It is not my intention to give a detailed explanation of every option available. This is just a road map of what’s out there. You can use it to investigate further depending on what you are looking for.

To add a forum to your Wordpress blog you can either:

  1. Use a Wordpress forum plugin
  2. Use a stand alone forum software

Going with plugins is probably your fastest and easiest option. You want to use a stand alone forum software if you are looking for more features and a more advanced board. Forum software is relatively easy to install, but you usually need to have access to your hosting account to create a database and change permissions to do it. So, choose an option depending on what you want to do with your forum. If you want it to be one of the main features of your site, then you’ll probably want to go with a forum software; if you just want to have it as a nice little option to communicate with a small audience, then you’ll do fine with a plugin.

Wordpress Forum Plugins
These are three of the best looking Wordpress forum plugins out there:

Check out the Wordpress Plugins Forums section for more options.

Free Forum Software
There are plenty of options to choose from. These are some of the most popular ones:

But don’t take my word for it. See a complete list of forum softwares and test them yourself at Forum-Software.org, or at OpenSourceCMS. Some of these softwares are integrateable with Wordpress, which means that your users may use just one registration account for both your blog and your forum. Of the list, the two top ones, phpBB and SMF (Simple Machines) seem to be the most popular ones, and bbPress was made by the same guys that created Wordpress.

Buying Forum Software

If your goals are more ambitious and you’re willing to pay, you can buy a forum software like VBulletin or Invision Board.

Paying for your software means that you will probably get more support and you are likely to have less “issues” (I’ve never bought one but that’s what you would think).

Free Support

Now that you have an idea of what’s out there. You are going to need some guidance. If you need extra help SiteGround.com provides some practical tutorials for installing, administering and managing phpBB, Simple Machines, vBulletin and Invision Board.

Other Things/Plugins Worth Mentioning

  • WP-United is a phpBB mod (not a wordpress plugin) that integrates phpBB and WordPress. You can see in action on their site.

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    I will try to keep this list updated, so please feel free to comment on it. I have listed what I have seen out there, so I’m sure I’m missing stuff.