Elgg is an open-source social platform that enables users networking, blogging, microblogging, and date organizations. Its communication tools are flexible events systems, user authentication, hook system, client-side API, composer, entity system, file storage, and notification services.
It provides the latest ideas in commercial networking and can be executed on LAMP, i.e., Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP system. This platform is an engine framework that integrates personal profiles with simple syndication aggregation and friend of a friend functionality.
Its user authentication is empowered by pluggable modules that let you apply customized user-generated files without booting the engine. It contains grouping tools like pages, message boards, profiles, and RSS feeds. It is dual-licensed under a public license with granular access permissions.
It is secured with cross-site request forgery validation, hash-based message authentication code signatures, and cryptographic approaches. It powers multiple sites like SEO-Vietnam, Saugus School District, Harvard University, Institute of Executive Coaching, and United Nations Program.
It has many features such as web services API, activity stream, flexible data model, relationship management, and entity extend functionality. Its writer-style microblogging displays data regarding plugin’s start PHP. It shows file handling and multilingual tagging.
Why Users want Elgg Alternatives?
Elgg has many features, but it contains some shortcomings. It lacks on-premise Windows, Android, iPhone, Chromebook, Linux, and iPad compatibility. It does not provide a free trial version, advertising management, real-time chat, social media integration, data security, and social promotions.
This platform has no phone support, live representation, knowledge base answer/question forums. There are no video tutorials, live webinars, and in-person training. There is limited training with lacking windows, mac, and desktop support. It is not available for SMEs with expensive subscriptions.
List of Elgg Alternatives
There is competition in forum hosting for an online community to increase board reviews. You cannot rely on a single software with some shortcomings; therefore, you must move towards the other alternatives. The alternatives of Elgg are given below, which compensate for its deficiencies.
Functions, structure, features, and capabilities of some alternatives are discussed due to the imperfectness of Elgg. The shortcomings of the presented alternatives will also be discussed briefly. It is up to the users to choose and work on the most relevant software with the least drawbacks.
1. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 lets users turn to email to tasks sent to CRM administrators and help save time. Its collaboration tools enable you to perform audio and video calls, telephony incorporations, live chats and stream messages. Video conference is allowed with forty-eight members at a time.
This platform can send hundreds of CRM documents through open channels and smartphones. Users can communicate with co-workers through solid secure modules like overdue alert systems. You can utilize many tools, including emails and projects, with a cloud-hosted premium plan.
It contains features like visual project and workload management, task templates, sales automation, daily planner, user profiles, access assignment, and photo albums. There is a collaboration environment to deal with internal and external operations, including WebDAV support.
Features
- Bulk Emails
- Calendar Sharing
- Instant Messaging
- File Versioning
- Internet Center
Pros
- Free Subscriptions
- Live Documentation
- Webinar Training
- Free Trial Version
- Quick Task Reporting
Cons
- No Desktop Support
- Only for Small Business
- CRM Report Lacking
- Interrupted File Uploading
2. Ning
Ning is a social platform with numerous tools and expertise to handle social networks like design audio. It can launch your social system even without HTML or CSS knowledge. Users can monetize their blog, traffic, website, and social media like data security with its e-commerce platform.
It helps integrate Vimeo, communicates with other participants, and quick sign in through Twitter. It includes a media library, fraud prevention, and content management. It contains a custom design, and no special coding is required due to the drag and drop system builder.
This software allows photos and videos for website management, social promotions, and analytics. Its strengths are custom domain mapping, broadcast messages, referral programs, and API access. You can deliver your messages and sell products with its e-commerce module.
Features
- Third-party Integrations
- 100 GB Storage
- GA Tools
- Large Bandwidth
Pros
- Live Documentation
- Free Subscription
- Extensive Guides
Cons
- Slow Customer Support
- Limited Templates
- Static Informational Pages
- Fewer Themes
- No Free Plan
3. SocialEngine
SocialEngine is a PHP management platform that helps monetize your site and community with various social member controls. It is hosted on users’ servers powered by branding to improve fine-grained management. It is available on Android, iPad, and iPhone with live chat and documentation.
