Uploading
Drop files, set privacy, publish
The member picks the privacy level on the same screen.
- Duplicates
- Caught by hash: allow, warn or skip
- EXIF
- Stripped on upload if you turn it on
- Thumbnails
- Large, medium and thumb, plus WebP siblings
Media sharing, free
Give members one place to share photos, video and audio.
Uploads, albums, a lightbox with reactions, nine privacy levels and a moderation queue. Works with any theme, with or without BuddyPress.
Uploads and who sees them
Three media types, nine privacy levels
Privacy is set per upload, not per site. A member can post one photo publicly and keep the next one to themselves.
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Photos
Thumbnails at three sizes, WebP and AVIF siblings, EXIF stripped if you want it gone.
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Video
A poster frame from the file’s own cover art, or a frame the uploader picks. No re-encoding.
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Audio
Embedded cover art when the file carries it, and a drawn waveform when it does not.
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Not documents
PDFs and Office files are refused from the media library on purpose. The member document drive is a Pro feature.
Who can open an item
- Public
- Anyone, signed in or not
- Members
- Any signed-in user
- Logged in
- Any signed-in user
- Friends
- Members the uploader is friends with
- Group
- Members of that BuddyPress group
- Space
- Members of that BuddyNext space
- Private
- The uploader and site admins
- Direct message
- The people in that conversation
- Custom
- The named members you grant
Anything not public is served through a signed URL that expires, and it never goes to a CDN.
On a real site
What members actually use
Screens from the plugin's own documentation, all of them free-plugin surfaces.
Lightbox
Every item opens into a conversation
Reactions, favourites, sharing and comments sit beside the media, with no page reload.
- Reactions
- Like, love, haha, wow, sad, angry
- Comment editing
- Fifteen minutes, then it locks
- Reports
- Hidden automatically after three
Messages
Private conversations, with media attached
One to one or group, and nothing here shows up in a feed.
- Attachments
- Photo, video or audio, up to 10 MB
- Checked by content
- Not by file extension
- Also
- Voice messages, reactions and unsend
Free and Pro
The library is free. Pro adds the rest.
Free is not a trial: it runs on unlimited sites with no licence key. This is the honest line between the two.
In the free plugin
- Photo, video and audio uploads, with duplicate detection
- Albums, rule-based collections, tags and full-text search
- Nine privacy levels, signed URLs and per-item access grants
- Reactions, comments, favourites, follows and an activity feed
- Direct messages with media, voice notes and reactions
- Moderation queue, member reports with auto-hide, suspensions
- AI descriptions, tags and screening through OpenAI
- Nine blocks, fourteen shortcodes, REST API, webhooks and WP-CLI
What Pro adds
- Cloud storage
- Amazon S3, BunnyCDN, Cloudflare R2 and DigitalOcean Spaces. Free stores on your own disk.
- Watermarking
- Free resolves the settings and fires the hook; Pro draws the mark and adds the settings screen.
- Platform gallery layouts
- Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr and Dribbble styles. Free draws grid, masonry, list, square and original.
- Member document drive
- Folders, sharing, trash and search for documents. Free keeps documents out of the media library.
- Competitions
- Battles, challenges, tournaments and challenge themes, all under the MediaVerse menu.
- More AI providers
- Anthropic, Google Vision and Amazon Rekognition alongside OpenAI.
- Importers
- Bring a library over from rtMedia, MediaPress, BuddyBoss or Flickr.
Start free on unlimited sites. Add Pro later.
Pay once and own it forever, or pick the annual plan. All features included in every plan, no hidden add-ons.
MediaVerse Free
Unlimited sites
Free
- Unlimited sites, no license key
- Uploads, albums, collections and explore feed
- Lightbox, reactions, comments and follows
- Direct messages with media and voice
- Moderation queue, reports and OpenAI checks
- Optional storage limit per member
- BuddyPress activity, profile and group media
- 9 blocks, 14 shortcodes and a REST API
- GDPR export and erasure
- Forever free, no feature locks
Most popular
Pro Personal
1 site
$199 one-time
or $69/year
- Everything in Free, plus:
- 1 site license
- Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr and Dribbble layouts
- Photo challenges, battles and tournaments
- Cloud storage on S3, BunnyCDN, R2 or Spaces
- Member document drive
- Importers for rtMedia, MediaPress and BuddyBoss
- Google Vision, Rekognition and Claude
- Watermarking
- Updates and support, annual or lifetime
Pro Professional
5 sites
$299 one-time
or $99/year
- Everything in Pro Personal
- 5 site licenses
- Priority support
- Updates and support, annual or lifetime
Pro Agency
Unlimited sites
$499 one-time
or $199/year
- Everything in Personal, plus:
- Unlimited site licenses
- Priority email support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
The plugin keeps working. Updates and support stop until you renew.
Free forever. Annual licenses include a year of updates and support and renew at 30% off. Lifetime licenses are a one-time payment and never expire.
Questions before you install MediaVerse
Do I need BuddyPress?
No. MediaVerse runs on its own with uploads, profiles, an explore feed and messages. When BuddyPress is active, activity uploads, profile tabs, group tabs and BuddyPress notifications switch on too.
Will a large media library slow my site down?
Media, albums, reactions and messages live in 23 custom tables, not in wp_posts. Listings paginate, and search uses a FULLTEXT index. Your posts and pages tables do not grow with every upload.
Does it convert or transcode video?
No. MediaVerse plays the file the member uploaded, so there is no ffmpeg to install. A video poster comes from the file's embedded cover or a frame picked at upload.
Do I have to use AI moderation?
No. The moderation queue and member reports work without AI. To screen uploads automatically, add your own OpenAI key and set a monthly budget cap. Pro adds Google Vision, AWS Rekognition and Anthropic Claude.
Can members upload PDFs and Office files?
Not into the media library, which takes photos, video and audio. Documents have their own place. The free plugin lists them, and Pro gives each member a document drive with folders and sharing.
Can I limit how much each member uploads?
Yes. Settings > General has an optional storage limit per member, unlimited by default. Set a different limit on one member's profile. Administrators are never limited.
Can I turn private messages off?
Yes. One Messages switch in Settings > Messages turns private messaging off everywhere. Existing conversations are kept and return when you switch it back on.
Can members turn off the emails?
Yes. A member can switch activity emails off in their profile or use the unsubscribe link in any email. You choose which emails go out in Settings > General > Emails.
What happens to my data if I deactivate or delete the plugin?
Deactivating keeps your media, tables and settings. Deleting the plugin from the Plugins screen removes its tables and settings, so export anything you need first.
Can I move over from rtMedia, MediaPress or BuddyBoss?
Yes, with Pro. It includes importers for all three. The rtMedia importer can run as a dry run first and resume a stopped import.
What does Pro add?
Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr and Dribbble layouts, stories, and photo challenges, battles and tournaments. It also adds cloud storage, watermarks, a member document drive and importers. Every Pro tier includes every feature.
Plugins that work beside MediaVerse
- Want cloud storage or watermarks MediaVerse Pro S3 and BunnyCDN storage, watermarking, platform layouts and a document drive.
- Running BuddyPress Media inside BuddyPress Uploads in the activity stream, on profiles and in group tabs.
- Building the whole community The 26-plugin community bundle Moderation, polls, profiles and privacy alongside your media.
Give your members a place to share their media
Free on unlimited sites, with no licence key.