BBP Core is the ultimate enhancement plugin for bbPress communities. Designed for forum administrators, content creators, and community managers, BBP Core adds powerful features to create professional, engaging forums with minimal effort.
What is BBP Core?
BBP Core transforms your bbPress setup into a fully-featured community platform. Whether you're building a support forum, knowledge base, or discussion community, BBP Core provides the tools you need to foster engagement, manage content effectively, and create an exceptional user experience.
Key Features That Make BBP Core Essential
🎯 Unified Forum Builder
Take complete control of your forums with an intuitive, all-in-one builder interface. View all forums and topics in one organized dashboard, filter by status (open, closed, pending, spam), and manage discussions efficiently without navigating multiple pages.
🔐 Private & Confidential Replies
Enable users to post private responses visible only to forum owners and moderators. Perfect for sensitive discussions, support tickets, and confidential advice while maintaining full transparency where needed.
✅ Solved Topics System
Help community members quickly identify answered questions. Mark topics as solved to display a prominent 'Resolved' badge, reducing duplicate questions and improving user experience. Visitors instantly know which topics have solutions.
⭐ Smart Voting & Reputation System
Empower your community with an AJAX-powered voting system. Users vote on the most helpful replies, automatically elevating quality answers to the top. Build reputation-based authority and encourage quality contributions.
📎 Media Attachments & File Sharing
Allow users to attach files, documents, images, and media to replies. Organized attachment sections make it easy for community members to share resources, code snippets, documents, and collaborate effectively.
💡 Advanced Forum Statistics Widget
Display real-time forum information including topic count, reply count, last activity, and most active users. The 'Current Forum Info' widget provides visitors with a quick overview of forum vitality and engagement.
🎨 Elementor Page Builder Integration
Create stunning forum layouts using Elementor's drag-and-drop builder. Use specialized BBP Core widgets to display forums, topics, and replies on any page with full customization control. No coding required.
⚡ Lightweight & Performance-Optimized
BBP Core loads assets intelligently—CSS and JavaScript only when needed. Minimal footprint ensures your forum runs fast without bloat or unnecessary dependencies.
🔧 Intuitive Admin Interface
Create, edit, and delete forums and topics directly from the BBP Core admin dashboard. Streamlined interface eliminates confusion and reduces admin overhead.
PRO Features - Everything You Need for Advanced Community Management
Upgrade to
BBP Core Pro for enterprise-grade forum management:
- Real-Time Admin Notifications - Stay updated with instant dashboard alerts for new posts, moderation requests, and community activity.
- Smart User Notifications - Keep members engaged with real-time updates on subscribed forums, topics, and replies they care about.
- Mini User Profiles - Display compact user profile cards with activity summaries, follower counts, and quick-view reputation.
- Pre-Built Elementor Templates - Import professional forum layouts with one click. Fully customizable templates for forums, knowledge bases, and support centers.
- "I've the Same Question" Feature - Reduce duplicate threads by letting users indicate similar questions, improving forum organization.
- Anonymous Posting - Allow sensitive discussions without revealing user identity. Ideal for support forums and confidential advice.
- Dynamic User Profile Links - Generate personalized profile URLs for logged-in users. Perfect for user bios and contributor pages.
- Topic Approval Workflow - Control content quality with admin-approval for new topics. Prevent spam and maintain forum standards.
- Advanced File Management - Support multiple file uploads with increased size limits. Delete attachments independently or with content.
- Powerful Voting Controls - Guest voting restrictions, prevent closed-topic voting, disable self-voting, admin voting privileges, and vote-based sorting.
- External Image Insertion - Insert images via URL or media library picker. Enhance replies with visual content effortlessly.
- Auto-Approval System - Automatically publish reply replies instantly. Streamline moderation workflows and maintain conversation flow.
- Attachment Moderation - Approve/unapprove replies containing files for enhanced content security and compliance control.
