BuddyPress is a plugin for WordPress to build your own social community network. If you trying to start a Social Website then BuddyPress would be your first choice using WordPress as your content management system. There are thousands of WordPress plugins out there that can help you organize and optimize your BuddyPress enable social networking site. However, here’s a list of Free and Premium plugin for BuddyPress that I think the most useful and best for your new BuddyPress Social Community start-up.

Free BuddyPress Plugins

1. BuddyPress Global Search

BP_Global_Search

This plugin will give you an ajax live search. Results show up as you type. It will allow your members to search through all BuddyPress components, including bbPress forums. It will also search through pages, posts, and custom post types. A detailed settings page, allows you to choose the components in which you would like it to search. This is a very popular free BuddyPress plugin.

2. BuddyPress Edit Activity

BP_Edit_Activity

This plugin will allow your members to edit the activity posts they have written. You can also set a time limit, for how long they’re able to edit their post. Very useful plugin, for any BuddyPress site.

3. CubePoints Buddypress Integration

cubepoints-buddypress-plugins
Adds CubePoints support to Buddypress. Reward members using your BuddyPress portion of your website by giving them points and awards! If you ever want to add a point or reputation system to your social network site then this plugin will definately use for you.

4. BuddyPress Ajax Chat

buddypress-ajax-chat
This plugin will extend Buddypress to have an Ajax Chat client that works with Buddypress groups, as well as all WordPress users. Buddypress Ajax Chat works with both WordPress MU and WordPress Single User. Sometime in community with thousand of members, members tend to love to communicate with each other so here’s where this plugin comes in handy. Members could start a chat with each other anytime, bringing the flow of community every day!

5. Buddypress Group Documents

buddypress-group-documents
This plugin lets users upload files into BuddyPress groups and share them with members from the same group. If you need to share a documents but want to limit to members of the group only then this plugin will help you organize and attach your documents securely in the group area.

6. BuddyPress Album

buddypress-album
Photo Albums for BuddyPress. Includes Posts to Activity Stream, Member Comments, and Gallery Privacy Controls. This plugin can help you share images and albums with your friends and family. with the capability of albuminizing a set of images, it is perfect for those snap junkies to share special and funny moments capture in pictures.

7. BuddyPress Activity Plus

buddypress-activity-plus
BuddyPress Embed Activity allows you to upload a photo (or multiple) directly from your computer to the activity stream, Embed a video from popular sites such as youtube and Vimeo by copying the link, Embed a link to any site – the site title and description will automatically be pulled in and also Embedding a link also allows you to choose a thumbnail image from a list of images on the site’s homepage. Cool eh? everything you need to embed images or videos can be done with this plugin.

8. BuddyPress Polls

buddypress-polls
you can create new polls in groups and member profiles. Let your users vote!. Need users or members opinion on something?, just create a poll with this plugin and received rate and feedback from them.

9. BuddyPress Shortcodes Plugin

bp-shortcode
This plugin could help you show your buddypress related content anywhere.

10. BuddyPlug

buddyplug
Adds a BuddyPress tab to the add new plugins admin page that includes a list of curated BuddyPress plugins. No need to search through thousand of buddypress compatible plugins anymore. just click on the admin dashboard and find the buddyplug panel and you’re ready to go.

 

Premium/Paid BuddyPress Plugins

1. BuddyPress User Blog

 

bp-userblog

This plugin will give your members the ability to create blog posts and run their own blog. This will allow them to contribute to the main blog, which will keep your blog fresh. The interface for writing posts is inspired by Medium and is truly amazing to work with. This is a great plugin for any BuddyPress site.

2. BuddyBoss Inbox

buddyboss-inbox

This plugin will add some cool features to your BuddyPress messaging component. Most users will enjoy the file attachments (with image preview) that this plugin allows for, they will also like the auto-save, which automatically saves your message, as you type. A couple of other cool features about this plugin are the labels, which allow you to organize the messages in your inbox, as well as the WYSIWYG editor, which allows you to format your message, to your liking.

3. BuddyBoss Reply by Email

reply-email

This plugin will allow your members to respond to notifications right from their email. When someone receives a notification about a new message they’ve received, a reply on a forum topic, an activity reply, or a blog post comment, they will not need to log back into the site every time, to respond. They can now respond directly room their email, with this great plugin.

4. BuddyPress Member Types

member-types

This plugin allows you to make a distinction between different types of members on your platform. Let’s say you have a healthcare community site running on BuddyPress. You may have patients, doctors, nurses, and more. With this plugin, you can have different profile fields and a different registration form for each member type. You can split the members page into multiple tabs, separating user types. This plugin has more features that can be seen on the product page. Overall, this is a great plugin for almost any BuddyPress site.

5. BuddyPress Links Pro

bp-links-pro
BuddyPress Links is a feature-rich Premium BuddyPress plugin that allows your member to share links and rich media (like video) without a hitch. All the content that is shared by your community is displayed in the Links Directory where your users can vote, filter, and re-share their links, videos, and images.

6. BuddyPress Group Email

bp-group-email
BuddyPress Group Email adds group email functionality to BuddyPress allowing a group admin or moderator to send an email to all the other members in the group.

7. BuddyPress Testimonials

buddypress-testimonials
BP Testimonials is a plugin that allows your users to leave recommendations/testimonials for other users on your BuddyPress-based social network. The one and only purpose of this plugin are to allow users to review/recommend other users.

8. BuddyPress Group Calendar

buddypress-group-calendar
BuddyPress Group Calendar allows you to maintain, update and share upcoming (and past) group events with really swish calendar functionality… plus widgets that display a list of all upcoming events!

9. BuddyPress Message Privacy

bp-message-privacy
Ever wished to give your users control of private messages. Have you wondered how Facebook and other social networks allow users to have fine-grained control over who can send the message? Want to give your Users full control over their private message. BuddyPress Message Privacy can do it for you!!

10. BuddyPress Profiles Statistics

buddypress-profile-statistic
BuddyPress Profiles Statistics can help you better and more in-depth analyze your users. Check how many users selected some options in their profiles, Combine results to see trends, Discover the time your users are active the most – improve your campaigns and different activities, and more…

 

Final Thought

There you go, above is a list of free and premium paid BuddyPress Plugins. Nonetheless, to say, it depends on your site preference when come to using a free or premium plugin. Not all premium plugins are going to make your site better or more organized if it’s meet your need then buy it, if not then search and try a free one. Above only a handful of BuddyPress Plugins listed, you can find more Free BuddyPress Themes and Plugins on buddypress.org or a premium selection of themes and plugins at BuddyDev and BuddyBoss.