Simple:Press Forum

Simple:Press is an all-in-one, feature-rich forum plugin designed to seamlessly integrate with your WordPress site.

With a focus on performance and user experience, it offers an extensive range of free and premium features to meet all your forum needs.

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Key Features

• Enterprise-grade performance, scalable for thousands of users

• Seamless integration with WordPress user and security models, featuring a robust user group and permission system

• SEO optimized for enhanced search engine visibility

• Highly customizable and extendable for a tailored experience

• Data import compatibility with other forum platforms, such as bbPress and Asgaros

• Multi-level forum structures with subforum support

• Options for both private and public forums

• Fully theme and template driven for easy customization

• Selection of adaptable themes with customizable colors and font sizes to match your brand identity

• Extensive administration options and settings for streamlined management

Simple:Press Pro

Take your forum to the next level by adding Simple:Press Pro, a bundle of add-ons that bring over 100 additional features to your forum.

Some of the included add-ons are:

• Analytics: Engaging charts displaying forum data

• Ads: An advanced advertising engine integrated within the forum

• Private messaging system: Enables users to exchange private messages

• Push Notifications: Supports SMS, Pushover, PushBullet, and Slack

• Reputation System

• Polls

• Admin Bar: Front-end management tool for admins and moderators, eliminating the need for wp-admin access

• Image, media, and file uploader: Allows designated users to upload files and media to topics and posts

• Multiple post editors, including TinyMCE

• Who’s Online

View all add-ons and pricing.

Compatibility

Simple:Press supports standard and multi-site versions of WordPress and was built to be

compatible with most themes, both free and commercial.

Languages

Simple:Press is available in a variety of languages and volunteers and customers are always adding more! Portions of the plugin have been translated into 20+ languages by our users and volunteers. These include German, Portuguese(BR), Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, Persian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and more!

View our translation site

Latest Updates

6.11.15 – September 2026

• Bug: Fixed a fatal error when editing pages containing the sp_recent_posts shortcode

• Improvement: Added compatibility for legacy and current topic-cache formats

• Improvement: Improved database connection checks and removed deprecated mysqli_ping() usage

• Bug: Fixed potential fatal errors caused by WordPress database connection checks

• Improvement: Improved CSS cache busting for both parent and child Simple:Press themes

• Bug: Fixed an undefined variable passed to the sph_nicedate filter

6.11.14 – January 2026

• Feature: Added ability for developers to customize which HTML tags are allowed in forum topic displays through filter hooks

• Improvement: Better error messages for navigation popup

• Improvement: Added border styling to page jump input field for better visibility

• Improvement: Cleaned up date formatting code

• Bug: Fixed database cleanup function that was crashing

• Bug: Fixed new user email system to properly handle admin notification settings and email formatting

6.11.13 – January 2026

• Fixed issue with addons not executing JS correctly

6.11.12 – January 2026

• Fixed issue with spam and math question for guest posts

6.11.11 – December 2025

• Added allowed attributes to fix compatibility issues with Poll addon

• Fixed query errors caused by improper table name quoting. Thanks! https://github.com/terresquall

• Fixed null reference exceptions that were triggering warnings https://github.com/terresquall

• Fixed nonce validation for delete operations

• Fixed issues preventing topic deletion

6.11.10 – September 2025

• Unread message counters now update correctly

• “Last visit” tracking now works as expected

• Relaxed overly strict HTML sanitization in admin output

6.11.9 – September 2025

• Fixed an issue that prevented YouTube videos from embedding correctly when using TinyMCE

• Enhanced Forum Description to support additional HTML elements for richer content

