The scope of social media is vast and fast expanding. According to a 2019 poll of the top firms, social media advertising accounts for 15-20% of their marketing budget. As a result, the significance of social media in brand advertising is clear. Social media is essential for generating leads and increasing brand exposure. However, there is rising concern about data privacy and security. As a result, you might wish to think about employing open-source social networking software alternatives.
While several free and paid scripts are available for running your social network, just a few are reliable, reasonable, and simple to use.
Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best and most flexible open-source social networking software in 2022 for you to select from.
BuddypressÂ
Buddypress is an open-source social networking software that allows you to connect with other people through social media. It’s pretty simple to install if you’re familiar with WordPress, and there are over 330 BuddyPress plugins to choose from, with more being added every day.
Many paid and free BuddyPress themes and various plugins with extra features are available to help you build a dynamic community-powered site. BuddyPress is the finest choice if you want to create a profile for your company’s team/members inside your organization.
Using WordPress + BuddyPress, you may create a self-hosted social network for your company, team, or organization.
ElggÂ
Elgg is a popular development platform and a robust open-source social networking engine. It’s designed to run on the LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Blogging, file sharing, microblogging, groups, networking, and various other services are available.
JamroomÂ
Jamroom provides a free SSL certificate to enable you to build your own economic and scalable online social networking platform. In addition, it delivers an excellent user experience and unrestricted data transit between persons.
You have all the ability you need to build the network you want with its unique Form Designer, Site Builder, and Developer Tools. Further, not only is it responsive and quick on every device. But it also provides your visitors with the best possible user experience thanks to its dedicated servers.
Dolphin
If you’re searching for a PHP-based social networking software that’s flexible and scalable, Dolphin is the way to go. It is one of the most widely use tools for building social networks on the market. In addition, Dolphin has a social networking toolkit that includes capabilities comparable to those found on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Moreover, this social networking software features recorder, video player, video chat, forums, groups, events, emails, file sharing, video messaging, and desktop and mobile apps.
OxwallÂ
Oxwall is a collaboration platform that allows users to quickly establish various community-based projects, including fan sites, local social networks, collaboration tools, and other community sites. It’s a mobile-friendly piece of software with a full-featured mobile version. That also aids in the discovery of third-party website themes.
Its key features include Facebook connect, Google Analytics monitoring, contact importer, Cloudflare integration, activity notifications, photo sharing, Facebook-like news feed, and much more.
XOOPSÂ
XOOPS is a flexible content management system that lets you create websites that meet your specific requirements. For example, you may start with a personal blog and then extend with appropriate modules to add social networking, forums, and much more.
Yogurt is a module that allows you to use XOOPS to create a social networking site. For example, you may build a personal album with photos, movies from YouTube, mp3 files, a friend list, a public wall for messages, communities, and many more helpful features. XOOPS and Yogurt are both PHP-based and operate nicely in a LAMP setup.
Lovd by Less
Lovd by Less is one of the earliest and very few open-source social networking sites built on Ruby on Rails. Blogs, photo galleries with descriptions, site search for friends, activity updates, and user-to-user chat are some of the features of Lovd by Less. Flickr and YouTube integration is also include in the program.
One of the advantages of Lovd by Less is that it is simple to use and includes the majority of the apps that you will want. This would be an excellent option for individuals who like Ruby on Rails rather than PHP.
MaharaÂ
Unlike other social networking software, Mahara is intended to be used as a platform for people to exhibit their life-long learning, skills, and progress to specific audiences. For example, you may use Mahara to develop an e-Portfolio platform and an online learner community. The program includes blogs, a resume builder, a file organizer, institution information, and a social networking component where you can add and manage your friends’ list.
Anahita
Anahita is the most versatile and configurable open-source framework among the mentioned social network development tools. To work with this, however, a little technical knowledge and support are required. Nevertheless, it is popular among developers since it offers them the most extensive collection of capabilities.
HumHubÂ
HumHub is another open-source software example and framework designed to make communication and collaboration simple and successful. It’s small, powerful, and has an easy-to-use UI. You may use HumHub to build your personalized social network, social intranet, or large social enterprise application tailored to your specific requirements.
HumHub’s sophisticated module architecture allows you to extend it by integrating third-party tools, building your own, or connecting existing applications. In addition, HumHub is a self-hosted solution that may be operating on nearly any server.Â
Etano
The Etano is a PHP clone script that allows you to build a social network. it’s a wonderful choice if you want to create a dating or collaborative website. It doesn’t have a lot of distinguishing characteristics. But it’s good enough for a small social networking effort.
Conclusion
The open-source software examples described above are widely acknowledged and employed in developing social networking platforms. Now that you’re familiar with the names. It’s strongly recommend that you use one of the tools listed above to build a successful social networking platform.
