ZenCommunity is an all-in-one WordPress community plugin. Create a private or public online community, discussion forum or social network on your own site, with spaces, activity feeds, member profiles, events and polls. Add real-time messaging, a help desk and live chat with ZenCommunity Pro. No thi
PricingFree downloadThe WordPress.org download is free. Pro versions, add-ons or external services may cost extra.
CompatibilityRequires WordPress 6.8 and PHP 7.4.
SourceWordPress plugins · Oct 26, 2026
01 / Source details
Aboutthistool.
ZenCommunity is an all-in-one WordPress community plugin. Create a private or public online community, discussion forum or social network on your own site, with spaces, activity feeds, member profiles, events and polls. Add real-time messaging, a help desk and live chat with ZenCommunity Pro.
No third-party platform, no monthly per-member fees: your members, content and data stay in WordPress.
Website | Pricing | Official Community
Why ZenCommunity?
Most sites stitch together a forum, a chat app, a help desk and a live chat widget. ZenCommunity puts them in one fast, native app, so conversations, questions and support requests never get scattered.
Launch in minutes with a guided Setup Wizard and community-type presets.
Looks great anywhere : app-style community page, or build your own layout with Full Site Editing blocks.
Dark & light mode , your brand colors and logo, and your theme’s font.
Translation-ready and accessible.
Community & Social Network Features
Spaces and groups – unlimited public, private or hidden spaces, organized into collections, with their own feed, members, rules and settings.
Social activity feed – posts with images, media, GIFs, emoji, feelings, background colors, @mentions and #hashtags.
Comments & reactions – threaded replies, emoji reactions, link previews and bookmarks.
Post types – regular posts, polls, Idea posts with up/down voting, anonymous posts and scheduled posts.
Events – group events with RSVP.
Member profiles – display name, pronouns, cover, about, activity, connections, badges and a profile-completion bar.
Member directory & search – find members, posts and spaces instantly.
Notifications – in-app and email, with instant, daily or weekly digest delivery.
Featured posts, media gallery, welcome banner and configurable sidebar widgets.
Moderation – member approval, first-post approval, reports, warn, mute, timed suspend and ban.
Roles & permissions – a role manager to control who can view, post and moderate.
Login & registration – built-in pages or your own; members-only communities.
Safety – optional date-of-birth field with minor-safe messaging.
Full Site Editing – community blocks for the Site Editor, plus shortcodes.
Pro Features
ZenCommunity Pro adds:
Real-time messaging – private and group chat with typing indicators, read receipts, file sharing and chat heads.
Support ticketing / help desk – turn any post into a ticket; assignees, statuses, priorities, canned replies, internal notes, CSAT ratings, auto-close and guest tickets.
Live chat widget – real-time website chat, even across domains, with multiple sessions, file sharing, agent profiles and business hours.
AI support agent – answers tickets and live chats from your knowledge base, built from your docs or a crawled website.
Reports & analytics – members, spaces, events and content trends, leaderboard, activity heatmap and CSV export.
Audio and video spaces , team posts, anonymous comments, Top Ideas sorting.
Follow & block members, social login and WordPress comments integration.
Integrations
LMS community – share course activity (enrollments, completions, lessons, quizzes, Q&A) to your community feed automatically with:
Academy LMS – the deepest integration: course catalog, curriculum, enrollment, reviews, Q&A and certificates right inside the community.
Tutor LMS
LearnDash
LearnPress
LifterLMS
MasterStudy LMS
More – GameEngine gamification (points, ranks, badges, leaderboard), email notifications and a migration tool to move from other community plugins.
Who is it for?
Online courses and LMS sites, membership sites, coaches and creators, SaaS and software companies, e-commerce stores, agencies, clubs and local groups, and internal teams.
Performance
ZenCommunity runs entirely on your WordPress site. Pages load the data they need in a single request, real-time features use lightweight scripts, and no external service is required for the community to work.
Source Code
The compiled JavaScript and CSS in assets/build/ are generated from human-readable sources kept in the public repository:
https://github.com/kodezen/zencommunity
JavaScript/React sources: dev_zencommunity/ (admin app in dev_zencommunity/Admin/ , block editor integration in dev_zencommunity/fse/ )
01Clone the repository and install Node.js 20 or later and Composer.