• Cleaned up codebase by removing deprecated oEmbed imports

6.11.8 – August 2025

• Fixed translation handling to ensure translations load correctly

• Improved search to resolve errors with the Search by User add-on

• Fixed pagination issues in search results

• Continued updates to use global allowed HTML tags for safer output

6.11.7 – August 2025

• Fixed missing Edit button in forum posts

• Security fix addressing a vulnerability reported via Patchstack

6.11.6 – August 2025

• Fixed issue with translations not loaded

• Fixed missing nonce on admin tools

• Fixed issue with some YouTube urls that were not embeded correctly

6.11.5 – July 2025

• Fixed broken release notes not showing correctly for add-ons

• Fixed issue with House Keeping forms not showing correctly

6.11.4 – July 2025

• Fixed broken member listing display

• Fixed issue with theme icon sets not loding correctly

• Resolved RSS CDATA double-escaping issue

• Enhanced pagination handling for smoother navigation

• Fixed user group listing to ensure consistent output

• Continued update to use global allowed HTML tags

6.11.3 – July 2025

• Fixed license verification and activation issues affecting some Pro users

• Corrected HTML escaping in licensing admin and plugin update outputs

6.11.2 – July 2025

• Fixed post deletion issues on mobile devices

• Improved license verification handling

• Fixed saving issues in some plugins

• Minor HTML escaping corrections throughout the codebase

6.11.1 – July 2025

• Fixed mobile output rendering issues

• Multiple output fixes applied for improved desktop view rendering.

• Improved content filtering by centralizing allowed HTML tags into a global constant

• Added support for custom attributes within allowed tags

6.11.0 – June 2025

• Code compliance update: Refactored codebase to pass WordPress Plugin Check with no errors or warnings

• Replaced deprecated functions and improved use of WordPress core APIs

• Enforced consistent escaping, sanitization, and validation throughout admin and front-end

• Added missing translation functions for better i18n support

• Improved file and directory handling using WP-native methods

• General code cleanup and adherence to WordPress coding standards

• Security update: Implemented fixes for potential XSS attacks and improved nonce usage on front-end forms

• RPX support dropped

6.10.13 – March 2025

• Improved security posture: Implemented fixes for potential XSS attacks and ensured proper nonce usage on front-end forms.

6.10.12 – January 2025

• Improved security by sanitizing inputs in plugin search functionality to prevent potential vulnerabilities.

6.10.11 – January 2025

• Enhanced methods for search forms and links to sanitize inputs, preventing malicious JavaScript and HTML injection.

6.10.10 – October 2024

• Removed old code that affected some WP hosts memory usage

6.10.9 – June 2024

• Added new WYSIWYG editor fields to enable better HTML editing features

6.10.8 – February 2024

• Added setting to allow admins to hide firstname, lastname and email from user profile

6.10.7 – December 2023

• Fixed issue with checkbox for custom messages that did not save correctly

• Fixed issue with user pagination when no group is selected

6.10.6 – November 2023

• Improved the pagination handler to handle large amounts of pages better

• Improved the user group handling allowing admins to search for specific users

• Increased the number of shown users per page in the user group admin

• Added indicator showing current page in pagination links

• Added hover in the user group admin to show user ID to easier find the correct user

• Improved the spinner/loading image positioning

• Fixed warning when installing forum without sample data

6.10.5 – November 2023

• Fixed compatibility issue with WordPress 6.4

6.10.4 – October 2023

• Fixed issue with installations on multisites

• Only stow Forum link in WP admin bar for Admins

• Improve usability when hovering icons and showing cursor pointer instead

• Minor CSS-improvements to admin

• Fixed warnings

6.10.3 – July 2023

• Fixed issue with member search failing when no results were returned

6.10.2 – July 2023

• Fixed issue with checkbox data that was not saved

6.10.1 – July 2023

• Fixed a bug that made “Manage Groups And Forums” return an error when editing a forum

• Solve issue with automatic updates for free themes

6.10.0 – July 2023

• Full PHP8.2 support, this ensures that all features and functionalities provided by the plugin work smoothly and efficiently in PHP 8.2 environments

• New and improved admin interface with less clutter

• Manage Groups and Forums has been refactored to better visualise forum structure and make administration more intuitive

• Addons that have their own menu get grouped at the bottom to make it easier to find specific settings for installed addons

• Error messages, caution notices and information notices are visually separated to better aid users to know what and what not to change

• Permission view has been made more compact to improve readability and permission overview

• Storage location administration has been restructured to simplify folder management and give the user a better overview

• A multitude of PHP-warnings have been silenced

• Plugin administration has been improved and made more compact to give a better overview of installed and activated plugins and their options

• Activating and handling themes has been improved and simplified

• Licensing UI redesign to better aid users in understanding the licensing process

• Admin stylesheet has been updated and obsolete CSS-syntax’s has been removed

• Modern theme have had an update to help partially hidden search inputs on mobile view

