BuddyPress was conceived in 2008 while working to add social networking features to a WordPress MU powered site. The first official stable release was in May 2009. The platform has grown and morphed considerably since then, into the dynamic, easily extensible package you see today with a truckload of free and premium BuddyPress themes available. There is also a large number of useful plugins available for WordPress and BuddyPress making it possible to power up your features and possibilities.
Just like its parent project WordPress, BuddyPress is an entirely open source endeavor. Everything from the core code, to the documentation, themes, and plugin extensions are all built by the BuddyPress community. This means anyone can help the project by contributing their time and expertise. BuddyPress provides a range of features that work right out of the box. However, you might decide that you only need to make use of a couple of features to begin with. This is relatively easy using BuddyPress as you can turn off the features you don’t want with a click of a button. When you disable features, your site’s theme will auto adjust, showing only the menu items, pages and buttons, for the features you have enabled.
In this post, I will do a round-up of some of the best free and premium BuddyPress themes.
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Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra cost to you). I recommend that you do your own independent research before purchasing any product or service. This article is not a guideline, a recommendation or endorsement of specific products.
Buddy: Multi-purpose WordPress & BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
Buddy is a clean, modern and fully responsive web design. It is a popular BuddyPress and WordPress theme that can be used for any type of website, whether it be business, corporate, community, magazine, portfolio, etc. It has a lot of cool features and with the auto install feature you will have the theme set up real quick. If you want to get to know Buddy a little better, the theme comes with detailed documentation and top-notch free support.
Social Buddy – WordPress & BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
Social Buddy is a responsive community WordPress theme that integrates with BuddyPress & BBPress and is perfect for niche communities and social networks.
Studio – DEMO
Studio is a balance of beautiful, pixel-perfect design with flexible, easy-to-navigate customization.
OneCommunity – BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
OneCommunity lets users register on your site and start creating profiles, posting messages, making connections, creating and interacting in groups and much more. A social network in a box, build a social network for your company, school, sports team or niche community.
Blogs MU – DEMO
Blogs MU is a stunning teams, groups and networking oriented theme. Control the site appearance and allow members to customize their profile pages too – works great with BuddyPress, WordPress and Multisite!
Razor: Cutting Edge WordPress Theme – DEMO
Razor is a clean, professional design for WordPress. Built on a responsive layout structure and supporting Retina (HiDPI) enabled devices, Razor’s beauty is more than skin deep. The theme is packed with powerful modern features and the advanced controls you wish other themes included. There are endless possibilities for building websites, communities, social networks and so much more.
Flix BuddyPress Ready Team Blogging – DEMO
Flix is a community and power blogging theme for WordPress. With BuddyPress support included into the the theme you can start your own community in no time.
Engage – WordPress, BuddyPress, bbPress Theme – DEMO
Engage is a community based theme built on WordPress, BuddyPress, and bbPress that lets you signup visitors on your site. Members can then build their profiles, send messages, friend other people, interact in groups, post in the forum, share interests, and much more.
DynamiX – Premium WordPress Theme – DEMO
Dynamix is a professionally designed WordPress theme that you can customize in many different ways. it features Piecemaker 2 image rotator, BuddyPress plugin integration, WP e-Commerce plugin integration, Grid Gallery 3, 4, 5, 6 Column Options, etc.
Salutation – WordPress + BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
Salutation is a WordPress and BuddyPress theme. Salutation has a clean design focused on high-level content organization. It’s easy to navigate and promotes a feeling of user satisfaction. The well organized menus and page structures encourage a positive user experience allowing your visitors to find what they’re looking for quickly. The theme includes administration features giving you complete control of your website’s layout and design. The unique and easy to manage design ensures your site will stand out and be remembered.
SuperMassive – Business WordPress/BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
SuperMassive is a powerful professional WordPress and BuddyPress theme. The aim from the beginning was to create a great looking theme that would allow you to make your own unique and abstract layouts in minutes. SuperMassive achieves this by incorporating a ton of easy to use shortcodes. It also comes with excellent support for audio/video files. If that isn’t enough it comes in five amazing skins, Obsidian, Obsidian Grunge, Chocolate, Arctic Fox and Tiger (Dark) to suit your particular taste. SuperMassive really does live up to its name!
