WB Polls: The Complete Guide to Community Polls, Surveys, and Voting on WordPress

Give Your Community a Voice

Every community has opinions. The question is whether you are capturing them. Blog comments and activity posts are great for open discussion, but when you need clear, structured feedback, which feature should we build next, what time works for the meetup, do you prefer the new design, you need polls.

WB Polls adds full-featured polling, voting, and surveys to any WordPress site. It works standalone or deeply integrated with BuddyPress, BuddyBoss, and PeepSo. Here is everything you need to know.

What Makes WB Polls Different

Most WordPress poll plugins give you a basic multiple-choice question in a sidebar widget. WB Polls goes much further:

• Six poll types, Text, Image, Video, Audio, HTML, Star Rating, and Yes/No polls
• BuddyPress activity stream polls, Create and vote on polls directly in the activity feed
• BuddyPress group polls, Each group can have its own polls
• Multi-question surveys, Chain multiple polls into step-by-step surveys with analytics
• Frontend dashboard, Members create and manage polls without touching the admin panel
• REST API, 8 endpoints for headless and mobile integrations
• Guest voting, Allow visitors to vote without creating an account

WB Polls homepage showing featured polls in a clean card grid with status badges, vote counts, and timestamps

Poll Types for Every Use Case

Text Polls

The classic multiple-choice poll. Write a question, add options, and let people vote. Simple, fast, and effective for quick decisions. Available in both the free Lite version and Pro.

Image Polls (Pro)

When words are not enough, let images do the talking. Perfect for design feedback, product comparisons, or visual preferences. Each option shows a lightbox preview so voters can examine images before choosing.

Video Polls (Pro)

Embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitch, and Dailymotion as poll options. Great for creative communities comparing video content, or for organizations gathering feedback on video presentations.

Audio Polls (Pro)

Support for Spotify, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, and Bandcamp embeds. Music communities can use this for track-of-the-week voting, podcast episode preferences, or audio content feedback.

Star Rating Polls (Pro)

Five-star rating with average score display and distribution chart. Perfect for product reviews, event feedback, or satisfaction surveys where you need a numerical score rather than a choice.

Yes/No Polls (Pro)

Binary choice with a visual split-bar showing the result. Quick and decisive. Great for go/no-go decisions, feature approvals, or simple sentiment checks.

Polls in the BuddyPress Activity Feed

This is where WB Polls really shines for community sites. Members can create polls directly in the BuddyPress activity stream, just like posting a status update, but with structured voting.

Activity stream polls with percentage bars, vote counts, and voter avatars, real engagement happening in the feed

Activity polls show:

• The question and all options
• Green percentage bars showing current results
• Vote count per option
• Voter avatars (configurable number to display)
• Percentage breakdown
• The creator’s name and avatar
• Timestamp

Polls in the activity feed drive engagement because they are frictionless. Members do not need to navigate to a separate page. They see a poll, tap an option, and their vote is counted via AJAX, no page reload.

Group Polls

BuddyPress groups can have their own polls. Group admins and members can create polls that are only visible within the group context. This is powerful for:

• Team decision-making in private groups
• Event planning within interest groups
• Content direction voting in content creator groups
• Meeting scheduling for organizational groups

Frontend Poll Creation

Members do not need admin access to create polls. The frontend creation form is clean and intuitive.

The frontend poll creation form, simple, clean, no admin panel needed

The creation flow:

1. Click “Create a Poll” from the navigation or dashboard
2. Enter your question
3. Add answer options (text, or upload images/videos/audio in Pro)
4. Set optional scheduling (start date, end date, or never expire)
5. Choose settings (multi-select, allow user-added options, enable comments)
6. Publish, or submit for admin approval depending on your settings

You control who can create polls through role-based permissions. Allow everyone, restrict to specific roles, or require admin approval before polls go live.

Multi-Question Surveys (Pro)

Sometimes a single poll is not enough. Surveys let you chain multiple questions into a sequential flow with progress tracking.

