How to Create a Reddit-Like Website with WordPress

With millions of active users, Reddit’s success is undeniable, and many are looking to replicate that magic. But creating a Reddit clone from scratch can seem like a ton of effort, especially if you’re new to building a website.

The good news is it’s actually simpler than you might think. With WordPress, you can create a vibrant, engaging community that captures the essence of Reddit, without needing a team of developers.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to use WordPress to build a Reddit-style website.

Why Make a Reddit Like Website With WordPress?

Reddit is the 8th most visited website in the world, with a massive daily active user base of more than 52 million users.

It is a popular news aggregation, content curation, and social networking platform. It is home to many user-managed communities called subreddits on almost every topic.

If you are building an online community, then Reddit can be used as an example of how to build user engagement and grow your WordPress website.

You can add user engagement features like upvoting and downvoting, discussions, content submission, social sharing, and more to your WordPress website to create a Reddit-like community.

Since Reddit is custom-coded by a team of professional developers, you may be unable to create an exact Reddit clone. However, you can copy all the features that make Reddit so engaging and apply them to your website.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily build a Reddit-like website with WordPress. You can use these quick links to navigate through this tutorial:

Step 1: Install and Set Up Your WordPress Website

First, you need to make sure that you are using the right website builder platform to build your website.

There are two types of WordPress software. First, there’s WordPress.org, which is also known as self-hosted WordPress. Then, you have WordPress.com, which is a website hosting service.

You need WordPress.org because it gives you instant access to all the tools you’ll need to make various types of websites, including a Reddit-like site.

For more details, you can read our WordPress review and our explanation of why WordPress is free.

To get started, you’ll need the following items:

• A web hosting account (this is where your website files will be stored)
• A domain name (this will be your website’s address e.g., wpbeginner.com)
• Community building addons for WordPress (discussions, post submissions, upvoting, badges, and more)

Normally, a web hosting account costs $7.99 per month (usually paid annually), and a domain name costs $14.99 per year.

Plus, you’ll need to buy premium plugins, which may cost from $47 to $300, depending on which features you want to add to your website.

Now, that’s a lot of money to start your Reddit-like website, particularly if you are just starting out on a limited budget.

Luckily, folks at Bluehost have agreed to offer WPBeginner users a generous discount on hosting with a free domain name and SSL certificate. Basically, you can get started for as little as $1.99 per month.

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

To sign up, simply visit the Bluehost website and click on the ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Next, you will be asked to choose a hosting plan.

Many beginners start with the Basic or Choice Plus plan.

Click to select a plan and continue.

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to choose a domain name for your website.

Next, you will be shown some package extras to add to your hosting account.

We typically recommend unchecking the extra addons since you can always add them later if needed.

After that, you can enter your payment information and finish the purchase.

You’ll then receive an email with a link to log in to your hosting account dashboard. Bluehost will also automatically install WordPress for you.

To log in to WordPress via Bluehost, open your Bluehost dashboard. Then, navigate to the ‘Websites’ tab and click ‘Edit Site’ on your newly created site.

Congratulations, you should now arrive in your WordPress admin area.

Step 2: Choose a Theme for Your Reddit-Style Website

The default WordPress theme does not look anything like Reddit.

However, there are several WordPress themes that you can use to create a WordPress blog that looks similar to Reddit.

It’s important to know that WordPress themes are responsible for how your website looks, but it’s not responsible for all the functionality. It is ok to use a theme that doesn’t have any of Reddit’s community engagement features because we’ll use plugins to add those features.

When you’re choosing a theme, it’s best to focus on the style and layout instead of any included features.

Now, there are a ton of premium and free WordPress themes to choose from. This abundance of choices can make it a bit overwhelming for a new user to pick one.

We recommend looking for a simple theme with lots of white space. This allows you to easily customize your theme.

Our top recommended theme is Astra because it’s fast-loading, customizable, and comes with dozens of starter templates you can use to customize your design.

Or, if you already have a specific layout in mind, you might want to consider creating a custom WordPress theme (no code method) using the drag-and-drop SeedProd builder.

It comes with 300+ pre-made layouts that you can use to get started, but it also has a custom theme builder that lets you build a fully custom website without any code.

Need more inspiration? Take a look at our staff picks for the best WordPress themes:

• Most Popular WordPress Themes
• Best Minimalist WordPress Themes
• Best WordPress Themes for Membership Sites

Step 3: Add Upvotes and Downvotes Like Reddit in WordPress

WordPress comes with a built-in comment system. Similar to Reddit’s discussions, it allows users to easily leave comments on a post.

However, the default WordPress comment system is quite basic and doesn’t have any of Reddit’s user engagement features like upvotes or downvotes, social sharing, gamification with badges and rewards, and more.

Let’s change that by adding all the missing functionality with one plugin.

First, you need to install and activate the Thrive Comments plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon signing up, you’ll be able to download the Thrive Downloads Manager plugin. It is a tool that will help you easily download and install Thrive Comments from your WordPress dashboard.

After installation, the plugin will automatically connect and validate your license.

Next, you need to visit the Thrive Dashboard » Thrive Comments page to configure your comment settings.

You’ll see comment options organized under different sections in the left column, with a preview of comments in the right column.

You can start by clicking on the ‘General Settings’ tab and enabling Thrive Comments across your website.

Next, you would want to enable comment voting and badge functionality. Click on the ‘Voting and Badges’ tab to expand those sections.

First, you need to choose what kind of voting you would like to display. The plugin allows you to choose from up and downvote, upvote only, or no voting options.