Video Overview
[youtube
https://youtu.be/l2rlT_Qwd60?si=gjBh1VJupitL0Rh8]
Important Links
Getting started with BBP Core is quick and easy. Follow these simple steps:
Prerequisites
Before installing BBP Core, ensure you have:
- WordPress 5.0 or higher
- bbPress plugin installed and activated
- PHP 7.4 or greater
- MySQL 5.6 or greater
Installation Method 1: Install from WordPress Admin Dashboard (Recommended)
- Go to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress dashboard
- Search for "BBP Core" in the plugin search box
- Click the Install Now button
- After installation completes, click Activate Plugin
- Navigate to BBP Core → Settings to configure features (optional but recommended)
- Start building your enhanced forum!
Installation Method 2: Manual Upload via FTP/cPanel
- Download the
bbp-core.zip file from the plugin page
- Extract the ZIP file on your computer
- Upload the extracted
bbp-core folder to /wp-content/plugins/ directory via FTP or cPanel File Manager
- Go to Plugins in your WordPress admin and locate BBP Core
- Click Activate Plugin
- Configure settings in BBP Core → Settings
Installation Method 3: Upload ZIP from WordPress Admin
- Download the
bbp-core.zip file
- Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
- Select the downloaded ZIP file and click Install Now
- After installation, click Activate Plugin
- Configure your forum settings
Troubleshooting Installation
Plugin not showing after activation?
Ensure bbPress is installed and activated first. BBP Core depends on bbPress.
Getting PHP errors?
Verify your PHP version is 7.4 or higher. Contact your hosting provider to upgrade if needed.
Still need help?
Visit our
Documentation or check our
Support Repository
1.4.1 (23 September 2025)
Fixes:
- FResolved issue with required plugin (bbPress) installer not functioning properly
-
is_attachment_icon error to prevent display inconsistencies
Enhanced:
-
Compatibility with Docy Dark Mode for seamless appearance across themes
Improved:
-
Made previously untranslatable strings fully translatable, ensuring better localization support
Updates:
-
Freemius SDK updated to version 2.13.0
1.4.0 (23 September 2025)
New Features:
- Author and Topic Refresh functionality added to Forum Builder
- Pagination support added for improved forum navigation
-
Enhanced forum visibility and management
Improvements:
-
Forum Builder UI design refined for better usability
-
Security enhancements and vulnerability fixes
Updates:
-
Freemius SDK updated to version 2.12.2
1.3.3 (23 August 2025)
Fixes:
- Resolved Forum Builder tab content active state issue
-
Fixed brand color variable functionality
Improvements:
-
Active reaction design enhanced for better user feedback
- Attachment preview design improved
1.3.2 (15 August 2025)
Fixes:
- Resolved attachment field visibility issue
-
Fixed asset loading conflicts
Improvements:
-
Forum Tabs widget design refined
- Assets folder restructured (admin CSS/JS organized)
- Removed unnecessary dependencies (normalize.js, fontawesome.css)
- Added "bbpc_get_opt()" function for CSF settings consistency
- Improved function prefixes to prevent plugin conflicts
- Enhanced Docy theme dark mode compatibility
-
Non-translatable strings made translatable
Updates:
-
Freemius SDK updated to version 2.12.1
1.3.1 (16 June 2025)
Fixes:
- Fixed deprecation warning for attachment files
- Resolved tab CSS conflicts with third-party plugins
-
Improved dark mode compatibility
Improvements:
-
Sidebar now supports flexible width
- Featured image sizing optimized for Forum Builder
-
Enhanced overall plugin stability
Updates:
-
Freemius SDK updated to version 2.12.0
1.3.0 (22 April 2025)
New Features:
- Renamed "Forums" page to "Forum Builder" for clarity
-
Default open state for first forum item
Improvements:
-
Topic open icon refreshed for better UX
- Status icons added to topics for quick identification
- Search input response improved with optimized keypress delay
- Current Forum Info widget redesigned (shows all info by default)
- Settings page reorganized with intuitive tab icons
- Topic details page UI enhanced (reply, favorite, attachment design)
- Forum Builder UX significantly improved
- Dashicons implemented instead of FontAwesome (better performance)
-
BBPC Forum Information widget now displays only on forum pages
Fixes:
-
Resolved BBP Core conflicts with Dukan and Job Manager plugins
1.2.9 (24 February 2025)
New:
- Loco.xml configuration added for multiple text domain mapping in Loco Translate plugin
-
Special offer notice for existing customers
Fixed:
-
Resolved deprecation warning for non-alphanumeric string increment
See full changelog and version history →