To install Reign, upload the theme zip under Appearance, Themes, Add New, Upload Theme, then activate it. To import a demo, add the Reign Demo Installer on a fresh WordPress site, pick the demo closest to your project, run the import, and replace the sample content with your own. Take a backup first, and run PHP 8.0 or newer. This guide covers each step, what an import changes, and what to do when something looks wrong.
Everything below comes from Reign’s own documentation, product pages and demo list, read in October 2026. The docs we cite were written for Reign 8.0.6 to 8.0.8. Menu labels can shift between versions, so we flag the spots where yours might read differently. Wbcom Designs makes Reign, and we say so up front.
In this guide
- Before you install, and licence activation
- Installing the theme
- The Demo Installer, choosing a demo and importing it
- What an import changes, and replacing demo content
- Menus, header layouts, dark mode and colours
- Community engine setup
- Common problems, and questions people ask
What should you do before you install Reign?
Back up the site, confirm your host meets the minimum versions, and work on a staging copy if the site already has content. Reign’s own setup checklist opens with the same three items: confirm versions, back up or use a staging copy, and make sure you can log in as an administrator.
Here are the numbers the install page gives. WordPress 6.5 is the minimum, and the page says Reign is tested up to WordPress 7.0. PHP 8.0 is the minimum. The page is blunt about it: Reign 8 uses PHP 8 syntax and will not run on older versions. If your host is still on PHP 7.x, change that first, in the host’s control panel, before you upload anything.
Memory is a separate question. The install page states no memory requirement. The white-screen page says community sites, especially on BuddyPress or BuddyBoss, need more memory than brochure sites, and calls 256M a reasonable minimum. Treat that as a floor, not a promise.
A backup is a copy of your database and files that you have tried to restore at least once. Our guide to dev, staging and production in WordPress explains the staging idea in more depth.
A staging copy is a private duplicate of your site where you can break things safely. Reign’s licence docs say staging and local development copies do not count against your production site limit, so staging costs you no licence seat. A subdomain that runs its own WordPress install does count as a separate site.
Last, decide which community plugin you will use, if any. Reign works with none, and you can only run one at a time. We come back to this in the community section.
Do you need to activate a licence before installing?
No. Reign works without a key, and activation is what turns on theme updates from the normal WordPress Updates screen. Until you activate, you update the theme by uploading a new zip by hand.
If an install button on the Extend screen does nothing on your site, check the licence screen and send support the System status from Reign Settings, Tools.
Activation takes four steps, and the label wording may differ slightly on your version:
- Log in to your account at wbcomdesigns.com and find the key under your purchase. It is a long string of letters and numbers. Your order number will not work.
- In WordPress, go to Reign Settings, then License.
- Paste the key into the License Key field.
- Select Activate License.
To confirm it worked, look at the status on the License screen, which should change. Then open Dashboard, Updates and press Check again, because WordPress caches update checks and can hide a new version for a while.
Your licence covers a set number of production sites, depending on the tier you bought. Reign add-ons have their own keys, and those do not work for the theme.
How do you install the Reign theme?
Download reign-theme.zip from your wbcomdesigns.com account, upload it under Appearance, Themes, Add New, Upload Theme, and activate it. Use the theme file itself, not the full purchase bundle, because a bundle can hold add-ons as separate zips.
- Download reign-theme.zip from your account.
- In WordPress, go to Appearance, then Themes, then Add New, then Upload Theme.
- Choose reign-theme.zip and select Install Now.
- Select Activate.
To confirm it worked, open Reign Settings in the admin menu. The version number shows beside the Reign wordmark. A blank white page instead means you should jump to the problems table below.
If the upload stops with a file-size error, you have two routes from the docs. Raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size on your host, or unzip the folder on your computer, upload the reign-theme folder to wp-content/themes/ over SFTP, and activate it from Appearance, Themes.
Where do the settings live?
Reign has two places for settings. Reign Settings is a top-level admin menu with sections called Home, Design, Community, Integrations, Extend, Tools and License. The Customizer, under Appearance, Customize, holds the visual controls in eight panels, including General, Header, Typography, Color Options and Footer.
Two more things for your first hour. The install page says to install Wbcom Essential, which adds blocks and Elementor widgets, on every Reign site. The setup checklist says to install the child theme before customising; Reign Settings, Tools has a download button for it.