Below that you can set up badges for active commenters. Similar to Reddit’s badges, these are rewards for your most active community members to encourage them to contribute.

Click on the ‘Add New Badge’ button to select a badge.

The plugin comes with a built-in icon set that you can use for comment badges.

You can also upload your own icons if you prefer.

You can reward badges based on the number of comments, comment replies, featured comments, or upvotes received.

Want to customize the comment box style and appearance? Simply switch to the ‘Customize Style’ tab, where you can choose your own colors, default blank avatar, and date and time settings.

Thrive Comments is a powerful plugin. You can review all the different options under the plugin settings and configure them however you like.

Once you are finished, you can go to any post or page on your website to see the new comments in action.

Now, to run a successful online community, you would want to actively moderate comments.

Thrive Comments comes with a comment moderation dashboard, too.

Unlike default WordPress comment moderation tools, this interface helps you quickly answer comments, assign them to team members for follow-ups, feature a comment, and more.

Need help getting more comments on your Reddit-like website? See our tutorial on how to get more comments on your blog posts in WordPress with tested and practical tips.

Step 4: Allow Users to Post Content on Your Website

Another important functionality of Reddit that you can easily add to your WordPress website is allowing users to submit content.

Luckily, WordPress has some excellent tools that make it super easy for you to manage user-submitted posts.

We’ll be using WPForms here, which is the best WordPress form builder plugin on the market, used by over 6 million websites. It comes with a user-submitted posts addon that makes it super easy to accept user-generated content on your website.

Plus, it has a login and user registration forms addon that allows users to log in from the front end of your website.

First, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your plugin license key. You can find this information under your account on the WPForms website.

Next, head over to the WPForms » Addons page and look for the ‘Post Submissions’ addon.

You can use the search or scroll down to the addon and then click on the ‘Install Addon’ button next to it.

WPForms will now install and activate the Post Submission Addon for you.

After that, go to WPForms » Add New to create your content submission form. First, you need to provide a title for your form and then choose the ‘Blog Post Submission Form’ template.

Then, click ‘Use Template.’

WPForms will now load the form builder interface with all the required fields to create a blog post submission form.

You will see your form preview in the right column. From here, you can simply click on any field to edit it or add new fields from the left column.

Once you are satisfied with the post-submission form, you can switch to the ‘Settings’ tab.

From here, you can map form fields to the blog post fields. You can also set up notifications for yourself and users, informing them about the next steps.

Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on the ‘Save’ button to save your form and exit the form builder.

You can now create a new post or page where you want to add the form. You can also edit an existing post or page.

On the edit screen, simply add the WPForms block to the content area and select the form you created earlier in the dropdown menu.

After that, you can continue editing the page. For instance, you can add tips and guidelines for users about what kind of content they can submit.

Once you are finished, don’t forget to publish or update to save your changes. You can now preview this post or page to see your submission form in action.

You can now add a link or button to your WordPress navigation menu so that users can easily submit articles and stories to your website.

Step 5: Allow Users to Vote and Rate Posts

Reddit allows users to upvote a story, link, or item. Then, it shows the top-rated content in more prominent locations.

This enables Redditors to participate without creating content while also curating different content areas based on what’s trending.

You can bring some of that functionality to your WordPress website as well by adding a post-rating feature.

First, you need to install and activate the Rate My Post plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the FeedbackWP » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.

To automatically add post ratings to your posts, turn on the ‘Add rating widget to all posts’ and ‘Add result widget to all posts’ options.

After that, you can review other plugin options. The default settings would work for most websites.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Settings’ button to store your changes.

You can now visit your website, and the plugin will show post-rating stars next to each article.

You can also manually manipulate post ratings to build the initial momentum before your website becomes active.

Simply edit a post and scroll down below the post editor. In the ‘FeedbackWP Ratings’ box, you can enter your own rating to start with.

The plugin also comes with a Top Rated Posts widget.

You can add it to a sidebar or any widget-ready area.

You can choose the number of posts, minimum rating, and votes in widget settings. Don’t forget to click ‘Update’ and save your widget settings.

Here is how it looked on our test website.

Once your site has active members, you might also want to display your most commented posts or show recent comments in your widget areas.

Step 6: Grow Your Reddit-Like Website to the Next Level

The best thing about WordPress is that there are a ton of free and paid plugins that you can use to add more Reddit-like features to your website.

Here, we’ll mention additional tools and plugins that you can use to grow and take your Reddit-like website to the next level.

1. Create Members-Only Content and Sell Subscriptions

Just like Reddit Premium, you can also create a premium subscription plan on your WordPress website by using MemberPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin and allows you to easily sell online subscriptions.

With powerful access control, you can limit certain areas of your website to members only.

2. Add a Forum to Your Reddit Clone

You can use bbPress to add a lightweight forum to your online community. See our article on how to create a forum in WordPress.

3. Track User Activity Across your Website

Want to see where your users are coming from and what they do on your website? MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin on the market.

It allows you to easily view your top content and track conversions and user engagement on your website.

4. Improve Your Website SEO from Day One

SEO (search engine optimization) plays a key role in the success of websites with tons of user-generated content. You need to start optimizing your website for SEO from day one if you want to get the most traffic possible and grow your user base.

For this, you’ll need All in One SEO for WordPress. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and helps you easily optimize your website like a pro.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily create a Reddit-like website with WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison between Wix vs WordPress or our expert picks of the best WordPress plugins to convert a website into a mobile app.

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