6.9.1 – June 2023

• Reverted: Only allow Simple:Press to run queries on Simple:Press pages

6.9.0 – June 2023

• Resolve PHP8.2 issues

• Fix avatar options not saved

• Fixed installation warnings when activating and installing Simple:Press for a more seamless installation

• Only allow Simple:Press to run queries on Simple:Press pages

• Minor admin cleanup, remove buttons, missing font-fix

• Added progress indicator when uploading theme or add-ons to help users better understand what is happening

• Indicator added when activating/deactivating add-ons, aiming to assist administrators

• Fix backend and frontend issue with disabled forums to avoid confusion

• Fixed SQL-error on install

6.8.10 – March 2023

• Added new optional constant to allow sp-resources to live in uploads folder

• Fixed CSS font issue in admin to improve readability and user experience

6.8.9 – March 2023

• Fixes issue in spa-admin-notice.php that causes upgrades to fail

6.8.8 – February 2023

• Added correct version number

6.8.7 – February 2023

• Fixed alignment issue in modern theme

6.8.6 – February 2023

• Added missing version number for WP.org

6.8.5 – February 2023

• Fix issue with upgrading

6.8.4 – February 2023

• Fixed issues with TinyMCE editor not working properly

6.8.3 – January 2023

• Special rank badges were not displaying in admin or front-end.

6.8.2 – December 2022

• A couple of PHP 8.1 compatibility fixes.

6.8.1

• Various security related fixes.

6.8.0

• Compatibility with PHP 8.x. If using premium add-ons, new versions will be required.

• Show error code when there’s an error with the license process.

6.7.0

• Add option to sort by the membership column in the FORUM->USERS->MEMBER INFORMATION list.

• Tools popup on desktop makes better use of horizontal space.

• G00121: Fix an issue with deleting subsites rendering all user posts as guests in any other site that has the forum in use.

• G00116: When sorting the user list under FORUM->USERS->MEMBER INFORMATION, the list would be unstyled.

• G00117: Custom icons not rendering in drop-down properly.

• G00123: Large custom icon images need to be resized when viewing the forum list in admin.

• G00098: Fix admin screen issue where the Bulk Actions Arrow in MEMBER INFORMATION is too close to text.

• G00022: Deleting a topic from the FORUM TOOLS popup did not refresh the screen.

• G00100: Moving users not belonging to any user group did not refresh the section after the users were moved.

• G00000: Multiple issues with caching icon files when a filename is reused. Added cache-busting querystrings in the admin area to force cdns and page caches to re-request the file.

• G00000: Multiple issues with caching featured images files when a filename is reused. Added cache-busting querystrings in the admin area to force cdns and page caches to re-request the file.

• G00000: Multiple tweaks related to extra line breaks showing up in SP themes when the WP 59 FSE theme was in use.

6.6.6

• G00000: Fix a drag-n-drop issue introduced by WP 5.9.

6.6.5

• G00000: Add support for FSE themes introduced in WP 5.9.

6.6.4

• G00000: Check to make sure a YOAST class is callable before attempting to use it. Compatibility fix for Yoast 17.8.0

• G00000: Add a filter in sp-api-class-spcauths.php to support future functionality.

6.6.3

• G00000: Add a new overlay to the default 2020 theme to match the WP 2021 theme. The new overlay is the default on all new installs.

• G00110: Could not reorder profile tabs and menus in admin screen.

6.6.2

• G00000: Page number overlap on certain admin screens when the page numbers get to 3 digits.

• G00000: When deleting users and choosing the option to delete the user, they now get deleted instead of being set to “guest”.

6.6.1

• G00000: (Security) Verify a nonce & user capability before allowing certain file-related operations.

6.6.0

• G00000: Introduction of a “white label” mode that removes most references to Simple:Press.

• G00000: Updated the Modern2020 theme to the latest version.

• G00000: Much better support for WordPress Multisite with numerous multi-site related fixes and improvements.

• G00000: Fix a compatibility issue with PHP 7.4.0

• G00000: Fix a string that needed to be in double-quotes instead of single quotes in order to de-reference an embedded variable.

• G00000: Fix an issue in the sp_ColumnEnd function where the class and tag names were not being assigned properly in the generated html for the column.