Best WordPress Q&A Plugins to Stir Up Conversations

Q&A sites like Yahoo! Answers, Quora, Reddit, and Stack Exchange are great for asking questions or browsing for answers that people around the world come up with. From hypotheticals on who really won WWII to industry-specific questions like “What’s the most cost-effective website builder?” these question and answer sites are goldmines for knowledge and community.

In addition, Q&A websites incorporate other features like voting, profiles, and badges to ensure the users have an enjoyable time and are able to locate the information they need in a reasonable amount of time. If you would like to develop your own community with the question and answer format, all you need is one of the best WordPress Q&A plugin options!

What Makes a Great WordPress Q&A Plugin?

Seeing as how each existing question and answer site is different, it’s nice to look into the features that make each of them unique and user-friendly. For instance, Quora is known for vetting the people who respond to questions so that you receive real answers from real experts. Stack Exchange tries to avoid opinion polls and strives for objective answers in a wide range of topics.

So, you can definitely decide to make a question and answer site for lots of topics, but it needs to stand out in some way. On the other hand, you may consider focusing on one niche to link to your forum or blog, allowing people to discuss specific questions that relate to things like travel, gardening, or web development.

As for the best WordPress Q&A plugin solutions, what are some of the features you should be looking for?

• A clear button and field for users to type in questions for other users (alternatively, you might want this restricted to only admins for making an FAQ page).
• Options for users and admins to add rich content and media such as bold text, links, and images.
• Tools for branding and styling your Q&A section or website.
• Modules for users to answer questions.
• Options for creating profiles to make the answers look more credible and to build your own userbase.
• Buttons for following certain questions. Email notifications are nice too.
• Categorization and searching tools for people to locate the information they need.
• Voting that sends the best answers to the top of the page.

Best WordPress Q&A Plugins

We recommend you test out the majority of the best WordPress Q&A plugins to see which ones work best for you. In this post, we’ll take a look at eight different solutions that you can use for a WordPress Q&A plugin on your WordPress site that can set up within a few minutes.

1. Heroic WordPress FAQs

Although many people might be thinking about sites like Quora and Reddit when making a question and answer website, we also want to cover a plugin that makes FAQs for blogs, eCommerce sites, and just about any type of online presence. The Heroic WordPress FAQs plugin does just that, and it’s one of the cleanest, easiest to use FAQ options you can find. Instead of allowing users to post their questions and write answers, this plugin assists in taking all of the common questions you hear from customers and posting them on your site.

This way, you don’t have to keep answering the questions through email, phone, or chat. In short, it should cut down on your man-hours for customer support.

What’s great about Heroic WordPress FAQs is that it provides a beautiful drag and drop interface. You can work by reordering questions and answers, while also organizing them into groups. All of the questions are placed on one page in an accordion-style format, allowing users to click and view the questions they find most pressing. Rich content is supported, and all of the FAQ forms look good on mobile devices.

In terms of the pricing, there is no free version of Heroic WordPress FAQs. However, you can get full access for $49 per year on one site. For three sites the price is $69 per year and for 10 sites it jumps to $149 per year.

Why We Like This WordPress Q&A Plugin

• Beautiful looking plugin. Everything made by HeroThemes is always pixel perfect.
• It offers an excellent interface for quickly building FAQ pages on your website.
• The drag and drop editor allows you to move around questions with ease.
• You’re able to group FAQs in categories for easier reading.
• Toggles and accordion-style questions are available for cleaner consolidation and easier reading.
• Icons are available to make your questions and answers more visual.
• You can upload images and videos to your FAQs to provide more information besides text.
• Rich content is also supported for items like lists, blockquotes, and images.
• The pricing is reasonable.

Who Should Consider This WordPress Q&A Plugin?

We like the Heroic WordPress FAQs plugin for those who want to rapidly develop clean, branded FAQs for business websites.

2. CM Answers

The CM Answers plugin comes as a free base plugin, or you have the option to upgrade to the premium version, starting at $39 for one website. The developers also sell several add-ons and extensions, most of which start at around $50 per site. Some of the more interesting add-ons include:

• Micropayments.
• Anonymous user posting.
• Payments.
• Ask the Expert.
• Idea simulator.
• Import and export.

As you can see, you have the option to stick with the free version or upgrade to the premium version. Some of the features included with premium are mobile responsiveness, private answers, and multiple attachments. Some of these premium features will end up being requirements for organizations, so luckily the premium pricing isn’t that high.

