A social network only works if everyone has one place to gather and talk. If you’re building your own community on WordPress and looking to move on from Ning, here are the top 2 alternatives worth considering.
You can build a fully customized social network with unlimited members without touching a line of code. Here’s how.
1. BuddyPress
If you’d rather skip the code entirely, BuddyPress is the obvious starting point. It’s an open-source WordPress plugin that lets you create a private social network complete with profiles, groups, forums, and private messaging between members.
BuddyPress is a genuinely powerful community plugin that takes your site well beyond a standard blog. Whatever you’d expect from an online community, user profiles, groups, activity streams, notifications, it’s already built in.
What about the Look of your BuddyPress Social Community?
BuddyPress makes building a private social network far simpler than writing it from scratch, but on its own it won’t give your site the eye-catching, interactive look a community site needs to hold people’s attention.
That’s where Reign BuddyPress Theme comes in.
Paired with BuddyPress, Reign gives your community site a polished, attractive look that’s much more compelling for members.
Reign ships with a variety of layouts and one-click import templates, so getting a finished-looking site up in WordPress doesn’t take long.
Reign BuddyPress Theme works well for:
- Community Site
- Social Network
- E-commerce Marketplace
- LMS (Learning Management System) Site
2. PeepSo
PeepSo is another free WordPress plugin for building a social network without diving into code. It’s lightweight and lets you add a Facebook-style social layer directly inside your WordPress site.
Here’s some of what you get when you add PeepSo to your site:
- Members can set their own avatars and cover images
- Profiles support a wide range of custom fields
- Members can set their own notification preferences
- Fully responsive design
- Groups for focused discussions
What about the Look of your PeepSo Social Community?
Style matters here too. If your community members aren’t actually engaging with the site, none of the setup work pays off.
That’s why an interactive look matters, and Reign PeepSo Theme is built exactly for that.
Its distinct design and functionality set it apart from other social community themes for WordPress. As a solution for a WordPress social community site, it covers a lot of ground:
- Built-in support for PeepSo and its premium add-ons, so building a Facebook-style community site is straightforward.
- You can add a directory to your community site using Reign’s WP Job Manager and GeoDirectory add-ons.
- Want a social marketplace? Reign PeepSo theme supports Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce.
- You can build a social learning community using Reign’s LearnDash add-ons.
Ready to build your private social network?
There are plenty of Ning alternatives out there for building a Facebook-style site, but BuddyPress and PeepSo remain the most popular choices for WordPress. Pair either one with a Reign theme and you’ll have a genuinely distinct, functional community site.
Need help from an experienced web development team? Reach out to Wbcom Designs, we’re happy to help.