This platform lets administrators personalize page styles and layouts to gamify video sharing. Its strengths are social media integrations, user profiles, data security, and website handling. Its third-party plugin can be installed from social engine Addons, a primary source of support.
It allows real-time chat, membership management, live discussion, media library, member directory, social promotion, advertising campaigns, and event handling. There are numerous plugins like rad-codes, hire-experts, web-hive, and social engine solutions helpful for discrete event systems.
Features
- Web-based Platform
- Content Management
Pros
- Free Trial Availability
- Quick Customer Support
Cons
- No Chromebook Desktop
- Limited Linux Support
- Expensive Subscriptions
- No Free Plan
4. HumHub
HumHub is a social network platform with various use cases like municipality, enterprise social intranet, and private communities. It serves employees and contains self-hosting solutions to execute on all servers. You can manage spaces and profiles according to your social requirements.
It integrates with GitHub Contrib, translation community, and marketplace. It helps unlimited users with live documentation, LDAP support, individual LTS, and prioritized bug fixes. It contains modules to improve functionality and social networks with their theming mechanisms.
It is developed in hypertext preprocessor with a Yii framework that lets you organize your team, direct the clients, and improve large businesses. It provides activity stream, notification, social tools, user profiles, directory, files, public access, and transparent development.
Features
- Custom Module Support
- Multiple Language Translation
- Cloud-hosting System
Pros
- Fine Tuning Options
- Community Contribution
- Intuitive User Interface
- Quick Portfolio Creation
Cons
- Limited Guest Mode
- Single Client System
- Fewer Nested Spaces
- Only for Small Bases
5. Socialcast
Socialcast provides a default set of social integration to deliver digital workspace and resources on devices. It enables data to transfer dynamically to handle business processes. It offers a representative state transfer programming interface, business intelligence, and community administration.
This platform allows project-specific workspaces, customized profiles and options, shared documentation, user-centric views, and track conversations. It is available for small, medium, and large businesses on Android, Mac, mobile, and iPad with cloud-hosted deployment.
Its private cloud is hosted in SOC1, and SSAE16 is developed in a single-tenant environment. It helps in content controls, message audits, broadcast notifications, external contributions, and customizations. It contains many social media sites and goal alignments towards the solutions.
Features
- Organized Charts
- Open API Deployment
- Email Support
- Anytime Access
Pros
- Live Customer Support
- Multiple Role Permissions
Cons
- No Free Trial Version
- Limited Training
- Only English Support
6. Nimble
Nimble is a cloud-based marketing CRM that helps organize contacts and network connections. It locates contact data and history across a 360-degree view in Outlook and Gmail Inbox. It provides lead management, pipeline handling, account modification, and social network integration.
It allows email marketing, task management, forecasting analytics, and contact data accuracy. Its social listening functionality helps create search parameterizations with synchronized activity and news feeds. Users can add sticky notes to a record to segment their contacts into large lists.
It provides customizable templates, customer databases, mobile access, third-party integrations, and an improved programming interface. This software engages the data entry to keep all the communication among customers up to date and directs deals with sales pipeline management.
Features
- Calendar Synchronization
- Today Page Dashboard
- Email Templates
- Unlimited User License
- Business Card Scanner
Pros
- Free Subscriptions
- Unified Message Inbox
- Outstanding UX Design
Cons
- No Free Plan
- Frozen Initial Setup
- Expensive Mobile Support
7. Oxwall
Oxwall is an open-source social platform that offers infrastructure setup, custom development, and tutorials to run users’ projects. It provides blogs image and video sharing with multilingual support. Its plugins and drag and drop interface track analytics without disturbing JavaScript code.
It allows member directory, social media integration, group and event management, advertising campaigns, and jobs board. It is available for small, medium, large enterprises agencies, with customized deployment. You can build rich-content on a website with Cloudflare incorporation.
It contains custom statistics, content moderation, standard themes, and upgraded plugins. It allows network communication, social sharing, member communities with cloud-based deployment. It helps community-driven websites and fan clubs add unlimited users through the admin panel.
