2-4 weeks for typical 1k-20k user forum
Migrate from Discourse to Reign.
Why people migrate
Discourse migrations happen when forum-only sites need to add LMS, marketplace, or member directory features Discourse does not provide.
What you land on
Reign is the design layer at $99/year or $249 lifetime, and it is the only thing you have to buy. The plugins that rebuild your community here are ours: BuddyNext for members and groups, Learnomy for courses, Jetonomy for forums and Q&A, MediaVerse for member media. 11 of them install free, each with its own Pro plan for when one part of the community starts earning. No monthly platform fee replaces the one you are leaving.
What you keep + what you rebuild
Set expectations before you start.
Migrates cleanly
- User accounts (Discourse user export to JSON).
- Topic + reply data (Discourse export API).
- Trust levels + badges (manual mapping to forum roles, plus WB Gamification for the badges).
Requires rebuild
- Forum styling (neither Jetonomy nor bbPress ships Discourse-level polish out of the box, though Reign styles both).
- Plugin ecosystem (Discourse plugins do not work on WordPress forums).
- Real-time updates (WordPress forums do not refresh as live as Discourse).
6 steps
The migration walkthrough.
Export Discourse data
Discourse admin > Backups > Download. Gives JSON of users, topics, replies.
Set up Reign + the forum plugin
Jetonomy is ours and installs free: spaces, threaded discussion, Q&A with accepted answers and voting. bbPress is the alternative for teams already on it. Add Learnomy, also free, if the LMS is your migration driver.
Import users + topics
Custom WP-CLI script to map the Discourse JSON into your forum plugin. Budget developer time either way.
Map trust levels to roles
Discourse trust 0-4 maps onto forum roles: on bbPress that is Subscriber / Participant / Spectator / Moderator / Keymaster. Carry the badges over with WB Gamification, free to install.
Set up redirects
Discourse URLs look like /t/topic-slug/123. Map each one to the matching topic URL on your new forum (bbPress uses /forums/topic/topic-slug/). 301 redirects via Apache or .htaccess.
Cutover + monitor
Cut DNS over. Watch for missing redirects in first 72h.
FAQ
Migration questions.
Is a WordPress forum as good as Discourse?
Honestly, Discourse is the best standalone forum software available. Jetonomy, our own plugin, installs free and covers spaces, threaded discussion, Q&A with accepted answers and voting; bbPress is the older option. Migrate when you need community, courses and commerce on one install and one login, which Discourse does not provide.
Will SEO survive?
Yes with proper 301 redirects. Map every Discourse URL to its equivalent on the new forum. Expect to lose some PageRank during the transition (typical 4-12 week recovery).
Done-for-you migration
Have us migrate you from Discourse. $699 flat.
Wbcom team handles every step. You wake up to a live community on Reign with members migrated + billing on Stripe + welcome emails firing.