Free vs Pro Comparison
MediaVerse overviewFree + ProGet MediaVerse →
MediaVerse Free is a full-featured media platform. MediaVerse Pro unlocks advanced tools for professional communities, monetization, and engagement.
Free and Pro release in lockstep and share the same version number. See the changelog for what shipped in each release, or Pro feature overview for the current Pro feature set.
Quick Comparison
Section titled “Quick Comparison”| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Media Upload & Management | ||
| Drag & drop upload (photo, video, audio) | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Yes |
| Title, description, tags, categories | Yes | Yes |
| EXIF stripping & duplicate detection | Yes | Yes |
| Thumbnail generation (3 sizes) | Yes | Yes |
| This server (WordPress uploads folder) | Yes | Yes |
| Fair-use storage limit per member | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon S3 cloud storage | – | Yes |
| BunnyCDN cloud storage | – | Yes |
| Cloudflare R2 cloud storage | – | Yes |
| DigitalOcean Spaces cloud storage | – | Yes |
| Feed Layouts | ||
| Grid, justified rows and list layouts | Yes | Yes |
| Instagram layout (square grid + stories) | – | Yes |
| Pinterest layout (masonry cards) | – | Yes |
| Flickr layout (justified gallery) | – | Yes |
| Dribbble layout (portfolio shots) | – | Yes |
| Social Features | ||
| Follow / unfollow users | Yes | Yes |
| Emoji reactions on media | Yes | Yes |
| Threaded comments | Yes | Yes |
| Favorites (save for later) | Yes | Yes |
| @Mentions in comments | Yes | Yes |
| Share to social media | Yes | Yes |
| Direct messages (1-on-1 chat) | Yes | Yes |
| Voice messages in DMs | Yes | Yes |
| Media sharing in DMs | Yes | Yes |
| Message requests & privacy controls | Yes | Yes |
| Content Organization | ||
| Albums with cover photos | Yes | Yes |
| Collections (smart collections built from rules) | Yes | Yes |
| Manual collections with the Save picker | – | Yes |
| Stories (24-hour ephemeral posts, seen-by receipts) | – | Yes |
| Gallery groups (multi-photo posts) | Yes | Yes |
| Privacy & Moderation | ||
| Public / Members Only / Private | Yes | Yes |
| Friends Only privacy level | Yes (needs BuddyPress Friends) | Yes |
| Group Members Only privacy level | Yes (set when posting in a group) | Yes |
| Custom privacy (specific users) | Yes (enforced) | Yes (set through the API) |
| Album-level privacy inheritance | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk privacy change on selected items | Yes | Yes |
| Privacy presets (saved choices, API only) | – | Yes |
| AI content moderation (OpenAI) | Yes | Yes |
| Google Cloud Vision moderation | – | Yes |
| AWS Rekognition moderation | – | Yes |
| Claude (Anthropic) moderation | – | Yes |
| User reporting | Yes | Yes |
| User blocking | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR data export & erasure | Yes | Yes |
| Video | ||
| Video upload & playback | Yes | Yes |
| Video chapter markers (shown in the mobile app and the API) | – | Yes |
| Resume playback (pick up where you left off) | – | Yes |
| Auto-captions via OpenAI Whisper (shown in the web players) | – | Yes |
| Video analytics & heatmaps | – | Yes |
| Image Processing | ||
| Text watermarking | – | Yes |
| Logo watermarking with positioning | – | Yes |
| Watermark opacity, text size and color | – | Yes |
| Compress uploaded images | Yes | Yes |
| Gamification | ||
| Photo Challenges (themed competitions) | – | Yes |
| 1v1 Photo Battles | – | Yes |
| Single-elimination Tournaments | – | Yes |
| Media Boosts (spend points for visibility) | – | Yes |
| Upload Streaks with milestones | – | Yes |
| Weekly Autopilot (auto-create challenges) | – | Yes |
| Points integration with wb-gamification | – | Yes |
| Storage Limits | ||
| Fair-use storage limit per member (MB), site-wide + per-member override | Yes | Yes (inherited) |
| User Profiles | ||
| Public profile page (/media/@username/) | Yes | Yes |
| Follow / Message buttons | Yes | Yes |
| Custom avatar upload | Yes | Yes |
| Profile editing (name, bio, avatar) | Yes | Yes |
| Admin Tools | ||
| Media overview dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Media list with bulk actions | Yes | Yes |
| Settings (General, Display, Messages, Storage, AI, Moderation, Mobile App, Webhooks) | Yes | Yes |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Stats page (uploads, views, reactions) | Yes | Yes |
| Competitions dashboard | – | Yes |
| Challenge manager with challenge themes | – | Yes |
| Tournament bracket manager | – | Yes |
| Battle monitor | – | Yes |
| Video analytics dashboard | – | Yes |
| Analytics dashboard (traffic and engagement) | – | Yes |
| Stories manager | – | Yes |
| BuddyPress Integration | ||
| Profile media tab | Yes | Yes |
| Group media tab | Yes | Yes |
| Activity stream media | Yes | Yes |
| Notifications (likes, comments, follows) | Yes | Yes |
| Gutenberg Blocks | ||
| Core blocks (Media Grid, Player, Album, Upload, Stats, Explore Feed, Member Photos, PDF Viewer) | Yes (8) | Yes (inherited) |
| Pro feature blocks (Tournament, Challenge, Battle, Leaderboard, Compete Hub) | – | Yes (5) |
| Pro stories and document blocks (Stories, Document Embed, Document List) | – | Yes (3) |
