BuddyBoss is a widely used WordPress plugin for building communities, selling courses, and memberships. It becomes more efficient when integrated with popular WordPress LMS plugins like Tutor LMS and LearnDash.
Unfortunately, BuddyBoss comes with a few drawbacks. It is heavily dependent on third-party plugins as it is a WordPress-based tool. That makes it complex to use, and it often creates compatibility issues with different browsers.
That’s why many users start looking for simpler and all-in-one alternatives. Another reason to look for an alternative is if you want a community-building tool that works outside the WordPress ecosystem.
In this blog, we’ll explore the top 7 BuddyBoss alternatives in 2025 that you can use with and without WordPress. Each of them will offer something unique or advanced, so check out all of them before making a decision.
Let’s begin.
What is BuddyBoss?
BuddyBoss is a powerful WordPress plugin that can help you convert your website into a social network or an online community. It also comes with features for building and maintaining membership sites, as well as online courses. It enhances the digital experience of businesses by integrating social networking features and learning management functionalities.
This platform allows users to create member profiles, activity streams, discussions and more right inside their WordPress environment. It is compatible with the top WordPress themes. You can use it to create mobile-friendly designs that fit perfectly on various devices. BuddyBoss is a popular choice among entrepreneurs and organizations to make money with their knowledge and bring their audience together.
Who Can Use BuddyBoss
A diverse group of individuals and organizations use BuddyBoss. These are online teachers, course creators, community builders, membership organizations, professional networks, and social networks. It’s also been popular with universities, top creators, influencers, and businesses to create online communities and social learning environments.
Key Features of BuddyBoss
Community Building: BuddyBoss helps you create an engaging online community where your members interact naturally and create significant connections.
User Profile Customization: You can create detailed profiles for your community members, including a personalized avatar, cover photo and custom information field.
Group Management System: You have public, private or secret groups for focused discussions and collaborations.
Learning Management Integration: You can integrate with LearnDash and other LMS platforms for delivering structured educational content efficiently.
Native Mobile Applications: Buddybos offers your members unique iOS and Android applications that maintain the full community functionality from any place.
WooCommerce Monetization: BuddyBoss works perfectly with WooCommerce, so you can make money from your memberships, courses or digital downloads.
Real-Time Activity Feeds: Buddyboss exhibits live updates, posts, comments and social interactions to keep your community engaged.
White-label Branding Solutions: You can maintain full control over visual designs and brands that reflect the unique identity of your organization.
Advantages of BuddyBoss
Gives a user-friendly interface for members to navigate and interact with the community.
Provides large-scale customization of websites and online communities, including branding, layouts, and functions.
Seamlessly integrates with popular WordPress plugins.
Includes unlimited members, groups, discussions and other functions without performance restrictions.
Offers freedom and capability to customize the platform without developers’ assistance.
Provides community access on different devices.
Offers extensive documentation, tutorials and customer support to help users get started and fix problems.
Deals with complicated membership structure and allows the formation of different membership stages and access levels.
Motivates and engages community members by using badges, points, and achievements.
Why Consider Alternatives to BuddyBoss?
Despite being a powerful tool for online communities, there are reasons to consider alternatives to BuddyBoss. The downsides can be cost, resource-intensive hosting requirements, and limits on how flexible and scalable the design can be. Here is a deeper look at why you should consider BuddyBoss alternatives:
1. High Costs:
There is a significant upfront cost in BuddyBoss with an annual subscription starting at $299. This doesn't account for hosting costs, which can be substantial for larger communities.
Building a community often includes integrating with other platforms and plugins, which can further increase costs.
Free or cheaper alternatives are better suited for smaller businesses or individuals with budget considerations.
2. Resource-Intensive Hosting Needs:
WordPress-based BuddyBoss requires a lot of dedicated server resources in the case of larger communities or high traffic.
This can cause slowness of the site and require costly, high-performance hosting to handle it.
Some alternative platforms handle hosting, maintenance, and updates. They offer straightforward solutions for those who don't want to deal with these technical aspects.
