You can run a feature request board on WordPress with a plugin that gives members a place to post ideas, vote on them, and watch each idea move from Planned to Shipped. Wbcom’s Jetonomy has an Ideas space type for this, Product Roadmap is a dedicated roadmap plugin, and a few other WordPress plugins do the same job. Canny is the hosted tool most people compare against. This guide shows how the options differ and how to set up a board that people trust.
Competitor details here were read from each product’s own site in October 2026. Plans change often, so check the vendor’s pricing page before you decide. Wbcom makes Jetonomy, Product Roadmap and Reign, so read our picks with that in mind.
In this guide
- Why public feature request boards work
- Canny and the WordPress options side by side
- Which statuses to use, from Planned to Shipped
- Voting rules that keep the board honest
- How to set up a board, step by step
- Merging duplicates and moderating the board
- Closing the loop with a changelog
- Styling the board with Reign
- Questions people ask
Why do public feature request boards work?
A public board works because it turns private complaints into one visible list that everyone can read, vote on and track. Customers stop asking the same thing in five places, and you stop guessing what matters.
Think about the alternative. Requests arrive by email, in support tickets, in a chat group, in a review. Each one feels urgent to the person who sent it. Nobody sees the pattern. A board puts them in one place and lets the count do the arguing.
There is a second benefit that is easy to miss. People who see their idea listed, even with a “Planned” label and no date, feel heard. People who see it get declined with a reason feel respected. People who hear nothing leave.
Public also means searchable. When a new visitor types an idea into the board, they find the existing one first, vote on it, and do not create a duplicate. That alone saves you hours of cleanup.
A feature request board is not a promise. Say so on the page. A short line such as “votes help us decide, they do not guarantee we build it” prevents most of the anger later.
What is a feature request board?
A feature request board is a page where users submit product ideas, vote on other people’s ideas, and see the status of each one. A voting board is the same thing with the emphasis on the vote count. A public roadmap is the view of that board that shows only ideas you have committed to, grouped by status.
Keeping those three terms apart helps when you shop. Some tools give you the board and no roadmap. Some give you a roadmap that only staff can edit. The ones that connect all three, so a vote leads to a status and a status leads to a roadmap lane, save you the most work.
Which tools can run a feature request board?
You have two routes: a hosted service such as Canny, or a plugin on your own WordPress site. The hosted route is faster to start. The WordPress route keeps the data, the domain and the design under your control.
Here is how the options compare, based on what each vendor says on its own pages in October 2026.
| Tool | Where it runs | What it does | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jetonomy (Wbcom) | Your WordPress site | Ideas space type with voting, statuses (Planned, In progress, Shipped, Declined), a roadmap view, a moderation queue and duplicate merging. Check the product page for which features need a paid licence. | You also want forums or Q&A on the same site, and want ideas to sit inside your community. |
| Product Roadmap (Wbcom) | Your WordPress site | A public board where logged-in users vote, comments on each item, categories, front-end submission for members, and a shortcode to place it on any page. A Kanban view, guest suggestions and voter emails when items ship need the paid add-on, check the product page. | You want a roadmap page for a product, separate from a forum. |
| FeatureQuest | Your WordPress site | Unlimited request boards, one vote per user with an optional IP guard, a public roadmap with fixed statuses, an optional approval queue, duplicate merging, and sign-in by account or verified email. Kanban view, custom statuses, official replies and integrations are in its paid version. | You want a lightweight board with email-verified voting for visitors. |
| SimpleBoards | Your WordPress site | Voting for members and guests, guest submissions with a name and email, a public Kanban roadmap, custom statuses and a shared moderation queue. Merging, private boards and a changelog are listed under its paid tier. | You want a Kanban roadmap in the free version and guests who can post without an account. |
| Canny | Hosted by Canny | A feedback portal where customers submit and vote, a roadmap, a changelog, and an Autopilot feature that merges duplicates it finds across tickets and calls. Its changelog page says email notifications need a paid plan. | You want a hosted tool with many integrations such as Slack, Jira, HubSpot and Zendesk, and do not mind another subscription. |
| FeatureOS | Hosted by FeatureOS | Feedback boards, roadmaps as lists, Kanban or timelines, a changelog, and AI that merges duplicate requests. Statuses are shown as Captured, Planned, Shipped. | You want a hosted board with a changelog and prioritisation frameworks built in. |
The table is a starting point, not a verdict. Canny and FeatureOS are polished, mature products with integrations that a WordPress plugin will not match, and if your requests mostly arrive through a helpdesk, a hosted tool can fit better. For pricing, check each vendor’s pricing page.
