BuddyNext - community engine for WordPress

BuddyNext vs Discourse Migrate

Migration guide

Migrate from Discourse to BuddyNext.

Moving off Discourse means moving from a standalone forum to a community that lives inside your WordPress site. There is no importer for it, so members are invited to new accounts and the discussions you keep are republished by hand. If your community is fundamentally long discussion, read the first point below before you decide. Our team can do the move with you.

Ask us to move it for you See the move, step by step

Watch it first

See where you are moving to

What the community looks like once it runs on your own site, then the setup wizard you start the move with.

Online Community Platform You Own: Build It on WordPress3:11Chapters and transcript

Start the move

Do this first

What to take out of Discourse.

Nothing carries across automatically, because Discourse is a separate system with no WordPress accounts behind it. Export before you change anything else, and check each file once.

  • A full backup of the forum, taken before you change anything else. It is your safety net while the new site is built.
  • Whatever member and content exports your own Discourse admin area offers. We have not verified a specific export route, so check what your version and hosting plan allow.
  • The discussions people still link to: the pinned guides, the rules and the best answers, saved somewhere you control.
  • A list of your categories and what each is for, so you can decide which become spaces and which become forum boards.

The honest part

What you set up after the move.

There is no importer for Discourse, so this is what you rebuild. It is less than it sounds: a hosted community is mostly its people and a handful of pages that matter, and BuddyNext has tools for the people part.

  • Your members. There are no WordPress accounts to carry over, so people are invited to new ones: bulk invites by CSV in the free plugin (an email and optional first name per row, up to 500 rows per upload, with resend and revoke), or space invite links that expire after a day, a week, a month or never.
  • Your spaces and structure. Rebuild the rooms that matter as spaces, each with its own visibility, members and moderators, and set auto-join so a new member lands in your welcome space.
  • The content people still need. Republish the welcome guide, the rules and the best answers as announcements or discussion posts, and leave the long tail of old chatter behind.
  • Payments. A subscription started on another platform cannot be taken over, so paying members subscribe again on a Pro membership plan. A founding discount is a coupon you create yourself.

We can move it for you: the free importer covers WordPress-native sources only. For Discourse our team can run the migration with you, so you do not have to do the rebuild yourself. Tell us about your community. The playbook below is the do-it-yourself route.

Same jobs, friendlier names

Your Discourse vocabulary, translated.

Where each Discourse concept lands in BuddyNext, and which tier it needs.

  • DiscourseCategories BuddyNextSpaces or forum boards A category that is its own conversation becomes a space; a topic list stays a Jetonomy board.
  • DiscourseTopics and replies BuddyNextDiscussions Threaded topics with replies and votes, from the free Jetonomy companion.
  • DiscoursePersonal messages BuddyNextDirect messages Powered by the free WPMediaVerse companion; group chats need WPMediaVerse Pro.
  • DiscourseTrust levels and flags BuddyNextModeration queue A moderation queue in Free and a rules engine in Pro.

No fairy tales

Your move, step by step.

The order that keeps your members calm: export first, rebuild on a staging copy, invite a small group, then announce a date.

  1. 1Export first. Do the exports above while you are still on the plan you pay for today, and open each file once to check it has the columns you need. If member emails are missing, collect them inside Discourse before anything else.
  2. 2Decide what moves. Write down which spaces, categories or rooms move, merge or retire. A few well-run spaces beat a long list of dormant ones.
  3. 3Build on a staging site. Install the free BuddyNext plugin on a staging copy, create the spaces and set each one's visibility.
  4. 4Set up payments if you charge. Pro membership plans with Stripe or PayPal checkout and coupons. Attach each plan to the spaces it opens.
  5. 5Rebuild the content that matters. Pin a welcome post in the first space and republish the guides and answers new members still need.
  6. 6Invite a small group first. Send a CSV invite to a few active members and ask them to sign up on a phone, post, react and open a gated space. Fix what they find.
  7. 7Announce the date, then invite in batches. Tell your members where the new home is and when Discourse stops being the place, then invite everyone in batches so the first week stays calm.
  8. 8Retire Discourse last. Keep it running until your regulars are posting on the new site. Before you cancel, check what cancelling does to your exports.

Moving off Discourse, specifically

What is different about this move.

Discourse is a superb forum, and for discussion-first communities it is hard to beat. People move to BuddyNext when they want a social community inside the WordPress site they already run: one login, one theme, one admin, instead of a separate Ruby and PostgreSQL application on a subdomain. The forum does not vanish, it becomes one part of the community.