3. Design and Scalability Limitations:
BuddyBoss also works best with its own theme. This can be a constraint for those who want more freedom in designing their site.
Scalability may also become a concern when a community grows. This leads to performance issues and increased hosting costs.
Platforms such as EzyCourse, Thinkific, Mighty Networks, and Circle may allow larger communities to scale more easily. They maintain a more streamlined experience.
4. Specific Needs and Features:
BuddyBoss may not have the features that some users need. Or they may have to depend on lots of expensive and complicated integrations.
Think of whether you want online forums, member profiles, activity feeds, live classes, or integrations with other programs or websites.
Platforms such as EzyCourse, PeepSo, Mighty Networks, and Kajabi could provide a more integrated solution for some specific needs.
Therefore, searching for alternatives helps you discover one that fits your financial and technical preferences and your vision for community.
Top 7 Powerful BuddyBoss Alternatives in 2025
Here is a list of the top 7 BuddyBoss alternatives for 2025:
1. EzyCourse
2. Kajabi
3. Mighty Networks
4. Circle
5. Thinkific
6. PeepSo
7. Bettermode
Let’s look at each of these alternatives.
1. EzyCourse
EzyCourse is an all-in-one platform that replaces BuddyBoss with a simpler and more unified experience. You won’t have to configure and maintain EzyCourse, as it is not WordPress-based like BuddyBoss. (See the battle between WordPress vs EzyCourse here)
You get built-in course creation and community-building tools, meaning no need for third-party plugins or external integrations.
EzyCourse has a no-code website builder where you can create your own branded website. It is designed to integrate features of community-building, such as groups, forums, and private messaging, directly into its course interface.
You can build a larger learning community for your audience. And you have integrated marketing tools like email automation and sales funnels to boost conversions.
With EzyCourse, you can sell memberships, digital products, and live classes alongside engaging online courses. You can track students’ performance and involvement via advanced analytics and reporting.
EzyCourse provides a mobile app, so your students can study whenever and wherever they want, on any device they choose.
All course creators can build their courses with highly intuitive, drag-and-drop tools. Unlike BuddyBoss, you don’t need to purchase separate plugins for quizzes, certificates, or assignments.
EzyCourse also supports affiliate marketing, letting others promote your courses to grow your business organically.
Customer support is available directly from the platform, not fragmented across multiple plugin developers. Overall, EzyCourse offers a more seamless, less technical alternative to BuddyBoss for modern course creators.
Key Features
All-in-One Platform: EzyCourse integrates course creation, community building, coaching, email marketing, sales, and website building into a single platform.
No-Code Website Builder: EzyCourse gives you access to an easy-to-use and no-code website builder. You can set up and maintain your own online presence without technical expertise.
Community: You get an active feed of the community for social interaction, sharing news, commenting, and instant reactions. You're able to connect with people directly in your community via private messages, group chats, live meetings, and leaderboards.
Built-in Coaching: EzyCourse allows your learners to conduct both one-on- one and group coaching sessions.
Mobile App Builder: You can build mobile apps with your branding using EzyCourse. So, you can easily view your content on the move.
White Labeling: You can use the white labeling function that allows you to personalize the platform with your logos, name, URL, and more.
SCORM Support and Gamification: EzyCourse includes SCORM support and gamification elements to enhance your learning experience.
Email Automation & Sequences: With EzyCourse, you can automatically and sequentially send emails and nurture your leads.
Affiliate Marketing: You can join affiliate marketing programs and sell products to earn commissions in EzyCourse.
Monetization Options: You can sell courses, products, and blog access, use membership options, and run paid webinars.
Pros
Easy to use and handle for all creators.
Puts together all the community features, such as forums, group chats, and private messaging, very conveniently.
Includes integrated tools for email marketing, making audience communication easy.
Eliminates the requirement for several plugins.
Supports courses, communities, and membership sites, streamlining management.
Allows for branding customization, including white-labeling.
It can be more affordable than WordPress + BuddyBoss and other plugin combinations.
Enables setting up memberships, subscriptions, and handling payments.