What is the Reign Demo Installer?
The Reign Demo Installer is an add-on that imports a ready-made demo site into a fresh WordPress install. Reign’s add-ons page lists it under Utility with a price label of Free. You still need a Reign theme licence to use it.
The add-on page says it imports pages, menus, widgets, plugin settings and sample content, and it calls demos starting points, not finished sites.
What a demo import brings depends on the demo and on your licence. The Demo Installer imports a demo into a fresh install, and the in-house Wbcom plugins (BuddyNext, Jetonomy, Learnomy and the rest) bring their own sample data through their setup wizards. Check the Demos page and your account for exactly what your licence includes, and ask support if the Demo Installer does not appear for you.
The three routes to a starting site
Reign gives you three ways to see something filled in. They suit different jobs, and the table puts them side by side.
| Route | Best for | Needs | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demo Installer import | A site that should look like one of the listed demos | Reign licence, fresh empty site, the demo’s own plugins | 26 of the 34 demos use third-party plugins you license separately |
| Plugin sample data | A BuddyNext, Jetonomy, Learnomy or similar build | The plugin and its setup wizard | Removal is done per plugin, using each plugin’s own option |
| Live sandbox | Looking before you commit | Nothing, no signup | It is a throwaway site that lasts 4 hours, and it is not an import |
The sandboxes come from InstaWP, with Reign and one platform already set up. For BuddyNext there is a BuddyNext live demo you can open before you install anything.
How do you choose a demo?
Pick the demo closest to the kind of site you are building, then check which plugins it needs. The Demos page groups its 34 demos by site type, and the plugin underneath matters more than the colours on the screen.
| Group | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Community base | Reign BuddyPress, Reign BuddyBoss Platform, Reign PeepSo Community and dark versions of the first two |
| Course community | Demos built on LearnDash, LifterLMS, Tutor LMS and Sensei, with BuddyPress or BuddyBoss Platform |
| Multi-vendor marketplace | Demos built on Dokan, WC Vendors and WCFM, plus StoreMate variants |
| Job board | Two JobMate demos |
| Business directory | One GeoDirectory demo |
| Niche | CBD store, social photography and dating |
The licensing line on that page is the one people skip. It says 26 of the 34 demos use third-party plugins that you must license separately, and that importing one without the licence gives you the layout, not the full behaviour. It also says the third-party route needs a matching Reign styling add-on. Check the add-on pricing on the product page before you commit.
If you plan a community built on Wbcom’s own plugins, the Demos page says there are no importable in-house demos yet. Its suggestion is to install the plugins on a staging site and test them with your own content. Our guide to Reign add-ons and what you can build with Reign help you match a site type to a setup.
How do you import a demo with the Reign Demo Installer?
Install Reign and the Demo Installer on a fresh site, choose the demo, run the import, install the plugins it asks for, then replace the sample content. The exact button labels may differ by version, so read them as a guide, not a script.
- Start with an empty site. The add-on page warns against running the installer on a site that has content, because it can conflict with what is there. If you want to test against a live setup, clone the site to staging first and rebuild production by hand.
- Install and activate Reign, using the steps above, and activate your licence.
- Install the Demo Installer. It ships in the Reign Addons Bundle kit, per the add-on page. Where it appears in your admin menu depends on your version.
- Pick the demo. The Demos page says you paste the demo URL from the list (they live on installer.wbcomdesigns.com) and click Import.
- Install the plugins it asks for. The add-on page says the installer prompts you for any plugins the demo requires.
- Wait for it to finish, then open the front end.
To confirm it worked, load the homepage in a private window and click through the main menu and the footer. Check that the menu points at real pages on your own domain.
What does a demo import change, and what does it leave alone?
It adds a structure of pages, menus, widgets, plugin settings and sample content. It does not give you a finished site, licences for third-party plugins, your own text, or your own images.
| An import changes or adds | An import does not do |
|---|---|
| Pages | Write your content |
| Menus | Buy or activate third-party plugin licences |
| Widgets | Make a demo behave fully without the plugin’s licence |
| Plugin settings for the demo’s plugins | Give you a finished, launch-ready site |
| Sample content | Merge cleanly into a site that already has content |
Some questions the pages we read do not answer, so we will not guess. They do not say what happens to the demo’s images, or whether the demo’s sample members come across as real user accounts. Test that on a staging copy and look at what appears under Media and Users before you assume either way.
