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Best WordPress Forums Integration (bbPress software vs Simple:Press plugin)

January 21st, 2009 · 24 Comments · Category: Blogging · Design and Development · Tools · WordPress

I know, it’s been a while since I posted an article here at WordPress PAD. I have a good excuse, I’ve been hard at work developing websites using WordPress as a CMS (and blog). In the past few months I have learned a great deal about what WordPress can and cannot do…mostly what can be done to it with a little grease, time and patience.

With that said, working on a current project where I had to implement a bbpress forum with a current wordpress blog installation, I realized that bbPress, although a sister software of WordPress, is not the best solution for WordPress forum integration for two reasons. One, it’s quite buggy and two, it’s not a smooth integration.

I’m not one to say negative things about WordPress but I think if the wonderful folks behind the blogging software would put out some useful documentation on bbPress as well as simplify ins integration between the blog and the forum, it would be a fantastic marriage. The installation is not simple enough for the faint hearted, nor is the theme editing and activation process. Mostly, I’m frustrated by the lack of documentation especially since bbpress tags are different than WordPress template tags, nor are they always semantic.

Nonetheless, there is a solution, Simple:Press. It’s an exceptional plugin-n-play forum that’s just as simple to use as WP Directory, another truly robust and amazing plugin that functions more like software than a simple plugin. Simple:Press forum does what bbPress should do, seem like a different standalone site but flawlessly integrates with WordPress blog.

Check out both bbPress and Simple:Press and tell me what you think. For now, until bbPress becomes as stable as WordPress itself, Simple:Press is my choice for best WordPress forums plugin and/or integration.

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  • 1 Download Twitter Post Wordpress Plugin | Pinoy Blogger Online … : PluginZilla // Jan 21, 2009 at 2:26 am

    [...] Resources Best WordPress Forums Integration (bbPress software vs Simple:Press plugin) Tips to Change New Blogger Template Search results and blog stats Gary Vaynerchuk Brings the [...]

  • 2 Wordpress Plugin Widget Needed | Chuyên ?? | vietfreelancing.com : PluginZilla // Jan 21, 2009 at 5:21 am

    [...] Resources Best WordPress Forums Integration (bbPress software vs Simple:Press plugin) Tips to Change New Blogger Template Search results and blog stats Gary Vaynerchuk Brings the [...]

  • 3 clickerz // Feb 3, 2009 at 2:44 am

    hi… This is a very good development.

    Im looking a forum program that i can integrate with my wordpress blogs.

    Good Luck!

  • 4 Dave Doolin // Feb 9, 2009 at 7:42 am

    I’m moving from simple:press to bbpress for a couple of reasons:

    1. bbpress is in the end an Automattic product, and bbpress is not. I feel more comfortable with bbpress for long term development.

    2. A much more important issue is that the simple:press developers insist on users manually upgrading their code, which exists outside the main wordpress development stream. I’ve dropped cforms for the same reason. I’ll give up some mostly irrelevant flexibility to lighten my maintenance load.

    If cforms and simple:press were developed such that they could be upgraded without jumping through hoops, I would reconsider.

    Also, simple:press chokes on some unicode we have from non-US users. Very annoying to crash the mysql server with bad queries, and very annoying to have to page through the mysql dump to find the offending characters.

    Looking forward to reading about your experience with the switch.

  • 5 Christopher // Feb 13, 2009 at 11:46 pm

    After almost a year of suffering with bbPress and it’s turtle slow progress and incompatibilities with WordPress causing my sites to have non-functional to semifunctional forums, I’m going to give simple:press a try.

    Automattic really needs to assign more developers to this project.

  • 6 Dave Doolin // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    As followup to my previous comment, I have to say I like the look and feel of simple:press better!

  • 7 Kinexus Internet Ltd // Apr 30, 2009 at 4:28 am

    You have posted a nice article with a excellent point.

    Well done!

  • 8 programlar // May 16, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    Great Post Thanks.

  • 9 hit // Jun 5, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    Best WordPress Forums Integration (bbPress software vs Simple:Press plugin) | The WordPress PAD great article thank you.

  • 10 çe?me otel // Jun 8, 2009 at 9:52 am

    Best WordPress Forums Integration (bbPress software vs Simple:Press plugin) | The WordPress PAD great article thank you.

  • 11 Forum // Jul 18, 2009 at 10:36 pm

    Thanks a lot.

  • 12 kurye // Jul 19, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    Best WordPress Forums Integration (bbPress software vs Simple:Press plugin) | The WordPress PAD great article thank you.

  • 13 NickG // Sep 23, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    Thanks for the review. I have been going back and forth on this topic. I think I’m going to settle in Simple:Press. It’s just impressing me more.

  • 14 Tommie Hansen // Dec 30, 2009 at 5:10 pm

    You forgot the forum that actually is CLEAN and customizable.. and actually just was fixed for WP 2.8+

    Namely WP-forum:
    http://www.fahlstad.se/wp-plugins/wp-forum/

  • 15 Aurey Zhang // Jan 3, 2010 at 8:46 am

    Dave Doolin hit the nail. Any software online should be easy to upgrade – manual upgrade is a pain in the neck!

    Anyone know if this new one, WP-Forum, can be upgraded automatically with just a few clicks?

  • 16 Bob // Feb 20, 2010 at 9:40 am

    I will be going with Simple:Press, what I have seen of it so far gives me much enthusiasm.

    I am an old vBulletin user and I am moving away from them for all my future forum development

    Thanks

  • 17 Nick Aster // Mar 1, 2010 at 9:09 am

    Does anyone think bbpress is really dead? I’ve had a half baked version on my site for a couple months, just haven’t launched it because I”m paranoid about upgrade issues, and whether it’ll die in a few months and so on… Does anyone have a real side-by-side comparison between these two? It’s still not entirely clear to me what the advatage is – except that one seems to be supported, one seems half dead.

  • 18 Neil // Apr 1, 2010 at 2:45 am

    Im using SimplePress but its sooo slow and I cant solve the problem and the guys who support SPF dont know whats up either. It cant be just me, I think its quite a slow script (atleast when viewing topics).

    BBPress is loads faster but thats because it has feck all functionality. AAArgh. I love SPF, if it was faster it would be perfect…who cares about manual upgrade, its all about user experience not time saving!!

  • 19 Bruno PorKaria // Apr 21, 2010 at 11:25 am

    Thanks!

    SimplePress :)

  • 20 entedx // Jun 6, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    hmmm….., maybe I’ll give it a try

  • 21 Shane Lowry // Jun 30, 2010 at 9:05 am

    Simplepress user here also.

    I am also finding issues with it being quite slow, but am seeing if some database maintenance might speed it up.

    Nice post, thanks
    Shane

  • 22 Software Tutorial // Jul 13, 2010 at 5:15 am

    Wow, First visit you in here. great post, i will adding this blog feed, keep update my friends. thank you

  • 23 Gravity // Aug 15, 2010 at 1:54 am

    I recently wrote an article on integrating forums with WordPress, and review some of the choices, related to my own experiences.
    http://pwnwear.com/forum/forum-integration-with-wordpress-t554.html

  • 24 Best WordPress Forums Integration (bbPress software vs Simple:Press plugin) // Aug 29, 2010 at 11:19 pm

    This info is very good and useful ..

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