Manages both courses and community activities in one place.
Includes sales and marketing features such as coupon codes, pricing tiers, upsells, etc.
Cons
No free plan available.
Pricing
EzyCourse offers four pricing plans.
1. Basic: $59/month (yearly)
2. Pro: $139/month (yearly)
3. Unlimited: $199/month (yearly)
4. Elite: $299/month (yearly)
2. Kajabi
Kajabi is a complete platform that helps you build and sell online courses easily. It offers various tools for marketing, sales, and content management. You’ll get beautiful, customizable templates to have your site looking professional and polished.
Kajabi lets you create memberships and communities to engage your audience without extra hassle.
Unlike BuddyBoss, Kajabi manages payments and email marketing inside the platform itself. There is no need to worry about technical updates or plugin compatibility issues here. The embedded analytics allow you to easily monitor growth and sales.
Kajabi is a good alternative to BuddyBoss if you’re looking for a more straightforward but still powerful option.
Key Features
Integrated Platform: Kajabi is an integrated solution for course creation, marketing, website building, and payment processing. This saves time and hassle with multiple software and tools for knowledge entrepreneurs.
Website and Landing Page Builder: You get a drag and drop website builder with fully customizable templates to build online presences & landing pages.
Marketing Automation: You can create sales funnels and automated email sequences, and manage your email marketing campaigns through Kajabi’s marketing automation feature. This helps you attract and convert leads.
Payment Processing: You can take subscriptions, one-time sales, and anything from the payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. This simplifies monetization.
Built-in CRM: Kajabi includes a customer relationship management (CRM) system to track your student interactions, manage customer data, and personalize communication.
Course Creation and Delivery: You’ve the ability to create courses with video hosting, quizzes, and completion tracking, thus offering the experience of formal courses.
Community Features: Kajabi provides basic community features such as forums and discussions that enable some degree of member interaction.
Pros
Complete system for integrating website building, course building, marketing, and payment processing.
Provides assistance in building marketing funnels to generate and convert leads.
Email marketing functionality is built-in for segmentation and automation.
Has a community platform for member interaction.
Provides both course and community mobile apps.
Enables the building and customizing of websites and blogs.
Provides support around the clock.
Enables the creation of bundled courses and membership sites.
Cons
The cost can be a huge hurdle for small businesses or individuals getting started.
Doesn’t integrate with as many third-party applications as some other platforms do.
Restrictive limit on products, members, etc., for those with a growing business.
Pricing
Kajabi offers four different pricing plans.
1. Kickstart: $89/month (billed monthly)
2. Basic: $149/month (billed monthly)
3. Growth: $199/month (billed monthly)
4. Pro: $399/month (billed monthly)
3. Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is a platform designed to help you build strong online communities easily. It conveniently combines courses, memberships, and social networking in one space. You can provide an environment for your members to connect and share the things they are passionate about naturally.
The mobile app lets your community stay connected anytime, anywhere, without extra apps. Compared to BuddyBoss, Mighty Networks places a strong emphasis on user interaction within the community. You gain the ability to monetize your content via memberships, courses, and paid events.
The platform also offers simple customization so your network feels truly yours. You don’t have to be a techie to run your community spontaneously. For a more informal or interactive space, Mighty Networks works well.
Key Features
Community Building: Mighty Networks is particularly good at building online communities. It provides you with member profiles, private messaging (one-on-one and group), activity streams, polls, events, and discussion forums.
Online Courses: You can build and sell online courses. You also get features like course communities, a versatile learning management system (LMS), live events, course discussions, and all-member chats.
Integrated live streaming: Kajabi offers integrated live streaming tools. You can easily interact with your community members in real-time with this feature.
Monetization Options: Mighty Networks provides multiple options for making money for your communities, such as paid memberships, bundles, and one-time sales of products.
Native Mobile Apps: You have a branded, native mobile app for iOS and Android. Your community members have instant access to your network regardless of the device they’re on.
Custom Branding: You are able to brand your community to fit your look and make it your very own. You have the options to use light or dark mode and your own custom domain name.