If you are weighing hosted tools against your own site more broadly, our guide to self-hosted community platforms covers the same trade for communities.
Why choose a WordPress feature request plugin over Canny?
Choose WordPress when your users are already on your site, when you want the board to look like the rest of your brand, or when you do not want to give another vendor your customers’ feedback. Choose Canny when you want integrations with your helpdesk and project tools and prefer to pay a vendor than maintain a plugin.
There are three practical reasons WordPress makes sense.
The members are already there. If you run a community or a membership site, people have accounts. A vote tied to a real member account is harder to fake than an anonymous one, and you can limit voting to paying members through membership gating.
The board is part of the site. It uses your login screens, your menu and your colours, rather than a separate portal on another domain.
You keep the data. Votes, comments and the history of what you shipped sit in your own database.
The costs are real too. You maintain the plugin, keep it updated and back it up. You will not get a one-click link to Jira or Zendesk unless the plugin offers one. If that matters, say so honestly in your own decision.
Which statuses should a feature request board use?
Use four or five statuses, and name them in plain words: a start state, Planned, In progress, Shipped and Declined. Fewer is better. Every extra status is one more thing for a moderator to decide and one more thing for a member to misread.
Jetonomy’s ideas board playbook uses Planned, In progress, Shipped and Declined, and new ideas start with no status at all. They are open, but they sit outside the roadmap lanes. That gap is useful. It lets you say “we have seen it” without saying “we will build it.”
Here is what each status should mean, written the way you would put it on the board.
- No status (open): Submitted, visible, open for votes. No decision yet.
- Planned: We intend to build this. It may not have a date.
- In progress: Someone is working on it now.
- Shipped: It is live. The idea links to the release note.
- Declined: We will not build this, and here is why.
Declined deserves a word. In Jetonomy’s playbook it is a status, not a deletion. Keep it that way. A declined idea with a reason is still on the board, so the next person who has the same thought finds the answer instead of posting again.
Other tools use their own labels. FeatureOS shows Captured, Planned, Shipped on its site. FeatureQuest says its free roadmap has fixed statuses and its paid version allows custom ones. If your tool lets you rename statuses, keep them short and keep the same words in your changelog.
What voting rules keep a feature board honest?
The fairest rule is one account, one vote per idea, with votes counting equally. Decide who may vote before you launch, because changing the rule later feels like moving the goalposts.
Jetonomy’s playbook describes it this way: anyone with an account can post and vote when posting is public, and you can limit voting to paying customers by making the space private or gating it behind a membership plan. Each vote counts equally, and the board does not weight votes by revenue or plan. Vote counts are visible, and you can sort by votes.
Equal votes is a choice, not a law. Some teams want to weigh votes from their biggest customers. If you do, do it in your own planning notes, not on the public board, so members are not told their vote is worth less.
Guests are a second decision. Product Roadmap’s page says anonymous visitors can view the board but cannot vote in the free plugin, and guest suggestions are a paid add-on. FeatureQuest lets visitors vote with a verified email, and SimpleBoards allows guest votes. Each choice trades convenience against spam. For a community site, account-only voting is usually the cleaner start.
Three rules to write on the board itself:
- Search before you post.
- One idea per post.
- Votes guide us, they do not decide for us.
How do you set up a feature request board on WordPress?
Set it up in seven steps: pick the tool, create the board, define statuses, set who can post and vote, seed it with real ideas, link it from your menu, and test it as a member. Each step below ends with a check.
Step 1: Choose the plugin
Match the tool to the job. If you already run forums or Q&A on the site, use the Ideas space in Jetonomy, so ideas live next to the discussions that produce them. If you want a roadmap page for one product, use Product Roadmap. If you need guest voting or a free Kanban view, look at SimpleBoards or FeatureQuest.