  • If your community is mostly long threads and knowledge that should stay findable for years, Discourse is purpose-built for that. BuddyNext's forums come from Jetonomy, a companion plugin, with the bridge in BuddyNext Free.
  • No part of this move is automatic. Check what your own Discourse admin area lets you export before you plan around it, and take a full backup of the forum before you change anything.
  • Discourse's trust levels and moderation tooling are mature. BuddyNext has a moderation queue in Free and a rules engine in Pro, so compare your day-to-day moderation needs against the moderation docs before you commit.

Still weighing it up? Read the full BuddyNext vs Discourse comparison → Or see the honest Discourse alternative guide →

Why it is worth it

What you get once you have moved.

  • Discourse is a discussion forum, and a superb one. BuddyNext gives you forums plus the whole community platform in-house from one team - a social feed, spaces, courses, events, a job board, a marketplace, and gamification - so the forum is one part of an owned community rather than a standalone board.
  • It is a social community, not a forum. BuddyNext is built around an activity feed, member profiles, spaces, and following - the social shape - rather than threaded topic lists, which fits communities that feel more like a network than a message board.
  • It lives in WordPress. If your site is already WordPress, BuddyNext is a plugin in the same install - same login, same theme, same admin, same database - instead of a separate Ruby/Postgres app to run and keep in sync alongside it.
  • One platform, not a bolt-on. The feed, spaces, profiles, messaging, and moderation come together inside your site, so members get a connected social experience rather than a standalone forum sitting on a separate subdomain.

Go deeper

The full migration docs.

This page is the overview. When you are ready to actually do it, these walk through every detail, honestly.

Sandbox demo

Try it on a live demo community

One click builds a private copy of our demo community, with members, spaces and posts already in it. InstaWP asks for an email to create it, it lasts four hours, and nobody else sees what you change.

Launch the demo (opens in a new tab) Get BuddyNext free

Prefer to watch first? See the tutorials.

What to try in the demo

  1. Open a space and look at its Discussions tab, where a Jetonomy forum can sit inside the space.
  2. Open the activity feed and a member profile, the social shape that differs most from a forum.
  3. Open the admin side and look at the moderation queue and settings, the controls you would run day to day.

From the same team

Add the pieces your community needs

BuddyNext runs on its own. These are separate plugins from the same team, for when the community needs more than a feed and spaces.

The questions you are asking

Migration questions, answered honestly.

Will my members have to sign up again?

They will have to accept an invitation and set up an account, because Discourse is a separate system and there are no WordPress accounts to carry over. The free plugin sends bulk invites from a CSV (an email and an optional first name per row, up to 500 rows per upload, with resend and revoke), and a space invite link can be shared where your members already are. Auto-join puts each new member into your welcome space straight away.

Is there an importer from Discourse?

No. The free BuddyNext Importer covers WordPress-native sources (BuddyPress and BuddyBoss) and nothing else, so nothing is copied across automatically. You export what Discourse lets you export, invite your members, and rebuild the content worth keeping. If you would rather not, our team can run the migration for you.

Can your team do the migration for me?

Yes, that is the done-for-you route. Send the details through the contact page: where the community lives today, roughly how many members and spaces it has, and whether members pay. We reply within one to two business days, and tell you what is realistic for your community before anything starts.

Will I lose my Discourse data when I switch?

BuddyNext never touches your Discourse account, so nothing is deleted by switching. Keep Discourse running until the new site is where members answer each other, and before you cancel, check what cancelling does to your exports. Finish every export while the old community is still fully open to you.

Can BuddyNext and Discourse run at the same time?

Yes, they are separate systems and do not interfere. Run them side by side for a few weeks at most, answer questions only in the new place, and pin a post in Discourse saying where the new home is and when the old one stops being the place.

What happens to my paying members?

BuddyNext has no tool that takes over a subscription created on another platform, so a paying member subscribes again on a Pro membership plan. A founding discount is a coupon you create yourself, and if someone has already paid for a period elsewhere, the Pro Billing screen has an Add order form for recording a payment that arrived outside the site.

How long does the move take?

It depends on how much you rebuild. The slow parts are the exports and any conversation with paying members, so start with those. Build on a staging copy, invite a small group, then cut over on a date you announce.

Ready to move your community?

Move it yourself with the free plugin on a staging copy, or hand the move to our team. Tell us where your community lives today and we will reply within one to two business days.

Ask us to move it for you Get BuddyNext free

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