Advanced Analytics: With Mighty Networks, you get advanced analytics with a dedicated dashboard to monitor community performance and engagement.
Pros
One-stop platform for community, online courses, and events, available on the web, iOS, and Android.
Elements such as Spaces can be used to structure the community into sections for courses, groups, or other content.
Accommodates content in the form of articles, videos, polls, and live events.
Very intuitive and easy for creators as well as members to navigate.
Offers great community insights into member engagement and activity.
Offers free and branded iOS and Android mobile apps.
Uses AI for community building, onboarding, and personalizing content.
Cons
May rely more on third-party integrations than desired for certain requirements.
Applies transaction fees to sales within the platform.
Might not be as comprehensive as some specialized analytics tools.
Pricing
Mighty Networks comes with four pricing plans.
1. The Community Plan: $41/month
2. The Courses Plan: $99/month
3. The Business Plan: $179/month
4. The Growth Plan: $360/month
4. Circle
Circle is a platform built to help you create engaged and vibrant online communities easily. It’s about being simple, so you can engage your audience without distraction. You can easily create spaces for courses, discussions, and events. Circle integrates seamlessly with other popular tools to manage memberships and payments.
Circle, unlike BuddyBoss, keeps everything clean and user-friendly with an intuitive design. It includes helpful features such as member profiles, private messaging, and notifications to keep in touch. If you’re looking for a simple, modern community platform, Circle is one to explore.
Key Features
Community Spaces: You can designate different spaces for different types of activities (place for discussions, events, or courses, etc.) within your community. This allows for a more organized and focused interaction.
Live Streaming: Circle allows for live events in your space and interactions in real time.
Monetization Options: You can charge for community access or specific spaces with Circle. Whether it's memberships, subscriptions, or event tickets, you've got flexible options.
Group DM and Chat: Circle lets you engage in direct messaging between members and have group chats for focused conversation.
Create and Host Courses: Circle gives you the ability to create and host courses that can be part of your community or course curriculum.
Branded Mobile App: Circle provides a branded mobile app add-on. That allows you to have a more personalized and professionally designed app.
Pros
Includes features such as spaces, forums for discussion, and live events to encourage interaction and engagement.
Has a very user-friendly interface for admins and members to easily interact.
Offers subscription fees, one-time payments, and upsells to monetize communities.
Provides detailed analytics on community growth, engagement, and member activity for informative decisions.
Incorporates a discovery tool for members to locate and join other communities. It can extend the community's growth possibilities.
Integrates with multiple third-party tools, like payment processors and analytics platforms.
Cons
It can be costly for smaller or newer creators.
Lacks built-in blogging and sales page creation tools.
Has limitations on storage capacity for larger communities.
It may lack the more advanced marketing tools and integrations found in other platforms.
Pricing
Circle offers you four different pricing options.
1. Professional: $89/month
2. Business: $199/month
3. Enterprise: $419/month
4. Plus Branded App: Custom Pricing
5. Thinkific
Thinkific is a user-friendly platform designed to help you create and sell online courses easily. You get powerful tools to build courses without needing advanced technical skills or coding. It offers flexible customization options so your course site matches your brand perfectly.
Thinkific supports memberships and communities to engage your learners and keep them coming back. If you want a simple but effective alternative to BuddyBoss, Thinkific can be an excellent choice.
Key Features
Drag-and-Drop Course Builder: Thinkific simplifies course creation with a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface. This makes it easy for you to build and organize your course content.
Built-in Website and Landing Page Builder: You can create professional-looking websites and landing pages to showcase your courses and capture leads.
Various Payment Options: The platform supports various payment gateways. This allows you to sell courses through one-time purchases, subscriptions, or payment plans.
Student Engagement Tools: You get student engagement tools like quizzes, assignments, and progress tracking to engage and motivate your students.
Marketing Integrations: It integrates with popular marketing tools, such as email marketing platforms and social media. This helps promote your courses and reach a wider audience.
