Intranets refer to private networks that members use within an organization – it’s used as a way to share internal documents and information, giving organizations a place to accommodate project management and communication.
WordPress is a popular platform to create an intranet website, although it doesn’t have these capabilities built into the WordPress CMS itself – you need plugins to do this for you.
If you’re not sure which to pick, you’ve come to the right place. This article will share 6 recommended plugins and themes for a WordPress intranet with their main features.
3 Best Plugins for WordPress Intranets
Password Protect WordPress Pro is an essential plugin for turning your public WordPress site into a private one using passwords. Once protected, only your employees or team members with the correct passwords can access your intranet website.
However, you’re going to need more plugins to make a fully functional intranet. After all, it’s where you’re going to manage day-to-day tasks, company documents, and communication. So here are the three must-have plugins to increase your intranet’s functionality.
1. EventON
EventON is one of the best event plugins, allowing you to schedule events and reservations. What’s more, you can share the events using Google Calendar, email, and social media accounts.
The plugin’s interface is sleek and filled with plenty of customization options. You can add images and external links to your event descriptions, change event backgrounds and icons, and see event details in several styles.
Each event can be assigned to five categories, and you can color-code them for easier organization. If you want to find a particular event, simply use the search option or activate the filter based on the event type, location, and organizer.
For advanced users, there’s an option to modify the look of the calendar using shortcodes. If you’re interested, play around with the plugin’s backend panel and explore the features yourself. You can purchase this plugin starting from $20 per year.
2. BuddyPress
BuddyPress comes as a free plugin allowing you to add social network functionality to your intranet website.
For instance, visitors can sign up for a profile, create groups, send friend requests, and much more. Each user can also customize their profiles using avatars, profile pictures, or cover photos. With BuddyPress, you can create a private social network for the members of your organization.
Another strength of the plugin is its compatibility with many other plugins like bbPress and Akismet. The former permits you to add a support forum function, while the latter allows comment and spam moderation. Plus, it comes with the added perks of a content management system. Users can post content, manage blogs, moderate comments, and keep track of the site’s recent activities.
All in all, this plugin is pretty much all you need to manage communication between members of your organization.
3. Gravity Forms
If you need to conduct employee surveys, Gravity Forms allows you to create, manage, and schedule questionnaires with ease.
It’s equipped with a drag-and-drop interface that makes form-building easy, especially with so many templates to choose from. To top it off, the plugin’s responsive uniform design displays your forms across devices.
This form-builder includes extensive features and can easily be enhanced with add-ons. To take one example, you can create smart forms that use conditional logic to tailor questions based on the participants’ answers. Your forms will be less tedious to fill out, increasing form completion rate while simultaneously gathering the right information.
Overall, Gravity Forms works as a solid form-building plugin for corporate intranets, especially with add-ons that can seamlessly connect with productivity apps like Slack and Trello. The basic license costs $59 per year.
3 Best Themes for WordPress Intranet
The themes below provide a secure environment for private social networks, where you can communicate and manage tasks between members. What’s more, they’re already equipped with tons of features out-of-the-box, so you can get your intranet site up and running in no time.
1. Alliance
Alliance, a GDPR-compliant WordPress intranet theme, helps to improve communication within your company by providing a stylish and user-friendly interface.
Fully integrated with BuddyPress, the plugin enables corporate social networks out of the box. Some of its key features include file storage, a user directory, an event manager, and an appointment calendar.
The theme’s infrastructure makes e-learning convenient. You can create a knowledge base and provide online courses to train your new hires or create quizzes as a part of employee assessment.
Three default dashboard variations are available. If you wish to use one of them, simply import it with the one-click importer, and you’ll be set in no time. The regular license of this theme costs $59 per year.
2. Woffice
Woffice is designed to be a fully functional business portal right out of the box. The main highlight of this theme is its ease of use and abundance of features, with two pre-made templates that can be installed quickly.
You can easily assign various user roles and tasks to your members. And in return, members can stay in touch thanks to the theme’s built-in calendars and notifications. It’s also fully integrated with Slack for easier work communication.
Similar to the previous theme, Woffice can be integrated with other plugins like Gravity Forms, BuddyPress, and WooCommerce. If you want to enhance the look of your site, you can install additional plugins like Visual Composer and Slider Revolution. The price of this theme starts at $75 per year.
3. BuddyApp
Since this theme is seamlessly integrated with BuddyPress, BuddyApp comes with a wide variety of social networking functions like user profiles, activity feed, timeline, live chats, as well as group and private messaging.
The theme is highly interactive, mobile-friendly, and customizable. For example, you can integrate the login page with Facebook, so your organization members can instantly sign up using their Facebook accounts.
Other notable features include live notifications, project and file management, as well as a knowledge base. Overall, BuddyApp heavily focuses on community networks, becoming a solid theme for intranet websites. You can purchase the regular license for $49 per year.
Conclusion
WordPress is a good platform for building an Intranet site, as long as you have the right theme and plugins installed. Organizations can greatly benefit from the CMS’s flexibility and customizability, especially with so many intranet plugins and themes to choose from.
Above are the 6 best plugins and themes for your WordPress intranet, and each of them comes with features that are worth checking out.
