WordPress Forum Theme: Buddy Download and Usage Tutorial

In addition to building websites, WordPress can also be used to create forums. The Buddy theme introduced in this article is a well-known WordPress forum theme. Naibabiji here introduces this Buddy theme and provides a Buddy theme tutorial.

Buddy Theme Introduction

Buddy is a simple forum theme built using WordPress and BuddyPress.Buddy is a lightweight, modern, and responsive WordPress and BuddyPress theme suitable for any type of website, whether commercial, corporate, community, magazine, portfolio, etc. It also works great if you want to use the theme without BuddyPress or bbPress.

Complete Feature List

• BuddyPress integration
• bbPress Integration
• Responsive
• One-Click Installation
• Shortcode Support
• Frontend Login/Registration Interface
• Retina Screen Optimization
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Translation File Support
• Icon Font (FontAwesome)
• Clean Code
• Personal and Global Options
• Create Unlimited Sidebars
• Child Theme
• Contact Form 7 Support
• JavaScript fallback
• Compatible with All Major Browsers
• Valid HTML5 and CSS3

View DemoThe price of Buddy is relatively high, at $199. If you find it unaffordable, you can choose their other themeAardvark

Buddy Theme Tutorial

Next, Naibabiji will explain how to use the Buddy theme on WordPress to build your own forum community website.

Install Theme

First, you definitely need to have a WordPress website.If you don't have a website yet, first followWordPress Installation Tutorialto build one. Then, install the Buddy theme. The installation method is very simple: from the downloaded Buddy theme folder, upload and install the buddy.zip and buddy-child.zip files via the Admin Dashboard, under Themes > Add New > Upload Theme.After installation, activate the buddy child theme. You will be prompted to install plugins, as shown in the image below:Select all plugins, then choose install to proceed.Once the plugins are installed, visit the website frontend, and you will see the basic website effect. Of course, if you think it's not as beautiful as the demo, you can choose to import demo data.

Then visit the website frontend again, and you can see an effect similar to the demo, as shown in the figure below:

Set Up Forum

In the WordPress Admin Dashboard, you can see the forum options, where you can modify forum sections. Below, there are also topics, replies, activities, and emails that can be configured and viewed.In the Widgets section, you can set the content displayed on the left and right sides of the website.

Buddy Theme Purchase and Download Address

Buddy is a paid Theme, but priced at $199, with an exchange rate of 1:7, many users may find it unacceptable. However, this Theme is indeed excellent for building forums, and you can also consider their cheaper forum themes.Aardvark Purchase Link