Survey features include:

• Progressive disclosure, Questions appear one at a time
• Progress bar, Visual indicator showing survey completion
• Lead capture gate, Collect emails with GDPR consent before or after the survey
• Response limits, Cap the number of responses
• Expiry dates, Auto-close surveys after a set date
• Analytics dashboard, Completion rates, drop-off analysis, response trends
• CSV export, Export all responses for external analysis

Voting Controls

WB Polls gives you granular control over who can vote and how:

• Guest voting, Allow visitors without accounts to vote (tracked via cookies and IP)
• Logged-in only, Restrict voting to registered users
• Role-based, Limit voting to specific WordPress user roles
• Multi-select, Allow voters to choose multiple options
• Re-voting, Let users change their vote (Pro)
• User-added options, Allow voters to propose new options (Pro)
• Hide results until voted, Prevent result bias by hiding percentages until someone votes

Results and Analytics

Every poll displays results with visual percentage bars, vote counts, and voter avatars. In Pro, you also get:

• Chart.js visualizations, Multiple chart types for data presentation
• Admin dashboard widgets, Poll stats at a glance from the WordPress dashboard
• Survey analytics, Response completion rates, drop-off by question, time-series trends
• Per-response viewer, See every individual survey response in detail

Shortcodes for Anywhere Placement

Display polls anywhere on your site:

• [wbpoll id="123"], Display a specific poll by ID
• [wbpoll_list count="10" columns="2" pagination="true"], Grid of polls with filtering by category, author, or status
• [wbpoll_create], Embed the poll creation form on any page

The list shortcode supports extensive attributes: columns (1-4), ordering (date, title, votes, random), category filtering, author filtering, and pagination.

Platform Compatibility

WB Polls works with:

• BuddyPress, Full activity stream and group integration
• BuddyBoss Platform, Native compatibility, inline activity composer
• PeepSo, Community feed integration
• Youzify, Full theme compatibility
• Elementor, Widget support for page builder layouts
• Any WordPress theme, Works standalone without any community plugin

It also supports RTL languages and automatic dark mode detection.

REST API for Developers

WB Polls provides 8 REST API endpoints:

• Create, list, get, pause, delete, unpublish, publish polls
• Get poll results programmatically
• Permission-based access control
• Ownership verification for management actions

This makes it possible to build custom poll interfaces, mobile apps, or headless frontends that interact with your polls.

Email Notifications (Pro)

Stay informed with automatic email notifications:

• Admin notifications, Get notified when someone votes or completes a survey
• Voter confirmations, Send voters a confirmation of their vote
• Survey completion, Thank respondents automatically
• Customizable subject lines and message templates with dynamic variables

Mobile Experience

Polls are fully responsive and work perfectly on mobile devices.

Mobile-responsive polls in the activity feed, tap to vote, instant AJAX results

Free Lite vs Pro

WB Polls comes in two versions:

WB Polls Lite (Free)

Everything you need to get started: text polls, frontend dashboard, frontend creation, BuddyPress activity integration, shortcodes, REST API, guest voting, multi-select, and poll scheduling.

WB Polls Pro

Everything in Lite plus: image, video, audio, HTML, star rating, and yes/no poll types. Surveys with analytics. Lead capture. Email notifications. CSV export. Re-voting. User-added options. Admin dashboard widgets. WP-CLI commands. Chart visualizations.

WP-CLI Support (Pro)

Power users and developers get WP-CLI commands:

• wp bppolls generate, Generate sample polls for testing
• wp bppolls stats, Display poll statistics
• wp bppolls list, List all polls from the command line
• wp bppolls reset, Reset all poll data

Get WB Polls

Whether you need a quick opinion poll on your blog or a full survey system for your BuddyPress community, WB Polls has you covered. Start with the free Lite version to test the core features, or go straight to Pro for the complete package.

Get WB Polls and give your community a voice.