Made – Responsive Review/Magazine Theme – DEMO
Made is a powerful review / magazine BuddyPress theme. It is designed to increase the amount of time users spend on your site. It has a lot of customization features, responsive design and built in user ratings.
Mingle – Multi-purpose WordPress Theme – DEMO
Mingle is an amazing WordPress theme and it’s BuddyPress ready! Mingle has been designed as an adaptable and highly intuitive WordPress theme. It includes administration features giving you complete control of your website’s layout and design. The unique and easy to manage design ensures your site will stand out and be remembered.
ReviewIt – Review WordPress & BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
ReviewIt is a WordPress and BuddyPress theme that provides you with powerful review and community features.
WildCommunity – BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
WildCommunity is a BuddyPress theme. It lets users register on your website and start creating profiles, posting messages, making connections, creating and interacting in groups and much more. BuddyPress lets you build a social network for your company, school, sports team or niche community.
Bounce: Responsive Business WP & BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
Bounce is a powerful, professional and fully responsive WordPress & BuddyPress theme. It is very feature rich, check it out!
Game Portal WordPress & BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
Game Portal is a powerful WordPress Theme with stand-out design and multi-purpose functionality. This theme supports BuddyPress which gives you an amazing chance to build your own social network community within your website easily. Turn your website into interactive place for fans and visitors via multiple user groups, discussion forums, activity steams, friend connections, private communications and your favourite blogging features. Note, this theme is compatible with BuddyPress V1.5.5.
Tersus – Responsive WordPress Theme – DEMO
Tersus is a comprehensive responsive WordPress theme with BuddyPress plugin integration. It is a very popular theme with a powerful admin, tons of features and flexible options. Tersus is designed to suit almost all projects.
Politic: Campaign, Political WP & BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
Politic: Campaign & Political WordPress Theme is meant to make you look good, professional and make you stand out as a trusted candidate for the people. The theme is BuddyPress ready (1.6)! This feature will allow you to easily create your own social circle. This is important as a candidate today. The theme features a unique styling for your events and WP Email Capture plugins, which you’re notified promptly to install automatically, upon theme activation, enabling you to easily collect emails for your campaign and plan events with advanced functionality.
Score: Review WordPress & BuddyPress Theme – DEMO
Score is a WordPress and BuddyPress theme that is ideal for reviewing any kind of content
Huddle – WordPress & BuddyPress Community Theme – DEMO
Huddle is a clean, robust and easy to use community theme designed and developed for WordPress and make compatible to run seamlessly with both BuddyPress and bbPress plugins installed. Finally, a community theme that is both elegant, clean, modern, and easy to use, with top notch features and functionality out of the box.
BuddyPress Magazine – DEMO
The Magazine Theme meets allows you to run a media rich, gorgeous looking, BuddyPress or WordPress site that doubles as powerful community hangout – Publishing meets Community!
Business Portfolio – DEMO
Business Portfolio is all about showcasing things – it lives to make your content the center of attention in a fresh, elegant manner.
BuddyPress Scholar – DEMO
Scholar is a theme designed to work for heavy content sites, educational institutions and more ‘formal’ communities.
Business Feature – DEMO
Business Feature is all about making your content count. Get your content noticed with this great flexible and high impact theme. Based on the design of the incredibly popular wpplugins.com – Business Feature brings all the power to feature content that site has to your doorstep. Not only that it has an added ability to link to BuddyPress as well.
Gallery Theme – DEMO
Gallery is designed to showcase images. They could be photographs, paintings, products, services, even portfolio items – as the name suggests a gallery but a gallery can be of anything.
BuddyPress Social – DEMO
Social is a truly beautiful theme that takes inspiration from Facebook and delivers you more than you ever thought was possible from a theme – BuddyPress, WordPress or Multisite ready to go!
Business Services – DEMO
Business Services does exactly what the name suggests – it is a great way to show the services you offer. This theme though goes beyond that and can adapt easily to suit a range of sites and requirements.