| Pro feed-layout blocks (Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Dribbble) | – | Yes (4) |
| Pro list blocks (Tournaments List, Challenges List, Battles Active) | – | Yes (3) |
| Mix layouts per-page | – | Yes |
| Developer | ||
REST API (100+ endpoints, mvs/v1 namespace) |
Yes | Yes |
Pro REST API (90+ additional endpoints, mvs-pro/v1 namespace) |
– | Yes |
| Lightbox download + share REST endpoints | Yes | Yes |
| 150+ action and filter hooks | Yes | Yes |
| Template override system | Yes | Yes |
| Custom storage driver API | Yes | Yes |
WP-CLI commands (wp mvs namespace) |
Yes | Yes |
| Migration tools (rtMedia, MediaPress, BuddyBoss) | – | Yes |
| Import screen (per-platform cards) | – | Yes |
| Accessibility | ||
| WCAG 2.1 AA pass on customer-facing UI | Yes | Yes |
aria-label on icon buttons + aria-pressed on toggles |
Yes | Yes |
:focus-visible outlines + keyboard navigation |
Yes | Yes |
| Theme dark-mode support (BuddyX Pro / generic class-based) | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | ||
| BuddyPress 12+ | Yes | Yes |
| wb-gamification | – | Yes |
| OpenAI (moderation + captions) | Yes | Yes |
| Google Cloud Vision | – | Yes |
| AWS Rekognition | – | Yes |
| Claude (Anthropic) | – | Yes |
| Amazon S3 | – | Yes |
| BunnyCDN | – | Yes |
| Cloudflare R2 | – | Yes |
| DigitalOcean Spaces | – | Yes |
| BuddyNext | Yes | Yes |
A note on the privacy rows
Section titled “A note on the privacy rows”Privacy is the one area where “Free vs Pro” is not a clean on/off split, so it is worth stating precisely:
- Free enforces every privacy level. MediaVerse accepts Public, Members, Friends, Group, Space, Only me and Custom, and checks the level every time someone tries to view a file. If a media item carries one of those levels - set by an import, the API, an album that passes its privacy down, or Pro before a licence lapsed - Free honours it. Your members’ private media does not become visible because Pro is inactive.
- Free’s upload form offers four choices: Public, Members, Friends (only when the BuddyPress Friends component is active) and Only me. Media posted into a BuddyPress group is limited to that group automatically. Group, Space and Custom have no picker in the stock upload form.
- Free can change privacy on many items at once: select items in My Media or Explore, then use the privacy menu in the bulk bar. Allow Users to Set Privacy switches this off for members.
- Pro adds API features, not a new screen: saved privacy presets, a bulk-privacy endpoint, plain-language descriptions of each level in API responses, and the ability to set Custom (a list of specific people) on an item.
- Album-level privacy inheritance is Free. When media is added to an album, each item takes the more restrictive of the two privacy levels, and MediaVerse asks before it changes an album to a stricter level.
There is no “Followers Only” media privacy level you can set in either plugin. “Followers only” appears as a direct-message choice (under Who can send messages), which controls who may open a conversation with you - not who can see your media.
What You Get Free
Section titled “What You Get Free”MediaVerse Free is not a stripped-down trial. It is a complete media platform with:
- Full upload system with drag & drop, bulk upload, and duplicate detection
- Albums, collections, and gallery groups
- Complete social layer: follows, reactions, comments, favorites, mentions, sharing
- Built-in direct messaging with voice messages, file sharing, and read receipts
- User profiles with follow/message buttons and media grids
- AI content moderation and tagging via OpenAI
- A fair-use storage limit per member
- BuddyPress integration (profiles, groups, activity, notifications)
- Full REST API with 100+ endpoints
- GDPR compliance (data export + erasure)
- User blocking and reporting
What Pro Adds
Section titled “What Pro Adds”MediaVerse Pro is for sites that need professional-grade features:
- Visual identity - Choose from Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr, or Dribbble layouts to match your community’s style
- Scale - Offload media to Amazon S3, BunnyCDN, Cloudflare R2 or DigitalOcean Spaces for CDN delivery and room to grow
- Video intelligence - Chapters, resume playback, auto-captions, and engagement analytics
- Engagement - Gamification system with challenges, battles, tournaments, boosts, and streaks that keep users coming back
- Privacy - Saved privacy presets, a bulk privacy endpoint and Custom (specific people) access through the API
- AI - Google Vision, AWS Rekognition, and Claude (Anthropic) for auto-tagging and advanced content moderation
- Migration - Import from rtMedia, MediaPress, or BuddyBoss with one WP-CLI command
Upgrading
Section titled “Upgrading”- Purchase a Pro license at wbcomdesigns.com
- Upload and activate the
wpmediaverse-pro.zipplugin - Enter your license key at MediaVerse > Settings > License
- Pro features activate immediately - no data migration needed, no settings lost
Pro needs MediaVerse Free installed and active. Install both plugins at the same version. If your licence expires, Pro features keep working; the licence controls updates and support (adding or sharing documents is the one exception).