Are you looking for some BuddyPress vs Discord drama? Come here, we have it all for you. In this article, we’ll compare two of the best ways to create an online community in 2023. Keep reading to know more!
It has been all “online communities” since the last era. Most business giants have shifted from basic marketing to community-based marketing. Trust me, it is one of the best things to have as a start-up/business!
To top that statement, people nowadays look for virtual groups to join where they can connect with people with similar goals and thoughts. They could belong to any place, it may be as dense as the Amazon forest but would still get along. That is the power of building an online community.
Try Reign Theme DemoBuy Reign BuddyPress Theme and Reign addons bundle add-onto create a highly engaging Community Platform Today!
People closely look for any benefits when they buy a product or service from your business. It can be a free coupon, some credits, cash back, or discount offers. Joining a community is undoubtedly not as effective as discount offers. But it is sure important in its own way. You can ask people to join your community to earn points and redeem them the next time they buy your products or services. Think about it, there are numerous probabilities. Even I have 10+ ideas about utilizing community to make an audience.
Are you convinced yet? I am sure you are. So now that we have discussed what’s important let’s head towards something that really sets the tone for this article. Now that we have to create a community website, how should you go on. Which platform should you choose? BuddyPress vs Discord is a heated debate about who’s the better community platform/builder.
BuddyPress vs Discord: Battle Overview
BuddyPress and Discord are great options for creating a community website. The ease of setup and unimaginably customizations they offer are on another level than any other community-building platform.
BuddyPress is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to create a community, offering features like private messaging, activity feeds, friends, groups, and discussion forums. BuddyPress is not just a free WordPress plugin, it is the best way to create a full control community website with unimaginable customizations.
Discord is heaven for gamers. It was built to give gamers a place to talk and connect with each other. Since many multiplayer games do not offer a voice chat function, many gamers hop onto Discord servers to connect with their friends. However, it has been used as a place to connect with people. With Discord, you can create a server and focus on creating a community website. Discord offers many beautiful features, including building a forum, voice chats, and live events possibilities.
BuddyPress vs Discord: Points of Difference
Though both BuddyPress and Discord can be used for a similar purpose, they are completely different platforms. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. In this section, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of Discord and BuddyPress. So keep reading and know for yourself which suits better for your needs. And if you’re still confused? Get a call fixed with one of our specialist community-building consultants.
1. Community Feature Comparison
Community features are the most important basis of differentiation between Discord and BuddyPress. A good community website/platform must offer a lot for you to keep your members engaged. Your community site must help you build a sense of community amongst your customers/followers.
BuddyPress
BuddyPress might offer the most basic community features when utilized alone, but it becomes a community-building monster when customized with robust plugins and user-interactive themes.
For example, BuddyPress with Reign theme (paid)/ BuddyX theme (free) and some robust plugins like BuddyPress Private Community Pro, BuddyPress Moderation Pro, BuddyPress Polls, BuddyPress Who Viewed My Profile, and BuddyPress Giphy make the ultimate community website for 2023.
There is no end to creativity on BuddyPress; you can fully customize all the pages of your website using the drag-and-drop feature of WordPress blocks (Elementor).
You can even host live events, post calendars (The Events Calendar), and sell online courses on your community site. From selling digital products to keeping fees for joining your website, BuddyPress gives you so many options to monetize your community website.
Discord
Discord was traditionally built to make servers with different dedicated spaces for different communication genres. An average discord server for any brand must look like this: Welcome > General Chat > Support Chat > Live Event #1 > Giveaway Group.
Your members can hop onto a voice channel for a quick chat or a long session of listening to common music interests. Apart from chatting, Discord allows you to video chat, share files, and take part in discussion forums.
Like BuddyPress has BuddyPress Giphy, Discord allows your members to add emojis, GIFs, and other characters into posts.
2. Ability to Monetize | BuddyPress vs Discord
Yes, we know you’ll be reading this point very carefully. Everyone knows why and knows why it is extremely important as well. With the effort that goes into building an online community website, most community owners want some way to get a return too!
You can monetize your BuddyPress website and Discord server. You may not feel like doing so instantly, but you might like to do that in the future. So, we recommend you take notes for monetization as well! Keep in mind; strategies work differently with each community. So monetizing your community in the early stages or not is your decision!
BuddyPress
BuddyPress allows you to take payments for absolutely everything and anything. Let us know if you have a doubt, and we will tell you the solution. We’ll build a custom plugin that would let you monetize everything!
Other than that, there are a few traditional options such as selling a membership, online courses, and digital products/services on your community website. You can even sell events and show tickets on your website.
Discord
As Discord is a free-to-use platform for the basics, you do not get many options to monetize your Discord server other than 3rd party integrations. Discord has a partner program that allows you to sell subscriptions, but it is in testing, and many functionalities are yet not disclosed.
Even though if it gets out officially, you will have to submit an application to monetize your discord server, and only a bare minimum of servers would be monetized. This means that you cannot be sure of monetization even after building a splendid community on Discord. Unlikely, if you get accepted in the partner program, Discord would probably take away a 5-10% cut of your earnings, which is huge for a start-up community.
3. Customization Possibilities
A robust community-building solution must offer fascinating customization options. While we are at it, we should also discuss what is the true importance of customizations.
Customizations, meaning you can add your personal touch to your community, never mind personal touch you can add all the brand image in your community and design it in such a way that it resonates with your brand image!
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is a free plugin for WordPress, and WordPress is an open-source software with drag and drop website builder. There are numerous possibilities for customizations to begin with. You can absolutely create anything and everything with it.
Be it brand colors, logos, or images BuddyPress allows you to play around with each and every aspect of your community website. BuddyPress ranks supreme when it comes to customization possibilities.
Discord
Discord doesn’t allow you much into customizations, you can change the way things look on your server, but you cannot change the UI to make the server resonate completely with your brand image.
Discord allows you to add a server icon, which is the only customizable stuff you can add to match the server with your brand identity.
Wrapping Up Words
In the end, the choice between BuddyPress and Discord depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you’re looking for a more traditional forum-style community with a lot of customization options, BuddyPress may be the way to go. However, Discord may be better if you want a more modern and interactive platform with voice and video chat features. Ultimately, both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to weigh them carefully before deciding.