Features
- Third-party Contributors
- FTP Client Customization
- Banner Rotation Monetization
- Payment Wall Integration
Pros
- Customized Profile Questions
- Quick Site Translation
- Mass-mail Users
- Fast Code Injection
- Twilio SMS Verification
Cons
- No Windows Support
- Limited Mac Compliance
- No Android Deployment
- Slow Live Support
8. Yammer
Yammer enhances engagement and communications among organizations with a dynamic environment. It provides calendar management, collaboration tools, document sharing, and employee communities. You can build groups and a collaborative workspace with organized project deadlines.
It contains admin support, resource center, adoption specialists, and programming interface developers. It allows project handling, prioritization, secure data storage, file sharing, task progress tracking, user management, version control, video conferencing, and workflow control.
This web-based software is an instant messaging device for small, medium, and large businesses. You can communicate with all the co-workers ranging from recruiters to CEOs, and share useful information. Users can add tags to their content of searchable knowledge databases.
Features
- Third-party Integration
- Enterprise Microblogging
- Network Spanning
Pros
- Android Support
- Live Webinar Training
Cons
- No Access Permissions
- Slow Activity Tracking
- Limited Assignment Management
- No CRM Support
- Limited Approval Workflow
9. JomSocial
JomSocial is a social networking platform that converts Joomla CMS into a networking site. It helps businesses with image and video sharing, profile management, and Facebook integration. It contains a default theme, unlimited tech support, premium Addons, page creator, and gavick products.
This web-based software allows event and group management through media libraries, social promotions, real-time chat, and data security. It will enable social media tagging in video galleries with detailed documentation. It can be operated on tablets, laptops, and desktops for thousands of users.
This platform contains customized profiles, social graph modification, organic groups, learning portal community, private messaging, instant chats, and flexible templating. It represents bios, pictures, LMS-related data, social networking plugins, files exchange, and whiteboard conference.
Features
- Activity Streams
- Social Corporate Culture
- Multilingual Support
Pros
- Free Trial Availability
- Live Chat Support
- Developer Access
Cons
- No Free Version
- Limited Blogs Creation
- No Advertising Management
- Slow Mac Support
10. BuddyPress
BuddyPress is a social network and community plugin for your wordpress sites. You can add multiple members to start social connections and private conversations to share useful information. It is compatible with hundreds of plugins, and its operation is simple, like activating a new theme.
It is a standalone plugin to add social function and online community to the user’s site. It displays users’ profiles, templates, real-time notifications, and activity streams to improve niche interest groups. It supports Akismet WordPress plugins to translate content into the native language.
This software helps manage friendship connections create custom profiles, wiki plugins, and theme architecture. There are numerous widget blocks, legacy widgets, and new site-wide notices for administrators. It integrates with myCred, wise chat PRO, WP Ulike, GamiPress, and Youzer.
Features
- Event Manager
- Multilingual Platform
- Group Email Subscriptions
Pros
- Free Version Availability
- Easy to Install Setup
- Cost-Effective Products
Cons
- No Free Trial Version
- Limited Chromebook Compatibility
- Slow iPad Support
- No Media Uploading
11. Hoopla
Hoopla is a digital media service that permits dynamic team competitions and adjustments channels. It contains custom metrics, multiple data sources, benchmarking, and badge management to showcase your progress. It integrates with Slack, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and Microsoft Excel.
It enables gamification, manager-to-peer recognition, performance management, personalization, activity tracking, and contest handling. It allows TV streaming, CRM integration, simultaneous competitions, enterprise scalability, trigger incentives, and a commission calculator.
It helps in goal setting, employee structure administration, behavior monitoring, and data lifecycle management. It represents inspirational quotes, news tickers, social media updates, deal alerts, gauges, scheduled content, recognizing anniversaries and birthdays, and social tracking.
Features
- Web-based Platform
- Top Performer Monitoring
- iOS Support
- Twitter Integration
Pros
- Easy to Install Setup
- Mass-mail Users
- Extensive Guides
Cons
- Limited Updates
- Frozen CRM System
- Tricky Reports Creation
- Difficult to Individualize Notifications
- No Communication Management
12. Zoho Connect
Zoho Connect enables the team members to share their experiences with high transparency across hierarchies. It schedules users’ posts to the active audience to visualize content pipelines. It represents smart predictions on content curation tools like zShare and RSS browser extension pair.
