Description
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
Installation
- Upload the
roundtable-litefolder to/wp-content/plugins/ - Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
- Add
[roundtable-lite]to any page or post using the Shortcode block in the block editor
Multiple discussion threads on one site
You can use RoundTable on as many pages as you like. Each page gets its own isolated discussion thread automatically — no configuration needed.
If you want to use multiple shortcodes on the same page, give each one a unique thread name:
[roundtable-lite thread="week-1"]
[roundtable-lite thread="week-2"]
[roundtable-lite thread="week-3"]
FAQ
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Do my visitors need an account to comment?
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Yes. RoundTable requires users to be logged into WordPress to post comments or replies. Guests see a login prompt. This keeps discussions private and accountable.
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Will this work with my theme?
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Yes. RoundTable uses its own self-contained CSS and does not depend on your theme’s styles. It works with any WordPress theme.
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Can I use this on a password-protected page?
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Yes. RoundTable works on password-protected pages. Notifications are scoped per-thread so users on one protected page will not receive notifications from a different page they don’t have access to.
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What happens to comments if I deactivate the plugin?
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Comments are stored in WordPress’s standard comment database. If you deactivate RoundTable, the comments remain in your database and will not be lost.
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Does RoundTable replace WordPress’s native comments?
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No. RoundTable is a shortcode-based system that runs independently. Your theme’s native comment template is separate and unaffected.
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Is there a limit to the number of threads or comments?
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No. You can create as many threads as you like on as many pages as you like. Comments are stored in your WordPress database so the only limit is your hosting storage.
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How do I get support?
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Email us at hello@botanyinanhour.com — we typically respond within 1 business day.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“RoundTable Lite” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “RoundTable Lite” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.2
- Fixed shortcode references in documentation
- Corrected PHP version requirement
1.0.1
- Security and code standards improvements
- Fixed SVG icon output
- Improved input sanitization
1.0.0
- Initial release of RoundTable Lite
- Threaded comments, photo uploads, sort, search, likes, editing, reply notifications