Creating and running a social networking website is a lot easier than before. In the past, social website owners had to build different features from scratch.
Today, with the help of open source social network platforms like BuddyPress you can create and extend the functionality of your social networking sites.
In this post, we have listed the seven best BuddyPress plugins you can use to start a social community website.
The plugin boasts of multiple features such as creating social profiles, groups, and easy user registration. What’s more, the software supports different plugins that add value-added features.
Most of the tools listed here are affordable, making them ideal for both individual and corporate social community website owners.
1. WanGuard:
WanGuard is a highly useful BuddyPress plugin that secures BuddyPress social networking website. The plugin constantly monitors and protects your site against online threats. It supports advanced protection against spam users and sploggers.
The plugin is free to use for a limited time. You can, however, donate for the development of this plugin.
2. BuddyForms Members:
BuddyForms Members integrates with the BuddyPress social networking site. With the plugin installed, you can let members post blogs on your social networking site.
In addition, you can create group submissions based on certain criteria. The submissions can also be made private, public, or limited to community members.
3. BuddyPress Activity Privacy:
BuddyPress Activity Privacy is yet another popular social networking plugin. The plugin allows you to protect the privacy of all social community site users.
The plugin adds the ability for members to select who can read or view their activities. They can restrict the posts to logged in users, friends, admins, or self.
4. CometChat:
CometChat is a power-packed, all in one chat solution for your BuddyPress Website. It comes with a dedicated BuddyPress Plugin that can integrate with any BuddyPress website with minimal effort in under 10 minutes.
Once integrated, your users get access to a plethora of engaging features like real-time text chat, voice & video calling and conference, real-time translation and more.
Apart from the basic chat functionalities, CometChat also enables your users to collaborate with each other using features like Whiteboard and Writeboard. From sketching ideas on a virtual board to creating/working on a collaborative document, CometChat takes care of all the engaging aspects of the conversation.
CometChat’s Administration Panel gives access to customization, moderation, analytical and monetization tools. You can easily customize the software according to your product needs and theme.
Not just that, CometChat offers some exclusive features like Role Based Access Control and Credit Deduction.
5. BuddyPress Global Search:
The plugin for BuddyPress social sites allows members to search posts and pages in the site.
When you activate the plugin, users can search the entire site and the results will display in a native interface matched to your site’s theme.
6. BuddyPress Default Data
You can use this plugin to test BuddyPress themes and plugins. The plugin can create users, friends, groups, messages, topics, profile data, and activity items to test your social networking site.
Remember to use the plugin on a test site. It is not intended to be used on a live social networking site data. Using the plugin on a live site could corrupt the entire data.
Wrapping Up
Summarizing this article, BuddyPress is a versatile and secure platform for social networking sites and using the above plug-ins can add a lot more features and functionality to your website. The mentioned plugins can also help you improve the user experience and help create a vibrant and lively online community.
Amongst all the plugins CometChat helps increase user engagement and promote user retention on your website. It also helps you effectively monetize your website and ensures that you stay above the competition and continue to grow.
Explore BuddyPress Chat Plugin
Team CometChat
