Best WordPress Forum Themes Of 2020
Building a forum site with bbPress takes a bit more patience than a standard brochure website, mostly because the theme has to handle discussion threads, user profiles, and moderation cleanly rather than just laying out pages. WordPress remains a solid choice for this, largely because bbPress gives you a functional forum foundation and a wide pool of themes built specifically around it.
Here are some WordPress forum themes worth a look for building Q&A boards, bbPress communities, and support sites. Each one leans into what bbPress already offers and adds its own layer of customization on top.
Table of Contents:
- Reign BuddyPress & bbPress Theme
- BuddySocial Theme
- Disputo Forum Theme
- Tikidocs Forum Theme
- Ask Me
- Vilan
- DW Helpdesk
- Knowledge Base
- ForumEngine
1. Reign BuddyPress & bbPress Forum Theme
Reign BuddyPress theme is perfect for creating forums and community websites for all niches. The theme offers dedicated support to the most popular social networking plugin BuddyPress and the forum plugin bbPress. Design your webpages with notebale features of Reign such as multiple member/group directory layouts, multiple member and group header layouts, useful customization options for BuddyPress, inbuilt social-media profile integration module, extra widgets for BuddyPress, RTL support, multilingual, optimized mobile menu panel, and many more.
Moreover, the theme offers support to many useful plugins like Elementor, WooCommerce, EDD, Dokan, LearnDash, LifterLMS, Contact Form 7, and a lot more.
2. BuddySocial, WordPress Forum Theme
Now, take a look at the BuddySocial WordPress theme that lets you build an online community, forum, intranet or extranet, and other community niche websites. It comes with a unique layout for members and groups directory and offers extra social features for the BuddyPress plugin.
The other key features of BuddySocial theme include one-click demo installer, advanced theme panel customization, mobile-friendly, dark & light mode options, multiple post type varieties, SEO & Gutenberg optimized, useful page settings for the profile, account, and activity page, unique profile widgets, amazing profile features, multiple headers and mega menu option, a lot more to explore.
Apart from that, the theme offers support for many useful WordPress plugins like BuddyPress, bbPress forum, Elementor, Youzer, WooCommerce, and more.
3. Disputo WordPress Forum Theme
Disputo is a solid pick for Q&A, bbPress, and support websites, with a rich set of live customization options. Front-end login lets users sign up and manage their details without ever touching the WordPress dashboard, and social login covers Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. User profiles support custom photos, cover images, social icons, and demographic fields, and members can publish blog posts for review straight from the front end. A private messaging system handles member-to-member communication.
A sitewide like/dislike rating system covers posts, comments, and forum replies, and a built-in ad management system gives you fields to run your own ads within the theme. A built-in FAQ system reduces repetitive support questions, and a report-content feature lets forum users flag inappropriate posts or spam. The theme is compatible with WooCommerce, bbPress, and Bootstrap, and works across Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.
4. Tikidocs Forum Theme
Tikidocs is a support and knowledge-base WordPress theme built around pre-built sections you can drop content into, with an AJAX-powered search that surfaces answers in seconds. bbPress handles the forum layer underneath, letting you set up discussion boards directly on your WordPress site, and Slider Revolution is bundled in for hero sections and carousels.
A visual drag-and-drop editor covers page layout, and the theme options panel lets you adjust settings without touching code or theme files. It’s built to look sharp on HD and retina displays, and works across Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Edge.
5. Ask Me
Ask Me is built specifically around question-and-answer functionality, with a modern user profile system, a points-and-badges reputation system, and a dedicated question listing page with sort, search, filter, and pagination built in. Posting a question is a simple flow: pick a title, write a description, choose a category, and add tags to help with discoverability. Question owners, admins, and moderators can edit, delete, and manage report status without extra plugins.
The theme also supports lightweight community surveys for gathering quick feedback. Question owners can mark a best answer, or let the community vote one to the top, and a badge system rewards helpful members with recognition that shows on their profile and their answers. Upvote and downvote arrows let the community surface the most useful responses.
6. Vilan
Vilan combines an e-commerce, business, and forum theme in one package, fully responsive and compatible with WPML, WooCommerce, bbPress, Visual Composer, Ecwid, and Bootstrap. It works consistently across desktop, laptop, mobile, and tablet, and across Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Edge. Per-page options let you customize each page individually, and several page templates are included to pick from.
Other features include a Visio background option, 500+ Google fonts, icon fonts, custom widgets, team and contact form sections, WPML readiness, parallax sections, portfolio layouts, testimonials, and multiple post formats. Boxed and full-width layout modes are both supported, and unlimited color options are available through the theme’s built-in color picker.
7. DW Helpdesk
DW Helpdesk bundles four premium plugins directly: DW Question and Answer Pro, DW Knowledge Base Pro, DW Glossary, and DW FAQ. The knowledge base handles support docs, error explanations, and troubleshooting guides, while the Q&A plugin sets up a full discussion page where users can ask, answer, and support one another. Envato API support lets you tie products from the Envato marketplace directly to Q&A sections and verify purchase codes before someone submits a question.
The glossary feature builds an alphabetical list of domain-specific terms with definitions, and the FAQ plugin adds frequently-asked-question sections via widget, shortcode, or PHP function. Colors, text, and images are all adjustable from the customizer, and the theme is fully responsive and built for high-resolution displays. It’s compatible with Bootstrap and works across Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Firefox.
8. Knowledge Base
Knowledge Base combines a helpdesk, wiki, and FAQ system in one theme. The bbPress forum layer gives your users a place to communicate with you and with each other, and a wiki-style FAQ plugin makes it easy to build and maintain a set of frequently asked questions, with support for showcasing multiple FAQ pages across the site. Google Analytics integration is built in for tracking site traffic.
The theme includes the Visual Composer page builder for custom layouts with transition effects, plus drag-and-drop animation support. Two voting modes are available: public voting, where you control exactly who can vote on posts, and a reset-votes option that clears voting data across all posts at once. Multiple post formats (multimedia, standard, and link posts) cover most content types you’d want to publish.
9. ForumEngine
ForumEngine is a discussion-focused theme built to make setting up an online community straightforward, with a strong emphasis on social interaction. It organizes posts into categories with several available display formats, and a style customizer lets you adjust the homepage’s look directly. Front-end controls let you publish and edit content without ever leaving the homepage, and the theme works consistently across desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile.
A user badge system lets you define your own rules for access and status changes on the forum, and a live notification system keeps members updated on important activity as it happens. Drag-and-drop widgets extend the sidebar’s customizability, and a built-in translator handles text translation right from the dashboard without extra plugins.
A Plugin-Based Option Worth Considering
Every theme above pairs bbPress with a custom skin, which works, but ties your forum’s design to that specific theme. Jetonomy takes a different approach: it’s a standalone forums, Q&A, and discussion plugin that works with any theme, runs on its own custom database tables instead of bloating wp_posts, and includes a built-in migrator specifically for moving an existing bbPress forum over without losing your topics or URLs. It also adds trust levels that auto-promote reliable members into lighter moderation roles as they build reputation, useful if your forum is growing past what you can moderate by hand.
Final Words
These are some of the better WordPress forum themes for building Q&A boards, bbPress communities, and support sites. Between the free and premium options here, there’s a reasonable range to choose from depending on your budget and how much customization you need. Pick whichever fits your community best, and if you’re planning to grow past a basic forum, look at what each option offers for moderation and member engagement before committing.
