BuddyPress is free plug-in for WordPress that will convert your WordPress website/blog into fully fledged social network.
BuddyPress is an excellent choice for bloggers that have good knowledge about web development. Even the plug-in is free and open source, there are many things that require some PHP knowledge, WordPress/BuddyPress theme development and extensive understanding of WordPress core.
BuddyPress Features
BuddyPress out of the box features are:
user profiles / extended profiles
activity streams
user groups
private messaging
notifications
It is easy to extend the features with plug-ins which you can download from BuddyPress Plug-ins page:
https://buddypress.org/plugins/. Pay attention on supported version of BuddyPress and WordPress, many plug-ins are outdated and can crash your website.
Here is a link to list of recommended plug-ins, but again keep in mind to check version supported and possible conflicts with other plug-ins:
https://buddypress.org/extend/recommended-plugins/.
Web hosting Requirement
As it is build over WordPress core, system requirements are the same, however keep in mind, that for large social network, you will need at least mid-level VPS.
How to Install BuddyPress
Installing BuddyPress is very easy, the same as you are installing new plug-in for WordPress – navigate to Pluins>Add new and search for “BuddyPress”. Hit “Install” and...