Community / Social Networking / Dating

Set up your own Myspace or Facebook!

There are several open source packages out there for setting up your own social networking website like MySpace or Facebook. The key in deciding which package is right for your project is first deciding what sort of functionality you will require. Many of the large social networking sites have built in a lot of functionality. Some of these features are offered in these open source packages but some features are not and might require additional development time if your project requires them. In addition, some features add to the server cost you will need to run your social networking site. There is a big difference in cost and set up if your project requires such features as audio and video uploads.

If you want to set up a simple dating website where people can create a profile and meet other people osDate is a good choice. It's a completely free open source package and comes with many different themes / skins so that you can get your dating site off the ground quickly and easily.

To learn more about osDate please visit their website: http://www.tufat.com/s_free_dating_system.htm

If you're looking for a simple social networking package where your users can create profiles and join different groups and interact with each other members, Elgg is a good choice. It's a free open source social networking platform that will allow you to easily set up your own social networking website. It's primary focus is on education. It's designed for schools and universities so that they can set up a social network of their students. All the basic functionality that you would expect from a social networking website is built in like profiles, friend lists, blogs, RSS support, etc. etc. However, there is no support for many of the more advanced features like instant messaging and video and audio uploads.

To learn more about Elgg please visit their website: http://www.elgg.org/

If you're looking to set up a fully functional social networking platform phpFoX offers an open source software package although it does require a licensing fee (see below for pricing). There are many themes / skins and some add on modules. While this does cost some money to get the license, it also gives you a very slick product. Plug-Ins are available for instant messaging, bulletin boards, and video uploads, but they require some additional development time to be installed.

To learn more about phpFoX please vist their website: http://www.phpfox.com/

There are two other open source social networking projects that seem to be gaining some momentum.

Boonex offers it's Dolphin Social networking platform with many add-ons. It’s a fully featured social networking platform with lots of support.

To learn more about Dolphin please visit their website: http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin/

Broadband Mechanics' People Aggregator is another fully featured social networking platform. It offers lots of features and has lots of support.

To learn more about People Aggregator please visit their website: http://www.broadbandmechanics.com/

phpFoX, Dolphin and People Aggregator are both good products and Wallanet will be happy to help you set them up, however there are some complicated technical issues that need to be addressed depending on the functionality you will require for your project so if you're interested in any of these packages or have any additional questions click here to contact us.

In addition, Drupal, a CMS, has some modules that allows you to add many of the key social networking features to your Drupal site for free. Drupal is a widely used content management system. However, adding these modules and getting your site exactly the way you want it would require some additional development. The advantage of using Drupal is that you would be able to take advantage of the large Drupal community when you wanted to add functionality to your website or use a free template. To learn more about Drupal go here: http://www.wallanet.com/open_source_packages/cms/drupal/

Bottom Line:
Setting up a social networking website can be complicated and no solution is right for every situation. It would be impossible to recommend any of the products without knowing exactly what you needed for your project. If you know you would like us to install osDate, Elgg, of phpFoX you can add them to your cart and we’ll install them for free. But if you need additional help please contact us by clicking here and tell us a little bit about your project so we can help you find the right solution.