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vapvarun/jetonomy
Next-gen discussion platform for WordPress — forums, Q&A, ideas, voting, trust levels, 61+ REST API endpoints. Free forever.
Jetonomy is a WordPress forum plugin that stores data in 23 dedicated tables instead of abusing wp_posts, with trust levels, Q&A, ideas boards, voting, and a 61-endpoint REST API. It positions itself against bbPress and wpForo for teams that want a Discourse-like experience without leaving WordPress. Built by a commercial WP plugin shop (Wbcom Designs) and released free with a Pro extensions tier.
- Dedicated database tables instead of wp_posts — the right call for forum workloads where wp_posts abuse kills query performance at scale.
- CI pipeline has actual teeth: PHPStan level 5, WPCS, PHPUnit with 226 tests, and a shell script that runs 78 access-control checks across 6 roles and blocks the build on failure. That's more rigor than most commercial WP plugins ship.
- REST API design is thoughtful — cursor-based pagination, a declarative manifest that records auth/capability/ownership_check per endpoint, and a verification script. Headless or hybrid builds are plausible.
- Uses WordPress Interactivity API for reactive UI state instead of bolting on a custom React or jQuery layer. Aligns with where block themes are heading and avoids the usual plugin JS nightmare.
- Basic access control shipped broken. 'Banned users can no longer log in' and 'private-post structured data no longer leaks to anonymous visitors' are both listed as security fixes in 1.4.0 — those aren't edge cases, they're fundamental failures in a moderation-focused product. What else shipped and hasn't been found yet?
- The 'free forever' framing is misleading. Polls, emoji reactions, private messaging, analytics, email digests, web push, webhooks, custom badges, and advanced moderation are all Pro-only. The README lists polls under free features and also under Pro, which is contradictory. You will hit the paywall quickly on a real community.
- One star, zero forks, and a changelog that added 16+ bug fixes in the most recent release alone. There is no community to absorb discovery of new problems — you're on your own with vendor support, and the velocity suggests the codebase is still being stabilized.
- 23 custom tables with no documented export format means migrating away is painful. The importers from bbPress and wpForo are one-way. You're betting on this vendor's long-term commitment to a 'free forever' promise.