BuddyNext - community engine for WordPress

The Member Journey, Screen by Screen

Free & Pro

This is the path a brand-new person walks from the moment they land on your community to their first post - every screen, in order, with what they see and do. Use it to understand the out-of-the-box experience, to decide what to change, and to explain the flow to your own members.

The whole journey is three stages: sign up, a six-step welcome wizard, and the member home they land on. Nothing here needs configuration - it is what every BuddyNext community does on a fresh install.

Stage 1 - Sign up

A visitor who clicks Register (or opens /login/signup/) gets a single, focused screen: a welcoming panel on the left and a short form on the right.

The BuddyNext sign-up screen with a welcome panel and a short registration form

The form asks for only what it needs:

  • Email and a Your name field ("This is how other members will see you.")
  • Password, with a Show toggle
  • A one-line math check ("What is four plus three?") - an in-house spam guard, so there is no third-party CAPTCHA to configure or slow the page down
  • An I agree to the Terms of Service checkbox

"Free forever. No credit card required." sits right under the heading, and a Sign in link is there for people who already have an account. One click on Create account and the new member moves straight into the welcome wizard.

Stage 2 - The welcome wizard (six steps)

The moment sign-up completes, BuddyNext opens a guided wizard. Every step shows a live profile preview on the right and a numbered progress bar at the top, and almost every step can be skipped - so the flow guides without ever trapping. By the time the member reaches the end they already have a filled-in profile, spaces to read, and people to talk to.

Step 1 - Set up your profile

Onboarding step 1: set up your profile, with a live preview of the member card

Add a profile photo (JPG or PNG, max 4 MB), a display name, a username (the @handle other members see), and an optional bio. The preview card on the right updates as they type, showing exactly how their profile will read to everyone else. Skip for now or Continue.

Step 2 - What are you into?

Onboarding step 2: choose interest topics as chips

The member picks the topics they care about from a row of chips (Design, Photography, Running, and so on - these come from your space categories). Selected chips fill with your brand colour. These interests personalise their feed and appear on their profile. This step only shows when your community has space categories set up.

Step 3 - Join some spaces

Onboarding step 3: join topic-focused spaces

Spaces are topic-focused mini-communities. The member sees a grid of open spaces with names, descriptions, and member counts, and can Join any of them right here - so they land with somewhere to read on day one.

Step 4 - Follow some members

Onboarding step 4: follow suggested members to build a feed

A short list of members with their headlines ("Product designer", "UX writer", "Frontend engineer") and a Follow button each. Following even a couple of people means the feed is not empty the first time they open it.

Step 5 - How should we ping you?

Onboarding step 5: choose notification channels

Three channel toggles with sensible defaults: Email (daily summary) and In-app (bell badge) are on, Sound is off. The member can fine-tune exactly which events reach each channel later, from Settings - this step just sets the broad strokes.

Step 6 - Pick your membership

Onboarding step 6: an optional Pro membership offer

The final step is an optional upgrade offer - the Pro plan, its benefits, and its price - with a clear Maybe later - continue free button next to it. Checkout is handled by the payment provider, and a member can change or cancel any time from Settings. Nobody is forced to pay to finish onboarding.

Stage 3 - The member home

Finishing the wizard drops the new member on their own profile, set up to nudge the next action rather than a blank page.

The new member's profile with a Profile Strength completion checklist

The right rail shows a Profile Strength ring with a checklist - Add Basic Info, Social Links, Work Experience, Skills, a profile photo, a cover image - with Interests already ticked off from the wizard. Alongside it sit People to follow and Trending topics, and the composer ("What's on your mind?") is right there. The member has a clear, low-pressure list of what to do next and everything they need to make their first post.

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