How do you replace the demo content with your own?
Work through pages, menus, images and sample data in that order, and remove each plugin’s sample data with its own removal tool before launch. The setup checklist says demo content must be removed before you go live, and it names seven plugins that offer sample data.
- Rewrite the key pages first: home, about, contact, and the terms and privacy pages.
- Swap the images. Replace the logo under Appearance, Customize, Site Identity, and add a site icon for browser tabs.
- Remove plugin sample data. BuddyNext has a tool at BuddyNext, Platform Tools, Demo Data, Remove Demo Data. Other plugins have their own removal options inside their setup screens.
- Delete the test account you made while checking member features.
- Save Settings, Permalinks once, so every plugin’s page address works.
- Check search engine indexing is not blocked under Settings, Reading.
To confirm it worked, search your own site for a phrase from the demo. If a result appears, demo content is left.
If you used BuddyNext sample content, load it before other plugins’ demo data. The BuddyNext setup page explains that other plugins’ demo content needs members to belong to, and the sample set is 12 members, 14 spaces and 22 posts with images. Remember to remove it the same way you added it.
How do you set your menu after an import?
Go to Appearance, Menus, build a menu called Main, and tick both Primary locations. Reign registers eight menu locations, and an import can leave you with demo links pointing at pages that do not exist on your site.
| Location | Where it shows |
|---|---|
| Primary, Logged in users | Main header menu for members |
| Primary, Logged out users | Main header menu for guests |
| Left Panel, Logged in and Logged out | The slide-in side menu |
| Mobile Menu, Logged in and Logged out | Phones and tablets |
| User Profile | The dropdown under a member’s avatar |
| BuddyNext Community Nav | A bar on BuddyNext community pages, only with BuddyNext |
- In Appearance, Menus, create a menu named Main and add your pages.
- Under Menu Settings, tick both Primary locations and save. Do this first.
- If you want a separate phone menu, create one and tick both Mobile Menu locations.
- For a community, create a Profile menu and tick User Profile.
- For a side menu, tick both Left Panel locations, then check Appearance, Customize, Header, Left Panel, where the Left Panel Global Setting is the master switch.
- To show guests different links, build a menu of public pages only and assign it to a Logged out location.
Two traps from the docs. Do not add custom links that contain a username, because every visitor would land on the same person’s page. And do not paste a Log Out link, because BuddyNext adds one automatically and a pasted one expires after a day.
To confirm it worked, view the site on desktop, then in a private window for the guest menus, then on a narrow screen for the mobile menu, then as a member for the avatar dropdown. Reign has no footer menu, so put footer links in a widget.
Which header layout should you choose?
Choose the layout that fits your real menu and logo, by testing each one. Reign includes several header layouts, chosen from a visual Layout picker in the Customizer, and the options you see depend on your version.
What the docs do agree on is how the choice works. The setting lives at Customize, Header, Layout. Each layout changes where the logo, menu and icons sit relative to one another. The page suggests an order of work: choose the header style first, because it constrains the rest, then set the icon order, then pick a menu hover style.
These are the other header controls the docs describe:
- Header Icons Options is a sortable list. Search and the user menu are always there. Cart appears once WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads is active, and Message and Notification appear once a community plugin is active. The Light and Dark Toggle can be dragged in among them.
- Main Menu Hover Style offers six styles on desktop. Leaving it on Select Style adds no special effect.
- More dropdown. Menu items that do not fit move into a More dropdown, and this is on by default.
- Mobile has its own icon order under Mobile Menu. Reordering the desktop list does not change it.
One caveat if you run a shop. With WooCommerce active and layout v4 chosen, a Header Search Style control appears. It decides whether the search box searches products or uses standard WordPress search. If BuddyNext and WooCommerce are both active, the same control also decides whether the search icon opens BuddyNext’s community search.
To confirm it worked, check the header on a phone as well as on desktop. The first-configuration page calls header problems on phones the most common first-pass issue. The Reign customisation guide covers the visual side in more depth.