It exports the company’s newsletter and ideas and values contributions without disturbing office inboxes. You can attend regular Ask Me Anything sessions to inform the daily progress of relevant topics. Its various listening columns engage your audience with default reports and hashtags.
This software mentions your brand keywords to reply inline by tagging teammates. You can view questions and announcements in its rich text editor. Its digital workplace solutions enable remote work, organized culture, business communication, social intranet, and meaningful partnerships.
Features
- Video Conferencing
- Sprints Incorporation
- RSVPs Tracking
- Online Document Management
- WorkDrive Integration
Pros
- Extendable Collaboration
- Quick File Repository
- Employee Management
Cons
- No WhatsApp Integration
- Limited Image Resizing
13. Jcow
Jcow is a hypertext preprocessor social networking platform that helps to build personalized networking websites. It represents custom profiles, photo albums, and basic tools like messaging and friends. You can manage high traffic with Google map integration without being bankrupt.
It provides blogs, music, dynamic cache, anti-spam, a news feed, videos, Facebook login, and inline ads. It offers analytics, member directory, file sharing, post-management, and member portal. It allows social promotion, event and group management, advertising campaigns.
You can manage millions of clients on shared hosting with free modules developed by the official team. It permits members to create groups, improve public posts, customize themes, and like fan pages. It allows fundraising handling, committee management, and application integration.
Features
- Social Networking Guide
- Multilingual Platform
- License Domain Management
Pros
- Free Version Availability
- Live Documentation
- Structured Interface
- Free Native Mobile App
Cons
- Limited Windows Support
- No Free Trial version
- Only English Support
- Not for SMEs
14. Chatter
Chatter is a leading social network that connects and motivates members to work together and share knowledge regardless of assigned roles. It collects and keeps data in the internal system and reduces errors while badging. You can handle custom actions set in a project with CRM customization.
This platform is a cloud-based SaaS application that permits multiple users to search data in expertise categories. It synchronizes documents from third-party repositories and several customers at a time. It joins product teams on different campaigns and shares polls with accelerated innovation.
This software allows audio and video conferencing, file sharing, newsletter distribution, and multi-channel sharing. It enables cross-communication among internal teams through conventional social media. You can create and follow other users with an influence rating of product marketing.
Features
- Widget Attachments
- Administrative Access
- Inline Translation
Pros
- Windows Desktop
- Android Supported
- User-friendly Interface
Cons
- No Mobile Support
- Limited iOS Compatibility
- Only English Support
15. phpFox
phpFox is a social network platform with default social features like Facebook login, user profiles, and news feed. You can create your social website and handle your privacy settings with responsive web design. It lets third-party developers sort top feeds and product integration by recent stories.
It offers monetization, sponsorships, and user ads that incorporate PayPal gateway and many other services. Users can add or edit any website part and control the theme management system. Its script is customized that enables niche social networking and administration section.
You can view the joined users on the members’ page and browse them regarding their gender, ages, and location. This platform allows gamification for community engagement, including eGift and activity points. You can send invitation requests to target clients to collaborate and block some.
Features
- Numerous Emoji
- Multiple Meta Tags
- Title Headings
- RSS Feed
- Amazon CDN Server
Pros
- Flexible Control Panel
- Multiple Customized Themes
- Fast Customer Support
- Amazing Layout
Cons
- Slow Third-party Plugins
- Costly Tools
- Outdated Forum Module
Final Words
Elgg is a cloud-based networking engine designed to run a blog and social bookmarking. It is a registered platform representing billing, alerts, and third-party integration as it allows RSS feeds and instant messaging. It has a network interface layout to ensure internal factors are incorporated.
It has some shortcomings; therefore, users are compelled to find its alternatives. Some of its alternatives are discussed in this article; Bitrix24, Oxwall, and Zoho Connect collectively are the best to resolve the significant issues. They are reliable in the budget, precision, and available sources.
