users after login, registration, or editing their profile. This can improve the user experience by redirecting them to interesting or relevant content, such as their profile or your most popular blog post.

Going further, you can set up unique redirects based on the person’s user role, or even set up redirects for specific users. In this way, you can create a more personalized visitor experience.

10. Profile Editor

Profile Builder comes with a ready-made profile editing form that you can add to any WordPress page or post.

This form works out of the box, or you can customize it. For example, you might add an Avatar Upload field so users can add a profile picture.

In the Edit Profile screen, you can add more fields, edit existing fields, or remove fields entirely. You can also rearrange these fields using drag and drop.

11. Automated Email Notifications

To keep your membership website running smoothly, Profile Builder comes with a range of built-in emails including a password reset template and a new account confirmation template. All these emails are fully customizable so you can add your own text.

They also support dynamic content so you can add the member’s name, role, nickname, and other personal information.

By default, Profile Builder will also notify your WordPress admin email every time someone creates a new account or resets their password.

You can send these notifications to an alternative email address, or even multiple addresses if you prefer.

Simply enter these new or additional email addresses in the plugin’s settings.

Pro Tip: You’ll want to make sure these notifications arrive safely in the recipient’s inbox, and not in their spam folder. With that said, we recommend using an SMTP service provider and a plugin such as WP Mail SMTP.

12. Searchable User Directory

Do you want to create a members or staff directory?

With Profile Builder, you can display all the submitted information in a public directory. It provides default templates that work out of the box, or you can edit these designs to better suit your WordPress theme. You can also choose exactly what information to show.

These directories are searchable, and also support filtering and sorting.

This helps visitors find the information they need.

13. Editable Profile Fields

By default, Profile Builder displays the user’s website, bio, username, contact info, and more details on their profile page.

You can change the order this information appears in, using simple drag and drop.

Here, you can also edit individual fields such as changing the field title, marking them as required or optional, changing the default value, and more.

14. Boost Your WordPress Security

Far too many people use the same short and insecure password everywhere. Allowing users to have weak passwords is bad for WordPress security and makes your site vulnerable to thieves and hackers.

To help you out, Profile Builders lets you enforce strong passwords on your users. To start, you can set a minimum password length and strength.

Alternatively, you can auto-generate a secure password for new users.

For even more security, Profile Builder can add an invisible reCAPTCHA to all your forms. If that’s not enough, then you can require admins to approve new users via the dashboard or email.

This may create more work for your admin, but it’s also an effective way to stop spam registrations. It’s also useful if you want to create a sense of exclusivity, by manually reviewing each registration.

15. Email Confirmation

When someone registers with your site, Profile Builder can send a confirmation email. This adds an extra later of security to your WordPress blog or website, and helps to block spam registrations that can damage your site.

Just like the other Profile Builder emails, the default template works out of the box, or you can customize it with your own messaging.

Profile Builder also supports a range of tags so you can customize the message with personalized content such as the recipient’s name, user role, and other personal information.

16. Admin Bar Visibility Settings

By default, WordPress shows an admin bar at the top of the screen for all logged-in users. However, the admin bar can be distracting and some users may not even need access.

With that said, Profile Builder can disable the admin bar for certain user roles. In the plugin’s settings, simply select one or more user roles, and Profile Builder will handle the rest.

17. Create Exclusive, Members-Only Content

Profile Builder lets you restrict content based on user role or logged-in status, using a pair of Content Restriction Start and Content Restriction End blocks.

That done, you can control what happens when a non-member tries to access restricted content.

To start, you can display a custom message explaining why this content is unavailable, and how the visitor can get access.

You can even create different messages for logged-out users, compared to people who are logged into an account that doesn’t have the necessary permissions.

Alternatively, you can redirect these people instead. For example, you might redirect visitors to your registration page.

Sometimes, you may want to override these default settings, such as showing a unique message for a particular piece of restricted content.

In that case, you can simply add the Content Restriction Start and Content Restriction End blocks in the WordPress block editor, as normal. You can then override the default settings in the right-hand menu.

Here, you can even restrict and grant access based on individual user roles.

18. Restricted Posts Preview

To encourage visitors to join, you can show an excerpt of the locked content. Offering a taste of your exclusive content is a great way to catch the visitor’s attention and make them want to learn more, so it can significantly boost your conversion rates.

To start, you can configure Profile Builder so it shows a certain number of words from each restricted post.

Alternatively, you can show the content before the ‘more’ tag.

19. Edit User Roles and Capabilities

WordPress comes with a built-in user management system where everyone has different capabilities based on their assigned role. However, when you allow user registration you may want to change these default roles, or even create completely new ones. This helps you control the actions that registered users can take on your website.

Rather than using a separate user management plugin, Profile Builder comes with a built-in Role Editor. Here, you can edit, clone, or delete any of the default user roles.

