Since starting Identity Software, I've done a lot of work with BuddyBoss. If you're not familiar, BuddyBoss is a software platform for building online communities and eLearning sites. It is built on top of Wordpress, and includes Android and iPhone apps, giving you the ability to put together a custom social networking and messaging app very quickly.
I've been doing a lot of work for a client kebudel.com who have built a very nice platform for managing early childhood education services including internal staff communication, sending updates to parents, learning plan management, as well as eLearning, and professional networking.
I'm writing this post to clarify my thoughts ahead of a talk at a local wordpress meetup group, and to showcase the kind of work that can be done customising a BuddyBoss site.
BuddyBoss vs Buddypress.
BuddyBoss was originally a commercial fork of Buddypress. Here's a summary of the main differences:
BuddyBoss is commercial software, it costs from $300-$5000/year for a license depending on whether you want the app or not. Buddypress is the free and open source alternative.
BuddyBoss looks more modern and attractive
BuddyBoss has apps available, Buddypress is only on the web.
Personally, I would use Buddypress for a hobby or club solution or for building online forums. I would use BuddyBoss for building a social app that can be managed with a wp-admin backend.
What does BuddyBoss do out of the box?
Community Building:Â BuddyBoss provides social networking features, including
Private Chats
Activity Feeds
Groups
User Profiles
Notifications
Image and Video sharing
Paid subscriptions: BuddBoss is designed to work with Memberpress which allows you to create membership levels, manage subscriptions, and paywall content.
Learning Management System (LMS):Â BuddyBoss integrates with LMS plugins, such as Learndash and Memberpress Courses, enabling users to create and sell online courses and track their progress with certificates and gamification.
Mobile Compatibility:Â BuddyBoss is designed to be fully responsive, providing an optimal user experience across devices, including smartphones and tablets.
Overall, with BuddyBoss you can put together quite a rich social or elearning app very quickly.
How do you manage BuddyBoss security?
Buddyboss is built on top of Wordpress which doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to security. I'd put this reputation down to a few factors.
People often install dozens of free plugins which are left to go out of date. Even one insecure plugin may allow your entire site to be compromised.
Wordpress is a very popular open source software and there is an active ecosystem of attackers. Your BuddyBoss site will probably be under constant and often quite sophisticated attack.
Comically weak admin passwords like "admin" or "password"
Wordpress security is a big topic (and can be a full time job) I'd summarise my basic approach as this:
Understand your security priorities
Remove unnecessary plugins.
Keep your plugins up to date, automate security patching if possible
Install a WAF like the WordFence plugin
Require 2FA and/or strong passwords for your administrators
Install monitoring like the "Stream" plugin
Make sure that backups are in place and working properly.
Disable any features you aren't using.
If you've followed those steps and maintain them, your site should generally be secure, the majority of sites get hacked because they didn't do the basics well.
How can you extend BuddyBoss?
The great thing about building on top of BuddyBoss is that unlike other app platforms, it's WordPress — so the PHP code is accessible and you can use familiar tools like filters, actions, and hooks to customise functionality. With some effort, BuddyBoss is extremely extendable. There are four main levels of customisation available, depending on how deeply you want to integrate with or modify the platform:
Configuration Options: BuddyBoss offers branding and customisation through the WordPress admin panel. You can also add and configure compatible plugins such as Memberpress.
BuddyBoss Child Theme: For visual and some structural changes to the front-end, a child theme allows you to override BuddyBoss templates, style components with CSS, and inject JavaScript where needed. This is ideal for layout tweaks, design changes, or modifying how BuddyBoss displays content.
Your Own Plugin Code: If you need to add new features, automate workflows, or interact with third-party services, writing a custom plugin is the cleanest approach. You can hook into BuddyBoss's actions and filters just like you would in any WordPress plugin. This level gives you full control without modifying core files, ensuring compatibility across updates.
The BuddyBoss App: For businesses using the mobile app component, BuddyBoss offers a React Native-based mobile app that mirrors your site's features. You can extend or white-label the mobile experience using the BuddyBoss App’s developer tools, giving you a consistent and branded user interface across platforms.
Some Custom BuddyBoss Features I've built I've mostly worked on a custom plugin with a number of additional features including:
Student tracking features.
Enterprise teacher management and reporting features.
Modifying the core editor to support "cross posting" to multiple groups simultaneously. For example if a story involved three children, post one update across all three of their profiles.
The last feature, adding cross posts, was probably stretching the bounds of what's possible with a custom plugin. It dug deep into the core editor and the data model of an "Activity". I probably wouldn't recommend such a customisation for another client, unless they're sure they need it and have a very competent developer to build it. But that's the beauty of building on top of Wordpress, almost anything is possible.
Overall I'd say that BuddyBoss does offer a very cost effective way to launch a social or learning management app that is also quite extendable.
If you have a BuddyBoss, Buddypress, or other site or app built on top of Wordpress, Â and need a competent, honest and reliable developer, please reach out!