EduClean – DEMO
The Edublogs.org homepage theme, is ready for you to disassemble and use in as many personal, business or other projects as you like!
The Daily Theme – DEMO
The Daily Theme is the Daily theme is the ultimate news / CMS based theme with multiple designs and layout options to launch your site into the headlines.
Network – DEMO
Network is a powerful front page theme perfect for displaying network-wide content on WordPress or BuddyPress.
Solitude – DEMO
The solitude theme features a two column fixed layout with a jQuery powered slider for the frontpage. This theme is easily configured through the themes option panel, and the theme is fully widgetized.
Product – DEMO
Product is a perfect theme to feature what you want to sell! Whether its your great BuddyPress community, handmade goods, ecommerce or your own services – this is the perfect marketing theme for you.
BuddyPress Community – DEMO
BuddyPress Community Theme is a theme which brings your people together, your friends to the table and your BuddyPress goodness out of the closet.
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Cosmic Buddy could be nice (I’m not saying will be) if he’d get rid of the 37289 bugs
Can’t put it any simpler than that. The theme looks GREAT, I got my issue with the widgets worked out.
Cool themes!
Very useful this article
I guess you haven’t seen yet Gratitude – http://themeforest.net/item/gratitude-buddypress-responsive-wordpress/1538282 . It’s an amazing theme and what makes it even better – being responsive!
Chris,
What happened to gratitude? I see your links for it, but it’s not on ThemeForest anywhere. Can you provide another link to another demo so I can check it out please. Thanks.
Huddle i think is the best buddypress theme
As long as you don’t require support, where the average wait time for a reply is 2-3 weeks
Can anyone recommend a Buddypress theme specifically for a dating/matchmaking site. Thanks
Try Mingle: http://para.llel.us/themes/mingle-wp/
Idk about Mingle. I bought a Mingle license from them about 6 months ago and their theme is well put together but if you try to make custom post types with custom post templates, they don’t exactly “help you” when you have questions about their theme hierarchy. But that’s just my opinion.
Then again…with bp 1.7 I don’t think it matters what theme you use if you have a good imagination.
how can i download a buddypress magazine theme?????
ne1 plz suggest
Bounce is indeed a great looking theme.
However, and it’s a big however, its implementation is badly conceived. Some things are installed/edited as widgets; some are in sample pages; some like the header top right navigation is a law unto itself.
It’s not a theme for the newbie – it takes some working out! And everything is laborious compared to, for example, the StudioPress themes.
You also need to be aware that getting help is a long-winded process. You need to have access to your purchase code (not in the sales receipt from theme Forest). You then need to fill that into a web form. Then you go to another page to join up. Then it takes around 30 minutes for the site to send you your login details.
I’m sure I’ll end up with a great membership site when I’ve sorted out their weird implementation – why make things so long-winded and random?
Ive been looking for an article like this for a while now, giving examples of the best and most versatile buddypress themes available so many sincere thanks for writing it.
Hi Simon, glad you found the article useful.
Best regards,
Sofie
Wow, awesome themes. Like it. Thanks for sharing
themeforest and wpmu……cool
cool collection its a nice theme pack.
Great Themes. They are very useful.
Nice collection of themes. I like the BuddyPress Social theme, will download it for one of my new projects.
Thanks for sharing awesome themes
Thanks for such a nice colourful collection of community wordpress themes
I want a social network.
I like all Buddypress themes. All are interesting. Everyone have something interesting in own.
Was searching for a buddy press theme solution … yours is a great collection thanks I will try some free one’s
What kind of forums they use at the hoodle and onecommunity, it sure doesn’t look like bbpress ??
I use the OneCommunity theme. Have some issues with it but working it out and it looks pretty good. The only problem is it states it has an instruction guide when you download the file but it doesn’t. And the support site poor and never accessible.
The date on this post is April 2013. Why is the oldest comment November 2011? I am just sayin.
Thanks Leon, we updated the article to include more recent material and get rid of broken links. Should have added a not about this as well!