The Editor also shows the number of users and capabilities assigned to each user role.

If you want to remove, add, or edit these capabilities, then simply click to select the role in question. Profile Builder will then show all the assigned capabilities, divided into categories.

You can now remove any of these permissions or add a new capability.

In this area, you can also change the role that’s assigned to new users.

20. Create Private Websites and Stores

Whether you sell products or services, teach online courses, or run a non-profit, Profile Builders lets you build a community around your brand. However, sometimes you may want to make that community private.

In that case, Profile Builders lets you restrict access to your content, RSS feed, and REST API, simply by clicking a slider.

This makes your website completely private.

Even if you enable this feature, you can still allow visitors to access certain pages. For example, you might show a teaser so visitors know what to expect if they join your community. You might even create a landing page introducing your site to potential new members.

Finally, if someone tries to access your private content then Profile Builder can redirect them to another page automatically. Once again, this is perfect for displaying a landing page or sales page, or even some teaser content.

For more information on this topic, please see our guide on how to create a private community with WordPress.

21. Create a Private Online Store

Do you run a WooCommerce store? Then you can use Profile Builder’s content restriction features to control who can buy your products.

By making your products members-only, you can create a sense of exclusivity and excitement. For example, you might ask visitors to register for an upcoming sale or a limited-time discount. You might even go one step further and create a members-only online store.

If you do restrict access to your WooCommerce products, then you can create a unique message that Profile Builder will show to non-logged in customers.

You can add links to this message, so it’s also a great way to redirect shoppers to your registration page.

22. WooCommerce Integration

As already mentioned, Profile Builder lets you restrict access to your physical and digital products. However, if you’re using WooCommerce then you can go one step further and add custom registration forms to WooCommerce’s ‘My Account’ page.

You can also add custom fields to the WooCommerce checkout page, using Profile Builder.

23. Supports Page Builder Plugins

Are you using a page builder plugin?

Then you’ll be happy to learn that Profile Builder is compatible with some of the best drag and drop builders including Elementor, Visual Composer, and Divi.

24. Community and Professional Support

When choosing a WordPress plugin, it’s important to look at the support that’s available. With the right support, you’ll have no problems getting the most from your new plugin, and resolving any WordPress errors you may encounter when using it.

To start, there’s online documentation that you can access 24/7.

Here, you’ll find posts on how to install and activate the plugin, along with detailed tutorials covering all the Profile Builder features.

There’s also a blog covering a range of topics. This includes how to create an elearning platform, news aggregator site, and many other kinds of community-based sites.

Do you prefer one-on-one help? Then you can submit a support ticket and a member of the Profile Builder team will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you’re using the free plugin, then you can post to the Profile Builder forum on WordPress.org, and get answers to basic questions.

No matter how you contact the Profile Builder team, try to include as much detail as possible, so the experts can understand your problem fully and post a helpful response. For more on this topic, check out our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support.

Profile Builder Review: Pricing and Plans

If you’re just getting started or have a limited budget, then you can download the free version of Profile Builder from WordPress.org. This plugin has all the essential forms so you can add user registration and beautiful member profiles to your website. You can also restrict access to content, create a private website, or even create a completely private online marketplace.

However, if you want to add custom fields to Profile Builder’s ready-made forms, use conditional logic, or create a searchable members directory, then you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan.

There are 3 plans to choose from:

• Basic. Priced at €99 per year, you can use Profile Builder on a single WordPress website. You can also add as many custom fields as you want, including avatar upload fields, and protect your forms with reCAPTCHAs. That said, this plan is ideal if you want to add user registration or content protection to your website.
• Pro. For €169 annually, you can install Profile Builder on up to 3 websites. You can also create a public directory that visitors can search and filter, to find exactly the content they need. This makes Pro a great plan for anyone who wants to create a searchable member directory, authors directory, or similar website.
• Agency. Priced at €299 per year, this plan lets you use Profile Builder on as many sites as you want. With that said, this is a convenient plan if you run a WordPress development agency and need a versatile solution for all your clients.

Profile Builder Review: The Right Registration and Profile Plugin for Your Website?

In this Profile Builder review, we looked at its features, support, and pricing. To sum things up, we’re confident that it’s a great registration, content restriction, and profile builder.

If you want an easy way to add registration and memberships to your site, then the free version has many essential features. It comes with ready-made forms and templates, plus straightforward content restriction blocks.

However, if you want to customize these forms and unlock additional features, then you’ll need to upgrade to the premium plugin. The premium plan also displays user profiles in a searchable directory, so it’s ideal if you want to create an online community or display your employee information in a nice layout.

We hope this Profile Builder review helped you decide whether it’s the right registration tool for you. Next, you may want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, or check out our expert pick of the best contact form plugins.

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