The 11 Best WordPress BuddyPress Themes to Build a Social Network Site

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Purchasing a product through one of these links generates a commission for us at no additional expense to you.

Ben Sibley

“These themes are hand-picked for their outstanding design quality, features, and customer reviews.”

Want to start your own social community site?

As you know, BuddyPress is the top social plugin for WordPress. With a solution in place for social network functionality, that just leaves the site design.

While you can use BuddyPress with any WordPress theme, many are designed specifically to be used with BuddyPress. These themes look amazing with all the features in BP and integrate seamlessly with the plugin.

After reviewing the most popular and highest-rated themes, these are my top choices for a BuddyPress WordPress theme.

Want to see more themes? You may enjoy our list of the best forum themes and our collection of the top content-sharing WordPress themes.

WordPress BuddyPress themes

Besides having fantastic reviews and a decent sales history, all of these themes are up-to-date and working with the latest version of WordPress.

In addition, every theme listed here is fully responsive, so your site will look amazing on mobile devices – important for a social network!

One more thing!

Before you check out the themes, take a look at the Youzer BuddyPress profile plugin.

Youzer

This plugin is compatible with every theme listed here and adds incredible and customizable user profile pages to your social site like Facebook. It even works with themes that don’t support BuddyPress, so check it out to see what it can do for your site.

Here are my top picks for best BuddyPress WordPress themes for 2024.


  • 1. Vikinger by Odin Design (Themeforest)

    Vikinger

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    Vikinger is an exceptional theme for creating a social website with BuddyPress. It has a gorgeous design that is totally customizable, with smart layouts and templates, and a massive bundle of social networking features.

    The screenshot above showcases the news feed template, which is easy to import into your site. There are also beautiful templates for member profiles, signup pages, and groups. It also includes full support for bbPress to add traditional forums to the site and integration with GamiPress to add gamification (badges and points for engagement).

    Vikinger doesn’t lock you into the default templates either. It’s fully integrated with the easy-to-use Elementor plugin, so you can rearrange site elements and customize styles quite easily. Overall, it’s an awesome theme and your best bet for creating a BuddyPress website.

    Learn more

  • 2. Anesta by AncoraThemes (Themeforest)

    Anesta theme

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    Anesta is a ready-to-go template for building intranet and extranet community websites. It features a clean and modern design that will come in handy for companies that want to create an online community with a sleek contemporary style. Despite how advanced the options are, it’s still an easy-to-use WordPress theme and installs in seconds. Use it to improve communication within your company, and inform and educate your team.

    There are four stunning homepage demos included in the theme’s download package. Thanks to the Elementor page builder, you can easily customize your site as you see fit. The demos can serve as a starting point for any customizations you want to make. Anesta also supports a wide range of popular WordPress plugins besides Elementor. Most importantly, it integrates with BuddyPress for its social network functionality. Additionally, it’s compatible with LearnDash, which lets you add online courses for your employees.

    Learn more

  • 3. BuddyBoss Theme by BuddyBoss

    BuddyBoss

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    While BuddyPress is extremely popular and integrated with many themes, there’s a problem. BuddyPress development is very slow, which means new features and bug fixes rarely make it into the plugin. This means that you’ll often have to install new plugins made by other developers to get the solutions you need. The result is that you have dozens of plugins, all from different developers, which leads to frequent conflicts.

    The BuddyBoss developers built themes for BuddyPress for years before they created their own social plugin called BuddyBoss. It’s built off of BuddyPress but includes way more features and consistent development. They also have a few premium themes, including the BuddyBoss theme featured above.

    With the BuddyBoss platform, you’ll get a beautiful, customizable theme that you can rely on for years to come.

    Learn more

  • 4. Aardvark by GhostPool (Themeforest)

    Aardvark BuddyPress theme

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    Aardvark is a highly flexible BuddyPress WordPress theme. Think of it as a multipurpose community theme.

    You can use Aardvark to create a social network, membership site, e-learning portal, or even a social eCommerce store. If you check out the demo sites, you’ll see what I mean. You can honestly create any website you want with this premium theme.

    The one aspect that unites all the demos and styles is that Aardvark is adeptly integrated with the BuddyPress plugin. If you want to create a membership site, Aardvark is compatible with the Paid Memberships Pro plugin. For e-learning and online training, it works with Sensei, and for eCommerce, you can use WooCommerce. For event management, it integrates with the top-rated (and free) Events Manager plugin.

    When it comes to the actual page creation, this community theme comes with a built-in drag-and-drop page builder. It’s simple to create custom templates to use for any pages on your site. Add to this the customization features for changing the colors and typography, and Aardvark is a wildly flexible WP Theme.

    Learn more

  • 5. OneSocial by BuddyBoss

    OneSocial BuddyPress WP theme

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    BuddyBoss specializes in creating social community website themes that integrate with the BuddyPress plugin. OneSocial has everything you need to build an online community of any size.

    The screenshot above showcases a member profile, and you can see the user’s activity, followers, and groups he/she belongs to. Members can join and post in groups, direct message each other, add/remove friends, and customize their profiles.

    While the community will be the main draw of the website, you’ll likely have content you want to publish. It’s easy to run an active blog and create a forum with the bbPress plugin alongside the member directory. The blog and forum give members even more ways to communicate and publish on your site too.

    OneSocial includes tons of customization options too. The advanced admin panel includes style settings for the color scheme, typography, page layouts, and more. This BuddyPress theme also has WooCommerce support, which means you can add a complete eCommerce store to your site.

    Learn more

  • 6. Boss by BuddyBoss

    Boss

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    The screenshot above showcases the notifications page built-into member profiles. This page does an excellent job of displaying how users can get wholly engaged with the community you build with Boss and works perfectly for both casual communities and corporate intranet sites.