Community Features: Thinkific Communities allow you to connect with your audience, build trust, and encourage collaboration around your courses. You can create a standalone community or integrate it with your existing course content.
Pros
Has a drag and drop course builder to easily build and organize content for courses.
Offers several pricing options to select according to the user’s needs and budget.
Offers a responsive and helpful customer support team.
Includes a suite of tools for marketing and selling courses, including integrations with payment gateways.
Supports various media formats like videos, audio, PDFs, and surveys, enhancing the learning experience.
Integrates with a variety of popular third-party tools for marketing, analytics, and more.
Can scale with customers’ needs, offering plans suitable for both individuals and larger organizations.
Cons
It offers fewer options for customizing the look and feel of your site.
Some features, such as email marketing and advanced analytics need integrations with third-party applications.
Pricing
Thinkific offers four different pricing plans.
1. Basic: $49/month (billed annually)
2. Start: $99/month (billed annually)
3. Grow: $199/month (billed annually)
4. Thinkific Plus: Custom Pricing
6. PeepSo
PeepSo is a WordPress community plugin for creating a social network on your website. You can easily connect your users by member profiles, activity streams and private messaging. It allows you to have a unique community to present your brand.
PeepSo works well alongside other popular plugins to add more functionality to your site. You will find it simple to manage your community without needing advanced technical skills. It supports groups and events to keep your members engaged and active regularly.
PeepSo is a good alternative to BuddyBoss. Because this is oriented toward social connections. It helps you build a thriving online community successfully.
Key Features
User Profiles: PeepSo enables creating detailed and customizable user profiles that promote engagement within your community.
Activity Streams: Your members can share updates, posts and media. They interact with one another in a social networking environment like Facebook’s timeline.
Direct Messaging: PeepSo lets you message others privately to help foster a sense of community and connectivity.
Notifications: You receive real-time notifications of activities, comments, likes and much more of what keeps you engaged.
Privacy Controls: PeepSo offers robust privacy settings. So, you can control the visibility of your content and manage who can see your information. This enhances trust and safety.
Integrations with Third-Party Plugins: PeepSo works with popular WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce, LearnDash, BuddyPress, and myCRED for engaging and monetizing your community.
User-Friendly: PeepSo is easier to use, navigate, and customize without extensive tech knowledge.
Pros
Configured for an easy setup, ideal for users who don't want a complex system.
Offers a free plan that’s quite limited, and very cheap paid add-ons for anyone who needs more.
Fits smaller, niche communities because of streamlined design.
Provides complete social network features such as activity streams, groups, private messaging, etc.
Offers various monetization options, like ad support through Advanced Ads, membership fees through Paid Membership Pro, and selling products through WooCommerce.
Maintains regular updates and provides support as needed.
The community remains lightweight, as users only select and pay for the features they need.
Cons
Many advanced features require purchasing expensive add-ons or bundles.
It may require a lot of server resources that can affect the performance on a shared hosting plan.
Doesn’t have a ton of pre-built third-party integrations like some of the other options.
It can be time-consuming to set up and configure all aspects, particularly for first-time users of social networking plugins.
Pricing
PeepSo offers two pricing plans along with a free plan.
1. Foundation Version: Free
2. Community Bundle: Starts from $149/year for 1 site license
3. Ultimate Bundle: Starts from $199/year for 1 site license
7. Bettermode
Bettermode is built to make online communities simple and enjoyable for you to run. You get powerful tools to connect members, manage, and grow your community space effortlessly. The platform keeps member interaction easy and encourages active participation in groups.
Customizing your community is straightforward, even if you don’t have technical skills. You can get support from Bettermode if you face any issues. If BuddyBoss seems too complex, Bettermode might be what you are looking for.
Key Features
Customizable Spaces: Bettermode lets you make flexible “Spaces” to organize your community content and structure. You can customize these Spaces with different features and permissions.
Discussion Forums: You have access to forums with activity feeds, member profiles, and rich text formatting options for posts. This allows for deeper discussions, knowledge sharing, and community interaction.
