Elgg vs Buddypress

These days I am extremely and exhaustively testing 2 open source social networking softwares. This thing is actualy nailing my head. I still cant make a choice between these two. Here are some of the Pros and cons of Buddypress and Elgg I have come across so far

http://galaxiess2.blogspot.com/2012/06/buddypress-vs-elgg-case-study-and-best.html

  • Elgg is the way to go. 

    Several plugins are already being update to elgg 1.8 I don't know but that blog article is not really informative. I would strongly recommend you to try elgg and see for yourself. 

    I recommend elgg over buddypress. Even thought 1.8 is new, we can see several plugins being made or updated.

     

    Rodolfo Hernandez

    Arvixe/Elgg Community Liaison

  • I seen somewhere online that other commercial social scripts like phpfox and socialengine are tuned for Multi server systems. I am not a server guy but like to know that such also forged into elgg too?

  • I didn't find information that phpfox or socialengine are tuned to multi server system. In fact, I found some materials that tell otherwise.

    Elgg is not tuned to work on multiple servers, I think no opensoource script will be - it's simply complicated and dependant of server setup you're using.

    You can read some more about Elgg's performance and scalability here.

     

    There's a simple reason to use Elgg over Buddypress. Elgg is a whole framework, designed for social networks. It's clean and robust. Buddypress is a plugin build on top of software that was designed to be CMS. In case you're building complex social network, or in case you want to modify your website with a few iterations in the future, Elgg is a better solution. Otherwise, you can just compare features you need.

    There are some other solutions better than Buddypress, which are social network frameworks. So far I didn't find one better than Elgg though.

  • All the things I wanted was there on buddypress. Like sub groups, wiki, extended profile fields etc. But I abandoned it because I couldnt limit or cut off emails that the script automatically sent to member email addresses.

    here are few things I would like to see on an Elgg,

    1. Sub groups
    2. User permissions and user roles
    3. An option to disable users choosing private accesss type when creating content

    these things pissing me off

  • i mean there are no much options for commoners out of the box

  • Ours experience was with the uses in intranet site.

    The use of Elgg implies in more flexibility. But some organizations do not have conditions to work with a lot of flexibility.  In this case, the use of a system like buddypress takes better way. To organizations that demands more 'control by the chiefs'  the buddypress appears better.

    So, the elgg system fragility is to turn the organization to be more connected and with less barriers to integrate the sectors.

     

  • itsme: Elgg is not meant to be a ready-made solution for everyone. It's a framework you can build on by writing plugins. Often times people have already written a plugin that gets you where you need to go. If that's the case, awesome. I know there are plenty of roles plugins out there in the community since this is such a common requirement. Getting rid of private access can be done via a simple plugin. I've seen plugins for subgroups as well. It might just take some more searching around. Best of luck making your decision.

  • Ignoring the pros/cons list, which I'm still undecided if that's a legit opinion or some kind of troll attempt...

    "Thanks for getting in touch. Personally I like Elgg more than I do BuddyPress, but then BuddyPress is more supported, but then again, not so much. The problem with Elgg is that every time a new version is made, the plugins break. Sadly there is not a lot of developer support, so a lot of the things you will find won't work with 1.8 or even 1.7. They are constantly updating and updating and leaving people behind because of this. Who wants to build a social platform on something that becomes out of date in a month's time? And unlike something like WordPress/BuddyPress, it's really hard for the average developer to code for Elgg because there's too many files that you have to make separate files to hook into the default setup. It's a nightmare for people who just want to theme the thing. It's not clean code either. It's very bulky. No web standards. BuddyPress is much easier to design for as it's built by the same team behind WordPress. But it doesn't have many plugins either, and the adoption in the beginning was really high, but I found that most sites that used it in the beginning switched to their own system built from the ground up a few months/a year later. There is really no point to open source social networks when spammers can dig through the code themselves and find ways to get their stuff into the system. Better to patch up your site on your own than leave it to other people."

     

    The problem with Elgg is that every time a new version is made, the plugins break. Sadly there is not a lot of developer support, so a lot of the things you will find won't work with 1.8 or even 1.7. They are constantly updating and updating and leaving people behind because of this.

    That's called progress, things change, and not just with Elgg.  Try taking a sizeable Drupal 6 installation and just upgrading the core to 7.  Modules will break, things won't work.  Some Drupal 6 modules are no longer supported and are not ported to Drupal 7.  Same situation.  Though I know nothing about Buddypress I doubt they have full support for every plugin in every version.

     

    it's really hard for the average developer to code for Elgg because there's too many files that you have to make separate files to hook into the default setup. It's a nightmare for people who just want to theme the thing.

    Maybe I'm not an average developer, but I picked it up fairly quickly.  There is most definitely a learning curve, but again, this isn't specific to elgg.  Any project of sufficient size/complexity will take a time/effort investment to learn.  Knowing nothing about Buddypress, I would not even know where to start to write anything for it.  But I could learn.

     

    There is really no point to open source social networks when spammers can dig through the code themselves and find ways to get their stuff into the system. Better to patch up your site on your own than leave it to other people.

    No, it's certainly not better.  That leaves you with a massive maintenance debt for which you alone are responsible, forever.  You alone have most likely made mistakes, oversights, or lack expertise in a specific area that's left you vulnerable to attack.  Open source frameworks have the advantage of having multiple people with multiple areas of expertise picking up on said mistakes/oversights and leads to a much more rugged security model.  Indeed, with a custom solution the source code may not be browseable by a spammer/hacker, but they'll find a way.  I know from experience.

     

    You've been chewing over this for days now.  Obviously Elgg doesn't do everything you need right out of the box.  There is going to be some development necessary to get all of the features you need specific to your project.  If buddypress does everything you need then go with it.