02Run npm ci --legacy-peer-deps , then npm run build (compiles everything into assets/build/ ).
03Run composer install to install the PHP dependencies.
External services
ZenCommunity works entirely on your own site. It contacts an external service only in the cases below.
Kodezen usage insights and deactivation feedback (store.kodezen.com)
ZenCommunity uses the StoreEngine SDK to talk to Kodezen’s store at https://store.kodezen.com/.
Usage insights (opt-in only). After installation, an admin notice asks whether you want to share usage data. Nothing is sent unless an administrator clicks “Allow”. If you allow it, the plugin sends: site URL and name, admin name and email, server IP address, operating system, WordPress/PHP/MySQL and server versions, PHP settings and extensions, locale, multisite status, the active theme, active and inactive plugins, and the plugin version. After that it reports the same data about once a week. You can opt out at any time under ZenCommunity → Settings → License.
Deactivation feedback. When you deactivate the plugin, an optional form asks why and lists what will be sent. Only if you click “Submit & Deactivate” does it send the reason, any comment you type, your name and email, the site name and URL, and the usage data listed above. Choosing “Skip & Deactivate” sends nothing.
This service is provided by Kodezen: Terms of Use , Privacy Policy .
Link previews (the websites members link to)
When a logged-in member hovers over a link in a post or comment, your site fetches that link’s page once to show its title, description and image in a preview card. The request goes from your server to the linked website, and sends only the page address and a user agent that names your site. Nothing about the member is sent. For video and media links (for example YouTube or Vimeo) the details come from that service’s public oEmbed endpoint, from the list of providers built into WordPress, instead of the page itself. Results are cached for a day. The preview image is then loaded by the member’s browser from the linked website. Nothing is fetched until someone hovers over a link, and logged-out visitors see only the address. Developers can turn this off with add_filter( 'zencommunity/link_preview/enabled', '__return_false' ); . Each linked website’s own terms and privacy policy apply.
Links to other Kodezen products
The “Extend your Community” dashboard section and the Live Chat settings link to product pages and downloads on https://store.kodezen.com/. These are plain links that open in your browser, and no data is sent until you click one. Products hosted on WordPress.org (for example GameEngine, GemBooking and Zaplane) are installed only when an administrator clicks “Install”. They come from WordPress.org through WordPress’s own plugin installer.
See it in action
Screenshots & previews.
Community FeedCreate Posts, Polls & MorePrivate MessagingSupport TicketingLive Chat
02 / Source details
Gettingstarted.
01In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New , search for “ZenCommunity” and click Install Now , then Activate .
02Follow the Setup Wizard to name your community, pick a community type and choose modules.
03Visit your community page and invite your members.
Make sure pretty permalinks are enabled under Settings → Permalinks .
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Frequently asked questions.
Is ZenCommunity free?
Yes. Spaces, feeds, comments, reactions, polls, events, profiles, notifications, moderation and LMS integrations are free. Messaging, support tickets, live chat, the AI agent and reports are part of ZenCommunity Pro.
Can I use ZenCommunity as a discussion forum?
Yes. Each space works as a forum board with threaded comments, Idea voting, hashtags, search and moderation.
Can I create a private, members-only community?
Yes. Make the whole community members-only, or set each space to public, private or hidden and choose which roles can view it.
Does it work with my LMS?
Yes. ZenCommunity integrates with Academy LMS, Tutor LMS, LearnDash, LearnPress, LifterLMS and MasterStudy LMS.
Does it work with my theme and page builder?
Yes. The community page works with any theme, and block themes can build custom layouts with the Full Site Editing blocks.
Does it support real-time chat?
Yes, with ZenCommunity Pro: private messages, group chat and a website live chat widget.
Can I turn community posts into support tickets?
Yes, with ZenCommunity Pro. Any post can become a tracked ticket with one click.
Is it translation-ready?
Yes. All text can be translated, and relative times follow each language’s plural rules.
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