How do you turn on dark mode in Reign?
Open Appearance, Customize, Color Options, Light and Dark Mode, turn on Show Light and Dark Switch, choose a position and a default mode, and publish. Dark mode is generated from your colour palette, so choose the palette first.
- Pick a colour palette under Color Options, Color Palette.
- Go to Color Options, Light and Dark Mode.
- Turn on Show Light and Dark Switch. The how-to says it is on by default, but confirm it.
- Choose a Switch Position: header and mobile menu, header only, or mobile menu only.
- Set Default Mode to light or dark. First-time visitors see this mode before they choose.
- If your logo disappears on a dark header, upload a Dark Mode Logo. It shows only in dark mode.
- Press Publish.
To confirm it worked, open the site in a private window and click the sun and moon button. The whole site should switch, and the choice should survive a reload. Then look at a page with a large photo at the top and a page with a form, because leftover custom colours most often break there.
For photos or banners that should change between modes, Reign Settings, Design has a Dark mode images card that pairs a light image with a dark one.
How do colour tokens work in Reign?
You choose a palette, and Reign applies it everywhere, in both light and dark mode. A token is a named colour value that many parts of the site share, so changing it once changes all of them. Reign’s product page calls these custom colour tokens. The colour docs describe the same idea as four layers inside Color Options and do not use the word token.
| Layer | What it does |
|---|---|
| Color Palette | A single picker that sets colours site-wide, including dark versions. This is the baseline. |
| Individual Colors | Per-element overrides in light mode. Each palette stores its own. |
| Dark Mode Colors | The same elements, applied only in dark mode. |
| Light and Dark Mode | Controls the switch, default mode and dark logo. It sets no colours. |
The palette picker offers eight options: Default, Minimal, Clean, Emerald, Indigo, Rose, Amber and Midnight. Default keeps your current colours, so it is safe on an existing site. The rule that matters most: a narrower setting beats a broader one. A colour you set by hand in Individual Colors overrides the palette at that spot and will not follow later palette changes.
The docs recommend picking a palette first, living with it for a day, and overriding only what needs its own colour. The reset arrow on a colour picker returns a field to the palette’s value.
How do you set up the community engine on a Reign site?
Install the community plugin, finish its own setup wizard, and only then judge how Reign styles it. Reign is the design layer. BuddyNext is a community engine, meaning the part that handles members, profiles, the activity feed and spaces. The Reign docs recommend BuddyNext for new sites.
- Deactivate BuddyPress if it is active. BuddyNext and BuddyPress cannot run together, and Reign loads its BuddyNext styling only when BuddyNext is active and BuddyPress is not.
- Install BuddyNext from Reign Settings, Extend, with the one-click install.
- Run its setup screen. BuddyNext opens BuddyNext Setup on activation. The wizard has eight steps: Branding, Who can join, Profile fields, Default notifications, Space categories, the pages it creates (Community Feed, Members, Spaces), Companion plugins, and a final screen.
- Untick companion plugins you do not want. The wizard ticks every Wbcom companion plugin by default, and ticked ones are installed and activated.
To confirm it worked, go to Reign Settings, Integrations. With BuddyNext active you should see a BuddyNext tile reading Styling active, and no BuddyPress tile. The docs add that a tile reading BuddyPress means a build older than 8.0.7, which mislabelled it.
Finish the wizard before you judge the styling, because an unfinished BuddyNext setup can look like a Reign problem. The docs add some Reign behaviours worth knowing:
- Messaging needs MediaVerse. Without it, the header messages icon, the Messages menu item and profile Message buttons are hidden.
- The avatar dropdown uses your User Profile menu if you assigned one, and BuddyNext’s default quick links if you did not. Log Out always appears.
- Front-end login, register and reset links go to BuddyNext’s auth hub, not wp-login.php. Admin login still works through wp-login.php.
If you are on BuddyPress today and thinking of moving, read our guide to keeping Reign and upgrading the community. The docs warn that BuddyPress content does not transfer on its own when you activate BuddyNext, so test on staging first. If you want BuddyBoss Platform or PeepSo instead, Reign has separate setup pages for each, and our BuddyBoss to Reign migration guide covers that route. For an idea of what the whole stack can become, see the Reign job board walkthrough.
