How to Create a Reddit-Like Website with WordPress

In the past, creating a Reddit-style platform meant either spending thousands on custom development or learning complex programming.

That’s why we got excited when we discovered how WordPress could be transformed into a powerful community platform with the right combination of plugins and themes.

The best part? You can do it without touching a single line of code or breaking the bank.

Whether you’re looking to build the next big community platform or just want to create a niche discussion forum, we’ve got you covered.

In this guide, we’ll show you the exact step-by-step process we used to create Reddit-style websites with WordPress, complete with voting systems, user submissions, and community moderation features.

Why Make a Reddit Like Website With WordPress?

Reddit is the 9th most visited website in the world, with a massive daily active user base of more than 97 million users.

It is a popular news aggregation, content curation, and social networking platform. What makes it unique are the user-run communities called subreddits, covering pretty much any topic you can think of.

If you’re looking to build an online community yourself, then Reddit can be a really useful example of how to keep users engaged 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 built from scratch by a team of professional developers, you probably won’t be able to create an exact copy. However, you can definitely take all the features that make Reddit so engaging and use them on your own website.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily build a website like Reddit with WordPress. Here are some quick links to help you navigate this guide:

Step 1: Install and Set Up Your WordPress Website

While there are many website builders out there, WordPress really shines for those wanting to create a community-focused site like Reddit, offering a user-friendly, reliable, and budget-friendly solution.

First off, WordPress is open source, so it’s completely free to download and use. By cutting out unnecessary expenses like that, you can focus your resources on building a great community – not just website costs.

But just because WordPress is free doesn’t mean it’s basic. It’s got all the tools you’ll likely need to create a buzzing online space.

WordPress also lets you install add-ons called plugins. Think of them as bits of software that add extra features to WordPress, and there are over 59,000 of them in the WordPress.org library alone.

This includes loads of plugins designed specifically for building communities, with features just like Reddit’s. Even better, you can download and use all the WordPress.org plugins for free.

But it isn’t just about saving money. According to our research statistics, WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world and powers nearly 43% of all websites.

This means when you choose WordPress to build your Reddit-like site, you’re joining millions of other successful websites. You’ll be using a trusted platform that’s ideal for creating a thriving online community.

That being said, it’s worth knowing there are two different types of WordPress software, so it’s important to pick the right one for your needs.

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 a deeper dive into why we consistently recommend WordPress, please see our complete WordPress review or our expert comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

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., reddit.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, the 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 worth remembering that WordPress themes mainly control how your website looks, but they don’t handle all the functionality. So, don’t worry if the theme you like doesn’t have built-in community features like Reddit’s, because we can easily add those using plugins.

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 can make it difficult to pick just one.

We suggest looking for a straightforward theme with plenty of white space. This will give you a good base to easily customize your chosen theme.

If you need recommendations, then check out our expert picks of the best WordPress newspaper themes and the best WordPress themes for membership sites.

Or, if you already have a specific layout in mind, you might want to consider creating a custom WordPress theme using the drag-and-drop SeedProd builder.

SeedProd 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.

We designed many of our partner sites using SeedProd including WP Charitable, WPForms, and Duplicator. Even the SeedProd website was designed using SeedProd, so we’re confident that it’s a great choice for your Reddit-like website.

Want to learn more? We’ve written an in-depth SeedProd review based on our experiences with this popular plugin.

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. Building a community without these features can be difficult.

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

Thrive Comments is designed to boost engagement. We’re talking upvotes, downvotes, likes – the works. Visitors can also unlock badges and share comments on social media.

You can even set post-comment actions. For example, you might redirect first-time commenters to your user registration form, or show a row of social sharing buttons.

For more information about this plugin, check out our in-depth Thrive Themes review.

When you’re ready to get started, you’ll 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, we recommend enabling 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 want 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’re finished, head over to any post or page to see the new comments in action.

To run a successful online community, you need 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 key feature of Reddit is letting users submit their own content – so let’s add this functionality to WordPress.

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. We use WPForms to display various forms across WPBeginner, including contact forms and our annual user surveys. You can check out our WPForms review for more information about how we use the plugin.

When it comes to creating a Reddit-like site, WPForms has a user-submitted posts addon. This 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 site.

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, head over to the WPForms » Settings page and 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 bar 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 fields you need 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 might add tips and guidelines for what kind of content users 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.

With that done, we recommend adding 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. It then shows the most popular stuff more prominently. This means users can get involved without having to create content themselves, while also helping to highlight what’s currently popular across different sections of your site.

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, go to 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 the other plugin options. The default settings should work well for most websites.

When you’re happy with how the plugin is configured, don’t forget to click 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 give posts a bit of a boost to begin with, before your community really gets going.

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

The plugin also comes with a Top Rated Posts widget.

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

You can pick how many posts to show, the minimum rating, and the number of votes in the widget settings. When you’re done, don’t forget to click ‘Update’ to save your changes.

Here is how the widget 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. In fact, we use MemberPress to power our WPBeginner video courses website.

2. Add a Forum to Your Reddit Clone

You can use bbPress to add a lightweight forum to your online community. For more information, see our article on how to make a forum website with 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.

Not convinced? Then check out our detailed MonsterInsights review for more information.

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. We use AIOSEO to optimize all our WPBeginner pages and posts, so we can confirm that it’s the best WordPress SEO plugin for improving your rankings and growing a thriving online community.

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

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