Paid Memberships Pro - bbPress Add On

Private Member Forums with Paid Memberships Pro

When you want your community to have its own discussion space, but only for those who pay to access it, you need something more than bbPress on its own. Paid Memberships Pro - bbPress Add On connects the bbPress forum system (and also the BuddyBoss forums module) with Paid Memberships Pro's membership levels, so you can decide exactly who can see and who can participate in each forum on your site.

How Access Control Works

The add-on adds a panel called "Require Membership" to the edit screen of each individual forum. From there you select which membership levels are allowed access, and that restriction protects the main forum page as well as every topic and reply it contains. Users without the right level are redirected to the forums archive with a customizable "no access" message, whether they try to enter a specific topic or the general view. On sites with BuddyPress or BuddyBoss, that redirect can instead point to the restricted-access page configured by PMPro's BuddyPress add-on, if one has been defined.

General Settings Under Memberships > Forums

All configuration is handled from a dedicated screen inside the Memberships panel, organized into collapsible sections:

• Error message: customize the text shown to users without access to a forum or topic.
• Member links: add shortcuts to private forums in the links section of the membership account page.
• Hide member forums: exclude restricted content from forum listings and search results.
• Hide forum roles: hide the roles assigned to replies if you don't want them shown publicly.
• Show membership levels: display the author's level on their replies and on their bbPress profile.
• Per-forum access: a list of every forum on the site with checkboxes to mark which levels are allowed in each one, without having to open and edit each forum individually.

Customization by Membership Level

Beyond general access control, the plugin lets you define forum-specific settings within each membership level, in the "bbPress Settings" section of the level edit screen. There you can assign a dedicated forum role to members of that level (which reverts to the default role if the membership is cancelled) and a background color to highlight their replies. This color can also be customized via CSS using the .pmpro-level-{level_ID} selector for those who want to go beyond the default options.

Use Cases

This add-on fits communities, associations, training programs, or any membership that wants to offer an exclusive conversation space as part of the value of belonging to a paid level. It's also useful for sites with multiple levels that want to visually distinguish premium members within the forum, or to restrict specific discussion sections (for example, an advanced forum reserved for the top level) without having to set up several separate forums outside bbPress.

For Developers

The plugin exposes several action and filter hooks to adjust its behavior via code, including filters to control whether the content of protected forums and topics appears in searches and archives, to modify the redirect URL when a user without access tries to enter a forum, and to change the default error message shown.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I restrict only some forums and leave others public?
Yes. The restriction is applied forum by forum: if you don't select any membership level for a given forum, it remains public.

Does it work with BuddyBoss as well as bbPress?
Yes, the add-on is designed to work with both native bbPress forums and the BuddyBoss forums module.

What does a user without the required level see?
They're redirected to the forums archive with an access-denied message, which you can customize from the add-on's general settings.

Can I visually distinguish members of different levels within the forum?
Yes, each membership level can be assigned its own forum role and a distinct background color for its replies.

What happens to a member's forum role if they cancel their membership?
The role assigned by level automatically reverts to the default forum role defined in the site's general settings.