What common problems come up, and how do you fix them?
Most install trouble falls into a handful of patterns: an old PHP version, low memory, a cache hiding your change, a stale permalink, or a leftover override. This table gives the symptom, what to check, the fix from Reign’s docs, and how to avoid it next time.
| Symptom | Check | Fix | Prevent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blank white page after activating | PHP version and memory; turn on WP_DEBUG_LOG and read the last line of debug.log | Rename reign-theme over SFTP to regain access; move to PHP 8.0 or newer; raise WP_MEMORY_LIMIT (256M is the docs’ floor for community sites) | Check PHP and memory before installing; turn WP_DEBUG off again afterwards |
| Upload fails with a file-size error | Host upload limits | Raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size, or upload the unzipped folder over SFTP | Know your host’s limits before you start |
| Licence key refused | Right product, stray spaces, free seats, outbound HTTPS to wbcomdesigns.com, subscription status | Copy the key from the Reign theme purchase, clear and repaste it, free a seat, or ask your host to allow the connection | Keep the key somewhere clean; deactivate the licence before moving a site |
| Licence keeps deactivating | Seat limit, cloned staging URLs, subdomains with their own WordPress | Deactivate on copies and sites you no longer use | Keep a short list of your production sites |
| Customizer change does not show | Did you press Publish; caches; narrower overrides; custom CSS | Purge page cache, host cache, then CDN; test in a private window; clear the override | Choose a palette before hand-picking colours |
| Dark mode button missing, or an area stays light | Show Light and Dark Switch and Switch Position; Individual Colors overrides | Turn the switch on; fix the colour in Dark Mode Colors | Avoid setting colours one by one |
| Members or groups pages return 404 | Permalinks, page assignment, enabled components, Page Mapping, slug clashes | Save Settings, Permalinks; assign pages under Settings, BuddyPress, Pages; rename clashing content | Save permalinks after activating or switching a community plugin |
| Page not found in the profile dropdown | Leftover custom links from an imported demo or BuddyPress | Delete the leftover links and add items from the BuddyNext box | Review menus right after any import |
| Header search shows products | WooCommerce and BuddyNext both active | Follow the docs steps: set Layout to v4, set Header Search Style to Default Search, publish, then switch back | Decide search behaviour when you add a shop |
| Demo looks right but features are missing | Which third-party plugins the demo uses, and whether they are licensed | License and install them, or use a demo that matches your plugin set | Read the demo’s plugin list before you import |
For the white screen, the docs also suggest renaming the plugins folder to rule out a conflict, and deleting the theme folder completely before uploading a fresh copy. If nothing works, send support the last 20 lines of debug.log and the System status from Reign Settings, Tools. For a change that will not show, it is usually a cache or an override, not a lost save.
How do you keep the site safe after setup?
Take a backup before every Reign update, keep code changes in the child theme, and test updates on staging first. The updating page stresses the backup because people often skip it. Files changed inside the reign-theme folder are overwritten during an update.
Update Reign add-ons in the same session as the theme. For more on safe updates, see stress-free Reign updates. For speed on a busy community, read the Reign performance guide.
Questions people ask
Is the Reign Demo Installer free?
Reign’s add-ons page lists it with a price label of Free, and says there is no licence key to renew for the installer itself. You still need a Reign theme licence. Wbcom also offers a paid done-for-you setup service, listed on the Reign theme page, if you would rather not do it yourself.
Do I need BuddyNext to use Reign?
No. The install docs say no community plugin is required, and BuddyNext is recommended for new sites. BuddyPress, BuddyBoss Platform and PeepSo are also supported, one at a time.
What PHP version does Reign need?
PHP 8.0 or newer. Reign 8 will not run on older versions, and the usual symptom is a white screen or a parse error naming a file in the reign-theme folder. Check Reign Settings, Tools, System status, or Site Health, Info, Server.
Will my settings survive a theme update?
Customizer and Reign Settings choices are stored in the database, so updates do not touch them. Anything you edited inside the theme folder is overwritten, so move that work into a child theme first and take a backup.
That is the full path from an empty WordPress site to a branded Reign site with a community on it. When you are ready to try it, start with the Reign theme page, and open a sandbox or the demos list first if you want to see the result before you install anything.