    The Boss theme has a unique three-column design that provides ample navigation options. You can add whatever menus and widgets you want to the sidebars, which makes it extremely customizable. You can highlight your eCommerce shop ad in the forums alongside all the vital member pages like notifications, messages, and the Friends page.

    Easily customize the colors, logo, menus, and more from the visual customizer. Every aspect of this social networking site theme is adjustable. Boss also has social login integration. Instead of creating a new email-based account on your site, new members can log in with an existing Facebook or Twitter account.

    Learn more

  • 7. KLEO by Seventh Queen (Themeforest)

    Kleo

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    Kleo is another multi-purpose BuddyPress theme. You can create a social website emphasizing eCommerce, online courses, a business directory, or a blog/magazine site.

    Kleo has a ton of live demo sites to visit, but the one featured above does the best job of showcasing the social features. You can see how members get their own beautiful profile pages that include all of their activities. If you’re familiar with BuddyPress, this should look familiar, but it is cool to see how attractive and well-integrated this feature is in Kleo.

    Kleo bundles the Visual Composer with it, which means you get the $33 page-builder plugin totally free when purchasing Kleo. Despite all the customization features, it won’t take you a long time to get started. In fact, there is demo content and a one-click demo importer that immediately prepares your WordPress site, like the screenshot above.

    If you’re wondering what sets Kleo apart, it’s the huge success this theme has already had. With over 21,000 sales and a 4.7/5 average customer rating (from over 1,000+ ratings!), you can have confidence that Kleo is a reliable and well-tested theme. It’s one of the best-selling BuddyPress themes around, so you’ll be in good hands with this social WP theme.

    Learn more

  • 8. Buddy by GhostPool (Themeforest)

    Buddy

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    Buddy has a clean and friendly design. It manages to provide a lot of white space, which makes the style quite calming, and yet there is also plenty of content visible on the screen at once.

    This theme excels at building communities and can be used to make a social network like Facebook. While users can message each other directly and join groups, this could also be a good theme to use for a small, niche community centered around one topic, rather than a massive social network where people connect individually, a community site where everyone can interact with each other and share a common interest could work well with Buddy.

    The Buddy theme has been around for years and is still updated frequently. This makes it extremely dependable. Despite its age, it still looks totally modern and likely will for more years to come. The bbPress integration means you can easily include a forum on your site too, and Buddy includes lots of shortcodes for inserting special content into any post or page.

    Learn more

  • 9. Socialize by GhostPool (Themeforest)

    Socialize

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    Socialize is an excellent theme for building a website with lots of social features. Based on the design you see in the demo, this BuddyPress theme will work best for a site with a lot of editorial content.

    I would recommend using Socialize if you wanted to mobilize a community around a specific cause or niche. It could be used, sort of like a crowdfunding website. You can publish and promote content to your network while also hosting a social platform on the same site. Users can follow each other, customize their profiles, and even directly message each other; With live notifications, the website feels alive with an active community.

    In addition to the BuddyPress support, Socialize also integrates flawlessly with bbPress. If you like the demo but think you may want some different layouts, don’t worry. Socialize comes with four homepage layouts, nine category layouts, and six post layouts. It’s extremely customizable as a multipurpose WordPress theme. Socialize is also fully translatable and can be used for any language you want.

    Learn more

  • 10. BeSocial by Egemenerd (Themeforest)

    BeSocial

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    BeSocial is another BuddyPress compatible theme for building social networks. It has a more professional design than other templates here and caters to business communities and intranets.

    The BeSocial theme works with all of BuddyPress’s popular and powerful features. That includes extended user profiles, friend connections, private messaging, live notifications, user groups, and more! There are also some cool integrations like the WooCommerce support, which allows you to sell physical and digital products from your site. You could even use it for a client portal website.

    BeSocial has similar features to many of the other themes here. However, the design is a bit more professional and serious. If you’re interested in creating a social website more like LinkedIn than Facebook, BeSocial would be a great choice.

    Learn more

  • 11. Reign by Wbcom

    Reign Theme

    View theme now Get hosting

    Theme Description

    Reign BuddyPress is a popular WordPress theme and is a breathtaking solution for all your online social community needs. Reign is made by an expert BuddyPress team that has developed several free and premium BuddyPress addons.

    Reign has built-in support for both the Peepso and BuddyBoss platforms and provides add-ons for various social network solutions. Use it whether you want to create e-commerce, e-learning, job listing, business listing, dating site, or a private social community.

    This theme also has compatibility with the most popular WordPress plugins, including page builders like Elementor and plugins for building a community, multivendor, directory, membership, events, and other types of sites.

    A large variety of layout options are included for pages, posts, and custom post types. Reign also offers you the option to adjust the subheader and sidebars for each. Find several options for member and group directory layouts and a setting to modify the default profile and cover images. This will let you add a personal touch to match your brand. The Reign theme provides countless options inside almost every WordPress section, whether you’re using the Live Customizer, widgets, menu, or post editor.

    Learn more

Want to save a few bucks?

Themeforest always has popular themes on sale.

See the sale
Themes on sale

Which BuddyPress theme is best for you?

You’re here for a theme that integrates with BuddyPress, but there’s a ton of different types of social sites you could make.

Vikinger stands out because of its exceptional design quality, customizability, and sensible page layouts like the news feed template.

That said, the BuddyBoss Theme might be the smartest choice for your site. The biggest advantage is its integration with the BuddyBoss platform, which is under active development, unlike BuddyPress.

Regardless of which theme you choose, you’re sure to build an awesome site with any of these BuddyPress WordPress themes. Thanks for reading and please share this post with someone else before you go.

Ben Sibley
Ben Sibley
This article was written by Ben Sibley. He is a WordPress theme designer & developer, and founder of Compete Themes.