Community engines
BuddyPress is the free social-network engine for WordPress. Activity feed, profiles, groups, messages.
Reign is designed around BuddyPress. Every Reign surface (profile, group, activity, member directory) is styled out of the box.
The free alternative from us
BuddyNext does the same job in-house and installs free: Member profiles, activity feed, groups, messages, notifications. On the paid plan: advanced moderation, deeper analytics, and priority support. Reign styles it with no add-on, and BuddyPress stays fully supported either way.
See the free pluginsReign ships dedicated BuddyPress support: a Nouveau stylesheet, menu icon styles and a buddypress include in the theme, so member directories, profiles, groups and the activity stream are designed rather than inherited. This is one of the oldest integrations in the theme and among the most complete. If you run BuddyPress with Youzify, be aware that Youzify replaces large parts of the profile UI, and the theme ships separate Youzify styles for exactly that reason.
Use BuddyPress if you are already running it and it works. Reign styles it properly and there is no prize for migrating a functioning community. For a new build, our own BuddyNext covers the same ground, installs free and is what the theme's newer work is aimed at. Both are ours to support either way, and the Pro community plugins ship together as the BuddyPress Community Bundle.
Install BuddyPress (free, WordPress.org).
Run the BuddyPress setup wizard.
Enable all components: Activity, Groups, Friends, Messages.
Reign styles every BuddyPress surface automatically.
Register a second account and use the site as that member: complete a profile, join a group, post to the activity stream and send a message. Check the member directory and a profile on a phone. Confirm privacy settings behave, because a profile field visible when it should not be is the failure that matters here.
BuddyPress is free, BuddyBoss Platform is the paid fork with more polished UI. Reign supports both equally. Start with BuddyPress, upgrade only if you need the BuddyBoss extras.
BuddyNext is Wbcom's own community engine, built by the same team as the theme, and it installs free. It covers profiles, activity, groups, messages and notifications. BuddyPress remains fully supported, so pick BuddyNext for a fresh build and keep BuddyPress if your site already runs on it.
It ships a dedicated Nouveau stylesheet, menu icon styling and a BuddyPress include, covering directories, profiles, groups and the activity stream. That is real template-level work rather than colour tinting, and it is why BuddyPress sites on Reign look designed rather than default.
Not if BuddyPress is working for you. BuddyNext is our own community engine, it installs free, and it is where our newer work goes, but a working community is not worth rebuilding for its own sake. Consider it for new builds or when you hit something BuddyPress will not do.
It adds what any plugin adds, and the honest way to find out is to measure your own site rather than trust a general claim. BuddyPress adds its own tables and its directories and activity streams query heavily, so hosting and object caching matter more than they do on a content site. On a community site the heavy pages are almost always the dynamic ones, profiles, feeds and directories, so that is where to look first if the site feels slow.
The Reign theme is $99/year or $249 lifetime and it is the only required purchase. Kits bundle it with the add-ons that style a third-party stack. Or skip the third-party stack: BuddyNext is ours and installs free.
I only have positive experience with wbcom. My journey started a lot of years back with the free buddyx theme. during my learning of wordpress and futher websites ideas I found a match with their Reign job mate theme. Always there to help, always open to explore ideas, always kind replyes even if I…
Swift and expert coding by Kerit to apply a personalised display adjustment on the Reign Theme for a media plugin that was not fully supported at the moment.
I purchased Reign theme from Wbcom Designs, the support team was very helpful and I got the perfect website what I was looking for. Good work Wbcom Designs
WBComDesigns is amazing. The WP plugins and themes are of top notch quality with lots of features and updated very frequently. Supports are very responsive and helpful. I use Reign with TutorLMS, and the experience is surprisingly smooth. The recently launched BuddyNext Pro and MediaShield Pro are…
Love this company. Loved the REIGN product. They were there the entire time helping me set things up; and when things went wrong? They were quick to take action and help find a solution.
I am using the REIGN theme and several plugins from Wbcom Designs on my website. The theme is beautifully designed, and the plugins are user-friendly. Everything works smoothly, and the features are perfect for building professional websites and communities. What impressed me most is their…
Using the Free version of BuddyX. New to WordPress but every question I have submitted was answered by the next day. Fantastic support.
Great, fast, and always very friendly and helpful service! They’re also happy to take on board ideas and suggestions for product improvements and respond very well to customer challenges. That’s exactly what a customer imagines when thinking of perfect service! Thank you so much for this wonderful…
The job well done, well in time - Thanks so much Anmbiya and team!
WBCOM Designs has constantly updated and supported their plugins and themes. Recently the new BuddyNext project is Amazing! - and the new line of addons like Mediaverse, Jetonomy, Mediashield, and Listora.. are likewise Amazing! - and very well built. Today their online Chat solved a download…
