Pre-Sales FAQ

Do you have a demo of the back-end control panel?

We don't, but you can preview how your site's dashboard will work here.

Is it easy to brand my forum?

Yes, you can add your logo and customise every aspect of the colour palette. Have a look at our styling ideas and customer showcase to see the different looks you can achieve.

Do you limit the number of pageviews or users?

Pageviews and user accounts are unlimited. Our plans are based on the number of online members. Guest users are not tracked. Usually only a small proportion of members are active at a given moment, so Plush generally works out much cheaper than services that charge per pageview.

What's the difference between a member and a guest?

A member is someone with an account on your site, browsing while logged in. Guests are anonymous users who aren't logged in. Guests usually outnumber members on public sites.

How do your plans work?

Our plans are based on the maximum number of simultaneous logged-in members. In most forums, only a very small percentage of members will be online at a given moment. Our customers run large forums with ease on our smallest plan.

Are there any optional extras?

Plush has everything you need, including premium hosting, SSL, spam filtering, global CDN and hourly backups.

Does PlushForums support SSL (HTTPS mode)?

Yes, SSL can be enabled in one click, at no extra cost.

Is PlushForums secure?

Yes, and we'll endeavour to keep it that way. Our online community platform is trusted by large corporations, institutions and local government. We use secure servers in secure datacentres, and constantly update our systems.

Can I use a custom domain name?

Yes, Plush is designed to work with your own domain. You just need to create a DNS record that points to an address we provide.

Is PlushForums available in my language?

Plush is currently available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Russian, Hungarian, Danish, Norwegian and Turkish. Please email us if you want to see Plush in your language.

Do you support newsletters or email digests?

We provide integration with MailChimp, which you can use to send newsletters and email digests to your members. We do a proper automated two-way sync, with no management required.

Do you support Single Sign On (SSO) or login integration?

Yes we do, on our Medium plan and above. See our SSO page for details.

Do you support pre-moderation?

We do. You can choose to moderate every post, or only those that contain media or attachments. You can also set a trusted user level, so regular commenters can skip moderation. You can even target a specific category, making PlushForums the ideal platform to conduct a live Q&A session, where you screen the questions in real-time.

Can users reply to posts via email?

No.

Is my data safe and do you have backups?

Yes. We back up your forum every hour to one location, then every night to another. We do not sell or share your data with any third parties. As a Plush client, you are the sole owner of your data.

What happens to my data if I want to leave?

If you wish to end your PlushForums subscription for any reason, we promise to provide you with a copy of your data on request. Please wait to receive your data before cancelling. Data will be provided in JSON format.

How can I monetize my forum?

PlushForums supports paid (PayPal) subscriptions, so you can charge members for premium content. You can also put paywalls on some, or all, of your forum's features. You can also insert adverts (like Google AdSense) into discussions at a chosen frequency, where they will be read most.

Do you have a free version?

We don't. Free services tend to contain intrusive branding and advertising. Sometimes they claim legal ownership of your content and sell your users' data. We believe in good service for everyone at a fair price.

Do you have a self-hosted option?

No, PlushForums is only available on our hosted forum platform.

Do you offer a fully managed service?

We'll make sure your site stays fast and secure. You need to manage your forum and its content.

Can users log in with Facebook or Twitter?

No. These companies have a poor record of safeguarding user privacy, and we believe quite strongly that independent community sites should keep themselves independent. There's no need to hand over your user base to Facebook. The PlushForums sign-up process is exceptionally simple and user-friendly. We also support Single Sign On, so users can log in via your website.

Can I disable the reputation system?

Yes, you can disable Likes and the entire reputation system.

Does PlushForums support older browsers like IE8?

PlushForums is fully functional and looks great on older browsers, including Internet Explorer 8.

Do you monitor my site?

Your privacy is of paramount importance and we do not monitor your content. We monitor our system status and server load, but nothing more.

Do you have an Acceptable Use Policy?

Please make sure you comply with the Terms of Service. Don't use your site to post anything that's illegal in the United Kingdom. We don't monitor your site's content, but we will comply with all legitimate legal requests.

Can I keep my forum private?

Absolutely. We provide robust support for private, invite-only forums. You can also restrict specific content or categories from non-members.

Can guests be forced to register?

It's up to you. You can make your site completely private. You can restrict specific content or categories from non-members. Or you can let guests see your discussions and categories, but force them to sign in to view content.

Am I able to restrict access to certain areas?

Yes, Plush has a Roles and Permissions system that gives you control over who can access content in a given category.

Is Plush SEO friendly?

We think so. We have a clean, human-readable URL structure. You can customise your index page title and meta description. Every discussion page has a canonical URL. Every post has its own meta description and a full suite of Open Graph tags, for better sharing.

Who owns the content on my forum?

Unambiguously, you. You retain sole ownership of your content.

Can I see some example forums?

You can find some example forums and customer testimonials here.

Can I embed a Plush forum on my site?

