Looking for the best WordPress forum theme to build a solid community?

One might think just having great content is enough to build a successful forum website, but it’s not entirely true.

Because nowadays the design and user experience play a significant role in bringing the success of any website.

And a good WordPress forum theme can take care of both UI and UX to guarantee a good experience for your user.

But how to find a good theme to build a WordPress forum website?

Well, to help you find the best theme for your forum, I have listed the 9 best WordPress forum themes with key features and prices in this blog. 

Keep reading to find more details about each theme …

What is a forum?

A forum is basically a place/platform where people discuss topics of shared interest. Usually, someone asks a question and then others reply to engage in the discussion. Some of the popular forums are Stackoverflow, Reddit, Quora, Github, etc.

Things to look for in a WordPress forum theme

A WordPress forum theme helps you to design a forum website in a short time. A good theme can help you create a forum website that ensures the best user experience. However, to choose the perfect WordPress forum theme, you need to keep some things in mind. Here are the things you need to look for in a WordPress forum theme:

• The theme needs to be device responsive. Nowadays, people are not limited to desktop usage only; rather they use devices of various sizes and shapes depending on the time they are browsing. Therefore, your website must look great on all devices.
• The next thing you need to look for in a forum theme is SEO optimization. To grab the user’s attention to your forum, your site needs to rank and SEO optimization is a prerequisite for that.
• Another non-negotiable factor is the compatibility of your theme with the plugins you are already using on your website. Because if the theme is not compatible with all the plugins installed on your site, then it may collapse the entire site.
• In case you are looking to run a forum in multiple languages, you need to make sure your WordPress forum theme is translation-ready.
• While it may seem trivial, having a theme that is well documented is very crucial. Because an easy-to-follow documentation can make theme customization a piece of cake.
• You should also look for different functionalities like upvote/like any answer and other functions that you may need for the specific forum that you wish to build.

You can also read: Top Famous WordPress Websites You didn’t Know About

Best WordPress forum themes : List of top 9

Here is a list of 9 best WordPress forum themes you can try out. In this section, you will find the key features along with the price of each theme:

Forum Engine

If you are looking for a theme that offers a simple yet modern design with advanced customization options, then you can opt for Forum Engine. This standalone WordPress forum theme lets you create a forum-based community website with ease.

The feature that stands out about this theme is its ‘User Badges System’. Using the mentioned system, you can give awards to users based on their activity such as time spent on the forum, the number of posts, comments, likes, etc.

Key Features of Forum Engine:

• Can browse topics with keyword search
• Post a thread where people can reply
• Can earn revenue by showing advertisements
• Ability to publish content without having to leave the home page
• Device-responsive design
• Can create custom badges and custom rules for user’s access on-site based on the badge they earn
• Users are notified of every action/reaction to their post.
• SEO-optimized.
• WPML-ready

Price: $49

Ask Me

This high-performing theme comes with RTL support. So, if you are looking to create a community forum using any RTL language, then the Ask Me theme should be your first choice.

You will also get options like profile pages for the user, question pages, and answers pages with this WordPress theme. Moreover, users can attain badges for being helpful on the forum.

Key Features of Ask Me:

• Highly customizable
• Badge and points options for users
• Like/Dislike option along with view counts
• Comes with a live search option based on AJAX technology
• Customizable headers
• SEO-friendly WordPress forum theme

Price: $59

ForumPress

Whether you want to create a forum for your business or community, ForumPress is a great option. What’s more, this WordPress Forum theme is already serving 3311+ happy customers.

This easy-to-manage theme lets users have their own profile with many customization options. Moreover, you can customize this theme in a few steps and change the look of your site so it represents your brand.

Key Features of ForumPress:

• 100% responsive design
• SEO friendly theme
• Compatible with WP5 & Gutenberg
• Easy to customize
• 24×7 email support
• Offers secure online payment
• Options to run multiple forums on the same site

Price:$99.00

HelpGuru

HelpGuru is a premium WordPress theme that is trusted by popular names such as Crazyegg, Procurify, OptimizePress, etc. With this theme, you can collect feedback on articles and pin the feedback option as well.

A highlighted feature of this theme is the knowledge base feature which makes it easy to collect, organize, retrieve, and share data. To display the knowledge-based articles, it provides three different widget options.

Key Features of HelpGuru:

• Looks great on all devices.
• Easily customizable with a few click
• Compatible with bbPress
• A translation-ready theme 
• Well-documented

Price:$69

 Answers

Anyone on the quest for a theme to create a question & Answer website can try the Answers theme. This is a popular, easy-to-navigate knowledge base theme.

It comes with a widget-ready sidebar which you can use to place a widget anywhere on the site. In addition, you can also show the top users list.

Key Features of Answers:

• Users can easily ask questions
• Can vote on answers they like
• Option to charge for question submission through secure payment
• User-friendly dashboard
• Option to translate answers into a different language
• Compatible with popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce, Contact form 7, etc.

Price: $39

QAEngine

If you are looking for a theme that will let you create a fully customizable, chic-looking question & answer WordPress website, then QA Engine is a great option. 

Submitting questions and finding answers to your questions is super easy with this WordPress forum theme. This theme also comes with a “Pump” function where users can pay to put their questions in the top place.

Key Features of QAEngine:

• Different levels for user point and badge
• Options to comment and vote on answers
• Various payment options for pump plan
• Can easily find the best answer

Price: $89

Olympus

If you are looking to build a community like a powerful social media network, then you need not look further. Because the Olympus theme is the perfect choice for that. This stylish theme is easy to install and totally compatible with the bbPress plugin.

This theme is created using awesome page builders like WPBakery Page Builder and Elementor. Besides, it’s also compatible with WooCommerce.

Key features of Olympus:

• Youzer Integration
• Includes BuddyPress which unleashes additional options
• Great navigation option which includes mega menu and left menu panel
• Ajax search option is available to search posts, users, pages, events, etc
• Can add a modal popup in the top bar so users can register at any point

Price: $68

Ekko

Ekko is a multi-purpose WordPress theme with the feature “Forum Statistics”. And this feature is what makes this a good theme to create a community-based website.

This WordPress forum theme is compatible with bbPres, and lets you create custom categories like ‘Most Popular Topics’ and ‘Topics With No Replies.’ 

Key features of Ekko:

• Easy to use and customize
• Users can know the total member count of the community
• Option to provide an incentive to join the community
• A fast theme with one click demo installation option
• The premium version includes WPBakery Page Builder, Revolution Slider premium plugins, and a Premium icon pack from IconsMind.

Price: $59

Knowledge Press

Knowledge Press is a wiki WordPress theme that you can incorporate with bbPress to create forum websites. An exciting feature of this theme is the voting feature.

Along with a knowledge base website, you can also create FAQ websites with this theme using a tool like the FAQ plugin. This premium plugin can be integrated with Google Analytics Integration and Visual Composer Page Builder.

Key Features of Knowledge Press:

• Search option in the navigation bar
• Translation ready theme
• Can reset voting for a single post
• Responsive design
• Proper documentation

Price: $59

Which WordPress Forum theme should you pick?

Well, I have tried to put together all the main features of each theme listed in this write-up so you can easily make a decision. All the themes are mobile responsive and offer great customization options.

If you are looking for Badge functionality then you can go for either Forum Engine or Ask Me theme. Having said that, it truly depends on the features you are looking for and also your budget.

I hope you found this blog helpful. Good luck building your WordPress forum site.