Check: write one sentence naming who will post, who will vote and who will set statuses. If you cannot, you are not ready to choose.
Step 2: Create the board
In Jetonomy, add a space and choose the Ideas type. Give it a name members understand, such as “Feature requests” rather than “Ideas.” With Product Roadmap, create the page and place the board with the shortcode the plugin provides.
Check: open the board in a private browser window. You should see the empty state and a clear way to add an idea or sign in.
Step 3: Set the statuses
Use the list from the section above. In Jetonomy the statuses come with the Ideas space, so your work is to write what each one means in the space description.
Check: create a test idea, set it to Planned, then Shipped. The roadmap view should move it between lanes. Delete the test idea afterwards.
Step 4: Decide who posts and votes
Open posting to every logged-in member, or restrict the space to paying members with membership gating. Jetonomy’s playbook names MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro for gating. If you sell memberships, our guide to a paid community with Stripe shows how to build the access side.
Check: log in as a basic member and as a paying member. Confirm each can do exactly what you intended and nothing more. Ordinary members should be able to post and vote only, while moderators and admins set statuses.
Step 5: Seed the board
An empty board looks abandoned. Before launch, add ten to fifteen real requests you have already heard, written in the customer’s words. Credit them if they agree.
Check: the first screen should show a mix of statuses and enough votes that a new visitor understands how it works without reading instructions.
Step 6: Link it where people look
Put it in the main menu, the account menu and the footer. Add it to the support page and to the email signature your team uses.
Check: from your homepage, reach the board in two clicks.
Step 7: Test it on a phone
Most voting happens from a phone. Open the board at a narrow width, post an idea, vote and read a long thread.
Check: nothing is cut off, the vote button is easy to tap, and the status label is readable without zooming.
How do you merge duplicate feature requests?
Merge duplicates into the oldest or best-written idea so the votes combine instead of splitting. Do it weekly, and leave a short note on the merged post so the people who posted it know where their vote went.
Why it matters: if “dark mode” appears four times with eight votes each, it looks like four small ideas. Merged, it is one idea with thirty-two votes, and that is what you should plan around.
Tool support varies, so check before you rely on it. Jetonomy’s playbook says moderators can merge duplicate ideas into one so votes are not split across copies. FeatureQuest’s page says merging keeps followers, custom fields, official replies, images and imported vote counts. SimpleBoards lists duplicate detection and merging under its paid AI feature. Canny and FeatureOS both describe automatic merging of duplicates on their own sites.
A simple routine:
- Sort by newest and scan the last week.
- Search the board for two or three keywords from each new idea.
- Merge into the strongest original.
- Comment: “Merged into the main request, your vote is counted there.”
Check: after a merge, open the surviving idea and confirm the vote total went up and the old post no longer shows in the list.
How should you moderate a feature request board?
Moderate in three layers: hold new posts for review if you get spam, let members flag problems, and give a small team the power to set statuses. Keep the rules short and public.
Jetonomy’s playbook lists the tools: an approval hold that keeps new posts out of public view until a moderator reads them, member flags that land in one queue, and closing a thread to stop further replies. Space moderators can run the board without site admin access, which matters because the person who triages ideas is often not the person who administers the site.
Product Roadmap’s page says member submissions go to the standard WordPress posts queue, where you can approve, edit, decline or recategorise them. FeatureQuest has an optional approval queue for new requests, and SimpleBoards uses one shared queue for guest and member submissions.
Decide in advance what you will remove. A short list works:
- Spam and advertising.
- Personal attacks on staff or other members.
- Support questions, which you redirect to your help channel.
- Bug reports, which you move to your bug process, since a bug is not a feature to be voted on.
Set a weekly triage slot. Jetonomy’s playbook suggests a weekly triage and a monthly planning pass. That rhythm is enough for most small teams. For wider moderation practice in communities, see our piece on how communities handle low-quality content with better moderation.
Check: post a spam-looking test idea as a new member. Confirm it is held or flagged the way you expect, then clear it.
How do you close the loop with a changelog?
Close the loop by marking the idea Shipped, writing a short release note, and linking the two. The people who voted need to hear that it happened. That is the part most teams skip, and it is the reason people stop voting.