As for the free, core plugin, expect to have a well-formatted question and answer section with metrics for votes, views, and the number of answers for each question. Users can filter based on questions, categories, and questions that are doing well at the moment. You can also search for specific keywords to locate the questions you need. The “Ask a Question” field could use some work and a move to the top of the page, but it does the trick looking like a regular comment box at the bottom of the Q&A.

The settings are a little complicated for the first time user, but it’s nice to know that you can adjust things like who can post answers, where the forms show up on your website, and whether or not a navigational menu is shown.

Why We Like This WordPress Q&A Plugin

• The CM Answers plugin provides an impressive collection of free features.
• The premium version and add-ons should be plenty for niche sites and those who want to collect payments.
• The interface is clean and ready for your customization.
• Users can see counts for answers, views, votes, and more.
• A few languages are supported, such as Spanish, German, and Polish.
• If a user answers or posts a question, they can opt to receive an email notification when more replies come in.
• Admins get email notifications when questions and answers are posted. If you find that something is off-topic or inappropriate, simply delete it from the website.

Who Should Consider This WordPress Q&A Plugin?

The CM Answers plugin serves those who would like to create a Q&A website similar to Reddit. It’s also nice if you have plans to upgrade to more advanced features–since the add-on library is rather large.

3. AnsPress – Question and Answer

The AnsPress plugin is similar in functionality to CM Answers, except you get the core plugin, and all of the add-ons, for free. The AnsPress developers seem to make money by selling WordPress themes. But if you don’t need a theme and would like to incorporate a Q&A module on your current site, AnsPress gives you all of the features required, along with free customer support through its website.

AnsPress is also an opensource project, meaning that you should be able to expect regular updates and fixes into the future.

Although the primary use of AnsPress is for making a question and answer site, it also has features for internal question and answer boards, bug tracking, and support tickets. You can even create FAQ pages with the AnsPress plugin.

Some of the primary features include options for voting, answering questions, and submitting new questions. The BuddyPress integration is essential for those who would like to build a social network around their Q&A website. For instance, BuddyPress is great for building better user profiles and also engaging your users with messaging.

As I mentioned before, all of the add-ons from AnsPress are completely free. You can find a handful of them on the AnsPress website. Some of my favorites include:

• An add-on for filtering out bad words.
• An add-on for establishing user reputations.
• An add-on for sending out email notifications.
• An add-on for adding tags and categories to questions.
• An add-on for preventing spam with reCaptcha.
• An add-on for making dynamic text avatars.

Why We Like This WordPress Q&A Plugin

• The AnsPress plugin is free, including all of its add-ons.
• The frontend interface is clean and modern, offering a setup similar to that of Reddit or Quora.
• You can make more than a Q&A site. For instance, some companies use it for FAQs or support ticketing.
• Shortcodes are available to place the question and answer section anywhere on your website.
• It has a BuddyPress integration to build a social network around the plugin.
• Users can submit and filter questions, while admins have options for editing and deleting questions.
• Each question has buttons for answering and commenting.
• Users can vote on their favorite answers, sending the most popular replies to the top of the page.
• Over 10 languages are supported through the plugin.
• You can make some of the questions private, which comes in handy for running corporate FAQ or message boards.

Who Should Consider This WordPress Q&A Plugin?

Anyone on a budget should consider AnsPress for their Q&A needs. There aren’t any fees for the plugin or the add-ons. It’s a beautiful interface for making something like Reddit or Quora, and I also like it for companies that might need something for FAQs, ticketing systems, or internal question and answer boards.

4. Sabai Discuss

The Sabai Discuss plugin is only sold on CodeCanyon for $24. Having said that, $24 is an incredible price for the number of features you get from this highly-rated WordPress Q&A plugin. The options seem endless when it comes to building question and discussion pages. As an example, you might want to make a members forum with a password. That’s entirely possible with the Sabai Discuss plugin. You could also make a user profile page, question page, or a categories page that lists all of the categories that your questions fall under.

The discussion stream is organized so that your users can sort and filter to the questions that are most important to them. There’s also a voting system included for sending the best answers to the top of the page and filtering out the spam or the bad answers.

The user reputation engine is an essential part of a question and answer page, since you can get rid of those users who only post spam while giving credibility to those who reply to questions with detailed answers. The Sabai Discuss plugin also has the unique ability to install the Q&A functionality multiple times on your website. So, your company might want to provide a public Q&A area for customers, along with a private one for your employees. Speaking of private, internal discussion boards, this plugin offers an option for users to upload their own attachments. With this, the Sabai Discuss plugin turns into more of a collaboration tool than anything. Along with voting, comments, and featured questions, the Sabai Discuss plugin definitely stands out for companies and individuals looking for an all-around WordPress Q&A plugin.

