RoundTable gives educators, community managers, and online course creators a fully featured discussion forum that lives right on their WordPress site — without needing BuddyPress, bbPress, or any third-party hosting service.

Just paste [roundtable-lite] onto any page or post and your visitors have a complete threaded discussion space, instantly.

Why RoundTable?

Most forum plugins are built for developers. RoundTable is built for teachers, coaches, and community leaders who want to focus on their content — not on configuring software.

One shortcode — paste [roundtable-lite] and you’re done
Works on any page — no special templates or theme requirements
Self-hosted — your discussions stay on your site, under your control
No subscriptions — no monthly fees to Circle, Mighty Networks, or Teachable
Privacy-friendly — comments stay inside your WordPress database

Free Features (RoundTable Lite)

Threaded comments & replies — up to 3 levels deep, all via AJAX (no page reloads)
Photo uploads — attach images directly in comments and replies
Sort & search — sort by Newest, Oldest, Most Recent Activity, or Most Replies; live search by author or content
Thumbs-up likes — users can like any comment with a live count
Comment editing — users can edit their own comments inline; edited comments show a timestamp
Reply email notifications — users are notified by email when someone replies to their comment, with a one-click unsubscribe link
Logged-in users only — discussions are gated to registered WordPress users

Pro Features (RoundTable Pro)

Upgrade to RoundTable Pro for the full feature set:

Document & PDF uploads — share files, resources, and assignments directly in comments
In-app notification bell — real-time unread badge with dropdown notification list
Email notifications for new comments — notify prior thread participants when anyone posts
Comment moderation queue — admin toggle to hold comments for approval before they go live
Pin comments — admins can pin important comments to the top of any thread
Categories — admin-defined category labels (Question, Discussion, Resource, etc.) chosen at post time
@Mentions — tag other users in comments with autocomplete; mentioned users are notified
Thread invites — admins can invite specific users to a thread, making them mentionable before they comment
Moderator always mentionable — users can always @mention the site admin on any thread
Custom avatars — users upload their own avatar photo, inline or via their WordPress profile
Weekly digest email — opt-in per-thread digest every Monday summarising new activity
Export to CSV — download all comments for a thread with date and category filters
Export to PDF — print-friendly view for record-keeping or grading

Get RoundTable Pro