The BuddyBoss theme is perhaps the most powerful purpose-built theme meant for robust Wordpress membership sites. Combined with Elementor, it is an extremely capable theme and is, in fact, how this very site is built.

My Rating:

4.5 / 5

Pros

  • Built specifically for community & learning membership sites, containing most of the design elements you’d want.
  • Very professional default design
  • Works extremely well with Elementor Pro, allowing easy design customization.
  • Really makes popular LMS platforms look great (such as Learndash)
  • Frequent updates.

Cons

  • While there’s a lot of style options built-in, there are instances where you need to get nerdy with custom CSS to get the effect you want.
  • The default blog layout is underwhelming (although you can modify with Elementor)

When you’re putting together a Wordpress-based membership site, there are already plenty of things to research and decide on. Choosing the theme seems like it might be the easy part. But…

It isn’t. Trust me.

Most Wordpress themes out there just are not well suited for a membership site. The needs of a typical membership site go beyond the needs of a typical blog. You’ve got features such as:

  • Displaying online courses in a beautiful way
  • Course progress tracking
  • Member community features
  • Account management (like being able to edit member profile without going into the Wordpress admin panel)

The typical features of a membership site require different plug-ins, but they also require a theme that is built to make it all look good. Beyond looks, too, some themes literally empower some of the functionality we want.

BuddyBoss is now a company with a suite of offerings. They have the BuddyBoss platform (the open source community plugin), the BuddyBoss PRO system (which adds pro-level functions to your community), the BuddyBoss App (for a native mobile app), and their themes. What I am talking about here is the BuddyBoss Theme itself.

The BuddyBoss Theme is coded to the specific needs of a membership site. It automatically styles your online courses from popular LMSs like LearnDash. It automatically styles your community functionality (using the BuddyBoss plugins). It has other automatic styling and function for many other popular plugins. It works with major page builders to make it easy to customize.

In short, BuddyBoss theme is basically a plug-and-play theme for membership sites on WordPress. When I end up working on a membership site that isn’t using BuddyBoss, I find that everything just takes longer. You grow to realize just how many things this theme makes easier.

If you are looking to build (or, like me, re-build) your Wordpress-powered membership site, BuddyBoss could be right up your alley, too.

Click To Read My Full BuddyBoss Theme Review