Why We Like This WordPress Q&A Plugin

• The Sabai Discuss plugin can be installed on several areas of your website, opening up opportunities for both private and public discussions.
• Both comments and answers are available, so you can choose between more of a discussion board or a Q&A page.
• File attachments can be uploaded by customers or by employees in a private forum.
• Flagging and voting comes along with the Sabai Discuss plugin so that the bad answers go away and the good answers are shown more often.
• The plugin has a pretty low price tag.
• Nine widgets and five shortcodes are provided for the ultimate flexibility.
• The plugin has a user reputation system that automatically rewards the best repliers with the credit they deserve. This not only makes those users feel good, but it shows other users that their replies are useful.
• Sabai Discuss provides an advanced system for reporting abuse.

Who Should Consider This WordPress Q&A Plugin?

I like the Sabai Discuss plugin for companies that want every possible Q&A feature in one plugin. There’s no free version, but the premium plugin is affordable and it gives you the complete Q&A package. It’s great for constructing a Reddit-like forum for external or internal use, and I particularly enjoy that you can have multiple instances of Q&A boards on the same site.

5. WP-Answers

WP-Answers is another solution that doesn’t have a free option. That being said, the WP-Answers plugin starts at $34 per year, which is a reasonable price tag for a wide range of tools. On the surface, WP-Answers is a standard WordPress Q&A plugin with a sleek design. But when I dig deeper, I start to notice some rather unique features, like the Facebook and Twitter integration. This tool allows users to log in with their social usernames and passwords, removing the need for them to create new login information.

You can also reward users with points when they answer questions. This type of gamification is essential for encouraging users to talk more on the message boards and reply to questions that they know the answers to. You can even share a leaderboard so that users have something to strive for and a reason to compete with other users.

Another interesting advantage about WP-Answers is that you can integrate with Stack Exchange to make it look like your page is busy from the start. You would obviously want to move towards a website where your users are contributing more, but it’s a great way to get that started.

The question and answer system reminds me of Reddit but with a cleaner design. This is particularly true for the mobile design, since your entire Q&A page snaps into place and looks beautiful on smaller devices.

Along with built-in spam moderation tools, spam reduction, and voting buttons, the WP-Answers plugin appears to be an excellent solution for getting your Q&A site or page started.

Why We Like This WordPress Q&A Plugin

• The WP-Answers plugin sells for an affordable price. You also get every single feature with that low price.
• The question and answer system is reminiscent of Reddit but with a simpler, cleaner interface and a wonderful mobile display.
• You have options for rewarding the best contributors with points. Each of the leaders can be displayed on a leaderboard, encouraging others to get on that board as well.
• WP-Answers has an integration with Stack Exchange for launching your Q&A site. Basically, it pulls conversations and questions from the popular site so that it looks like traffic is flowing through your site as well.
• The login page includes options for Facebook and Twitter logins.

Who Should Consider This WordPress Q&A Plugin?

WP-Answers makes a lot of sense for brand new Q&A websites, since you’re able to populate your question boards with content from Stack Exchange. It’s also great for companies that are interested in awarding points to the best contributors. Finally, I can’t say enough about the WP-Answers frontend interface. It’s one of the best on the market, including the mobile version. Even Reddit can’t brag much about its mobile interface.

Recap: Which WordPress Q&A Plugin Is Right For You?

Now that we’ve gone through all of the WordPress Q&A plugin options, let’s break it down to see which one is the best for you or your organization:

• Heroic WordPress FAQs – Consider this WordPress Q&A plugin if all you need is a beautiful and slick FAQ page.
• CM Answers – Go with this plugin if you’d like an interface similar to Reddit.
• AnsPress – Consider this plugin if you don’t want to pay any money for your WordPress Q&A plugin. You also might like it if you want to make a ticketing system or an internal corporate question page.
• Sabai Discuss – Choose this plugin if you want to have multiple Q&A areas on your website. We also like it since the pricing is low for a large collection of features.
• WP-Answers – Consider this WordPress Q&A plugin for one of the best designs on this list. It’s also an exceptional solution for filling your Q&A board with content, since it provides an integration to pull content from Stack Exchange.

Have you used any of the WordPress Q&A plugins above? If so, we would love to hear about your experience. Let us know in the comments section below.

Brian Jackson

Brian has a huge passion for WordPress, has been using it for over a decade, and even develops a couple of premium plugins. Brian enjoys blogging, movies, and hiking. Connect with Brian on Twitter.

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