We don't support embedding. Plush is designed to run on its own domain or subdomain. You can link your forum to your main site via the banner logo or a custom menu item.

Can I read your API documentation?

We have a very basic API, which currently has the sole purpose of sending invitation codes and activating or deactivating user accounts. Discussion lists (for All Discussions, Blog, Events, Most Viewed and each Category) are available via RSS.

Can you migrate my content from another forum platform?

We don't do migrations at the moment.

Can I remove the small PlushForums link?

Yes.

Can I make the Categories page my homepage?

Yes. Possible homepage choices are All Discussions, Categories, Blog or Trending.

Can I enable Question mode automatically for a specific category?

Yes.

Can I customise the CSS?

You can't, but our simple styling tool allows you tailor the look of your forum. Have a look at our styling ideas and customer showcase to see how.

Do you have a WYSIWYG editor?

We don't. Our simple, fast editor uses BBCode, and supports live previews, automated drafts and drag and drop uploads

What kind of email notifications do you support?

Email and in-site notifications are available for direct replies, quotes, mentions, accepted answers and new private conversations. You can also choose to receive email updates about your bookmarked discussions and private conversations, as well as reminders for events.

Admins can also opt to receive an email about each new discussion or membership application.

How does the Paid Subscriptions service work?

Our solution is designed to be very simple. The system supports two price points (eg. $10 per month and $99 per year) and creates PayPal recurring billing profiles. Subscriptions and cancellations are processed automatically. Free trials of varying length are also supported.

You have control over what subscribers and non-subscribers can see. You can restrict entire forum categories, or use BBCode tags to restrict a specific piece of content. You can also put some, or all, of your forum's features behind a paywall.

Can I embed a chat room, shop or other third-party app?

We support the creation of full-width static pages, where you can include HTML. This would allow you to embed an online store module, for example.

Plush discussions are real-time, so you might consider starting a weekly "chat" thread, rather than embedding third-party software.

Can I add custom fields to the registration form?

Yes! You can add custom fields to your member profiles and make them public or private. You can then choose which fields appear on the signup form (and which ones are mandatory). You can also choose which profile field appears below a user's name in the Member Directory.

Do you support nested comments?

We don't. Plush discussions are chronological, to facilitate real-time conversations. We support special Quote and Reply tags that connect posts and help maintain context. You can see examples on our Demo forum.

Do you support tags?

Users can add hashtags to posts, which work just like Twitter.

What media can I embed?

You can embed audio and video from YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, SoundCloud, Vine, Twitch, Giphy, Imgur and Voxer, plus direct links to MP3 and MP4 files. You can also embed Tweets.

Can I upload images?

Yes. We support drag-and-drop image uploads, one-tap image uploads on mobile, external image embedding and a click-to-play handler for animated GIFs.

Is it possible to host my forum in a subdirectory?

We don't support hosting in a subfolder. We support domain/subdomain mapping via CNAME record.

Do you offer a discount for annual payment, or for non-profits?

We don't, but our standard rates are very competitive. We offer the same great value pricing to all customers.

How long will it take for my forum to be available after signing up?

Setup time takes about 4 minutes. Initial login details will be shown in your browser and sent by email.

Can I remove all Plush references and completely white-label my forum?

Yes, Plush is offered as a whitelabel service. You can remove all Plush logos and branding, replacing them with your own.

Do you support file uploads?

Yes, we support file attachments of up to 25MB in size. The amount of storage space available depends on which plan you buy.

Do you have a forms feature?

We don't, but we do support the creation of static HTML pages, into which you can embed anything you like.

Can I give you a call?

We don't do phone support, but we're happy to help via email.

Do you support anonymous posting?

We don't.

How long have you been in business?

We've been proudly serving our customers since October 2014. We're a healthy, profitable company committed to providing a great customer experience.

What are Staff accounts?

"Staff" refers to users in the Administrator or Moderator roles.

Do you compress and resize images?

Yes we do, to ensure you get the most out of your storage space. We keep the image quality very high though, so you probably won't even notice the difference.

Where is your data stored? Are you compliant with the GDPR?

Yes, we're compliant. Our data is stored in the USA and Canada. Location, in itself, is not relevant for GDPR compliance.

Your forum collects no more than the bare minimum of data required for a user to participate. If you've added Google Analytics or other tracking software, you need to notify your users and ask for consent (the typical "cookie" message). Plush lets you do this.

Under the GDPR, your users also have the right to know what personal data you store. Plush provides you the ability to export your member data to CSV, so you can provide the user with the relevant information.

The GDPR requires us and you to take all necessary steps to keep user data secure. We've put in years of work to develop a secure software platform, and we continually update our operating systems with all relevant security patches. We only use reputable, secure datacenters to host your information. Moreover, we provide a free SSL option, that you should enable to ensure user privacy and security.

Finally, your users have a right to be forgotten. In practical terms, this means either wiping their forum content or anonymizing it. Plush offers you the ability to do both.