Live Streaming and Events: Bettermode supports live streaming and event management. You can host webinars, online events, and interactive sessions directly within the platform.
Community Engagement Features: You can use reactions, comments, @mentions, and rich text formatting on Bettermode. This promotes interaction and pushes participation in your community.
Personalized Design Studio: Bettermode’s Design Studio enables community managers to give their communities a distinct aesthetic and feel. It is very customizable and features an easy to use drag and drop interface.
Pros
Allows for extensive customization of the community's appearance and functionality.
Integrates with various third-party tools, including Zapier, Code snippets, and Google Analytics, enhancing workflow and data analytics.
Offers robust features like forums, articles, events, gamification, and AI-powered content suggestions.
Protects user data and community interactions with strong security measures.
Designed to handle a large number of users and content, making it suitable for growing communities.
Allows for a fully branded community experience with minimal Bettermode branding.
Cons
Doesn't offer native payment processing for community access, sell digital products, or create membership tiers within the platform.
It may not be the best choice for very large communities due to potential performance issues and scaling challenges.
Does not offer native iOS or Android mobile apps for community members.
Pricing
Bettermode offers two pricing plans along with a free plan.
1. Starter: Free
2. Pro: $49/month (billed annually)
3. Enterprise: Contact sales
Why EzyCourse Stands Out as the Top BuddyBoss Alternative
EzyCourse stands out as the top BuddyBoss alternative because everything you need is already built in. You won’t waste hours dealing with plugins, updates, or the usual WordPress headaches BuddyBoss brings. You’ll get all the necessary tools to create courses and build communities in EzyCourse.
Your site and app will look fully branded without hiring developers or touching complicated settings. Your students will have a quicker, cleaner, and more engaging learning experience without the fluff.
From a single, user-friendly dashboard, you can sell courses, memberships, digital products, or even physical products and in-person events.
The built-in automation tools help you convert visitors to paying students effortlessly. The sense of community fostered by the features helps to create authentic connections that keep learners engaged and active.
Beyond learning and community, you can offer coaching, manage clients, and host live experiences. EzyCourse isn’t just a platform for courses; it’s a complete business hub built for growth and scale.
Conclusion
Choosing the right BuddyBoss alternatives depends on your specific needs and priorities for your online community or course businesses. If you prioritize built-in tools, ease-of-use, mobile app support, or deep customization, there's a platform that meets your needs.
These top 7 alternatives are all good. They offer benefits that make your work easier and improve your user experience.
Finally, spend time assessing your own needs and try a few before making a choice. If you want a platform that’s fully equipped from the beginning to the end, EzyCourse is perfect for you. Give EzyCourse a try today and see how effortlessly you can run courses, communities, and more.
Frequently Answers Questions
Why should I want a BuddyBoss alternative in 2025?
BuddyBoss is powerful, but it can feel limiting for those who are not tech-savvy. It can be cumbersome dealing with plugins, updates, and customizations. Therefore, you should look at easier, more flexible platforms to do all of these things.
Do any platforms provide a more all-in-one experience than BuddyBoss?
EzyCourse and Kajabi provide you with everything in one place and without needing additional plugins. Both have built-in features for courses, communities, memberships, and sales. They are also time saver and less complicated to help you focus more on growth.
Do these alternatives work well for building online communities and courses?
Absolutely. Most of them are designed for creators who want to build both engaging communities and high-quality courses. You don’t have to compromise on either.
Will I need to hire a developer to use these alternatives?
No, most alternatives are built for non-technical users with simple drag-and-drop tools. You’ll have full control without writing a single line of code.
Are there any free options?
Yes. Bettermode and PeepSo offer free plans with limited features to help you get started. EzyCourse provides a free trial so you can explore its all-in-one features before making a decision. These options let you test community-building tools without paying up front.
Which BuddyBoss alternative is best for selling digital products and memberships?
EzyCourse is the best alternative to BuddyBoss. It supports selling courses, memberships, and any kind of digital products (from ebooks to digital downloads) in one place. You can monetize everything without jumping between platforms.