Jetonomy’s playbook recommends a Shipped update with a link to the documentation after each release, and it notifies the idea’s author when a moderator changes the status. Product Roadmap’s paid add-on emails voters when their items ship, per its product page. Canny’s changelog page says its email notifications need a paid plan.
A good release note for a shipped idea has four parts: what changed, who asked for it, how to use it, and where to read more. Keep it to a few lines.
The changelog itself needs a home. Our guide to building a changelog and What’s New page in WordPress shows how to build one. The same roadmap plugin can do more than product work, as covered in 7 ways to use a roadmap plugin beyond product development. If you prefer to show progress as columns, adding a Kanban-style project board to any WordPress theme walks through that.
Check: ship one small item. Within a day, the idea should show Shipped, the release note should exist, and the author should have been notified.
How do you style the board with Reign?
Reign styles community plugins so they match your site without code. Its Wbcom plugins page says Reign ships styling for Product Roadmap and other plugins, and that the styling turns on by itself, only on the pages that need it. Jetonomy has its own section there, with its community area at /community/ and its own full-width layout and sidebar.
For colours, Reign’s colour settings sit under Customize, Color Options. Its docs describe four layers where each narrower layer wins over the broader one: a Color Palette for the whole site, Individual Colors for specific elements, Dark Mode Colors for dark mode only, and a Light & Dark Mode section that controls the visitor switch. If a palette change seems to skip an element, the docs say a saved pin in Individual Colors or Dark Mode Colors is usually the cause.
That matters for a voting board, because status labels carry meaning. Planned, In progress and Shipped need to be told apart at a glance, in light and in dark mode. Pick your palette first, then check each status colour against the background in both modes.
Check: switch the visitor toggle to dark mode with the board open. Every status label and vote count should stay readable.
If you are building the surrounding community, our guide to Reign with Jetonomy forums covers the setup, and the forum plugin comparison helps if you are still choosing.
What does a healthy board look like over time?
A healthy board has fresh ideas each week, status changes each month, and at least one shipped item each quarter. If none of those is true, members see a graveyard.
Watch three signals. Ideas per week tell you whether people still care. The share of ideas with a status tells you whether you are triaging. Time from Shipped to release note tells you whether you are closing the loop.
If the board grows past a few hundred ideas, add categories and sort by votes. Many tools include categories or filters, so use them early rather than waiting for the clutter. For a wider view of managing ideas from a community, our earlier post on collecting and managing user ideas adds more detail.
Questions people ask
What is the best feature request plugin for WordPress?
It depends on what you already run. Jetonomy fits best if you also want forums and Q&A, Product Roadmap fits a standalone roadmap page, and FeatureQuest and SimpleBoards suit lighter boards with guest voting. Wbcom makes Jetonomy and Product Roadmap, so test two options against your own use case before you decide.
Is there a free Canny alternative for WordPress?
Several WordPress plugins offer free versions with voting and a roadmap. Jetonomy documents an ideas board with voting, statuses and a moderation queue, and its product page lists what each licence includes. Features differ by plugin, so read each free-versus-paid list and check the vendor’s page for current terms.
Can visitors vote without creating an account?
It depends on the plugin. Product Roadmap’s free version needs a logged-in user to vote. FeatureQuest allows voting with a verified email, and SimpleBoards allows guest votes. Anonymous voting raises spam risk, so decide how much friction you want before you launch.
How often should I update the board?
Triage new ideas weekly and review statuses monthly. Update a status the same day you ship, and post the release note at the same time. A board that shows movement every month keeps members voting.
Should I show vote counts publicly?
Usually yes. Visible counts help members find popular ideas and stop them posting duplicates. If you worry that counts bias later voters, test a board with counts shown and judge from the first month of activity.
Where to go from here
Start small: one board, four statuses, a weekly triage, and a release note every time you ship. Pick the tool that matches the site you already run, then set the board up with the steps above.
Reign is the theme behind the styling in this guide. It makes the board, your forums and your community pages look like one site, in light and dark mode. See the Reign theme page for features and demos, or try the BuddyNext live demo to click around a working community first.