SocialEngine has been around for a few and we've enjoyed trying it out and seeing it develop into a more and more powerful system as the years go by. We decided to share the experience with our readers and show you the true power this system possesses. If you are looking for a system that's affordable and works well as a social networking product.. then this is definitely a very solid choice and one of the better options on the market today. It's also very reasonably priced at about $250 for a license.
Here's how the install process looks for those interested:
You get your license key from them upon purchase which, as we said, is pretty reasonably priced at $250.
You then enter your database details on the next screen and submit
Now that you have your login information, you can proceed to the control panel and get started by playing around with it.
Their administrative interface is nice and clean and very easy to use. There are tons of options and it's very easy to use
and configure.
Above you can see the default look of the system before you do any modifications. Let's create an account and play a bit
shall we?
Below is my test user's profile with an avatar i found and uploaded. Very easy to do.
SocialEngine also has a number of plugins which can be installed and configured for use. Plugins are available for between
$30 to $50 depending on the plugin. In this case, we have all of the plugins that are not third party.
There is some pretty amazing functionality built into SocialEngine. Let's install some of the plugins and see how they work/look.
Here is the compose screen from the blog editor. once installed, it's fully functional and works very well. Looks like it uses TinyMCE by default.
It has a very nice chat module that can be added to it. All of the modules are very fast to load up including this chat which is nice. It appears they have put a lot of work into making sure everything is quick and functional. This isn't just some slapped together product.. SocialEngine is very sleek.
Here is a screenshot of the classifieds section (once the module has been installed). This particular module is a great way to monetize your site as well should you choose.
There is also a nice events plugin which lets you create upcoming events either for yourself or others.
This plugin is for music uploads. One comment on it would be that it lacks an effective admin entry and there doesn't appear to be an easy way to modify the number of files or file sizes (that I could find).
There is also the ability to add polls.
And finally, the last plugin we tested was the videos plugin. It works beautifully with Youtube and uploads.
Overall, We'd say this is one heck of a great collection of modules and software that can be used to put together one heck of a killer social network.
It's easy to theme and easy to customize as well so you can create your own unique look without much effort. For the cost they are charging for this, you could put together an amazingly well equipped social network with very minimal effort.
The admin panel is incredibly straight forward and simple as well.
The SocialEngine team has done an outstanding job on this great product. It's no wonder it has such a large number of users.
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10 Responses to “SocialEngine PHP Social Networking Software Review”
I had the worst experience with SE! The script is no good when you have few thousand members and only 150 members online. I spent over 500 (2 dedicated servers, one for sql) USD for hosting (per month) and it did not help. The coding is just very bad! Don't buy it if you think you will have over 3.000 members.
I have been looking for a stable community software package, that is scalable which is to say that it can handle the user load. I came to this review to find the truth, then I read Korhan's comment about how SE performs in the real world. I came to this REVIEW to find the truth. Obviously this review isnt worth much except to tell you how easy it installs and how much you can expect to spend for some plugins. Between the Russians at ABK, Dolphin, and other Russian/Khazikstan software lies I dont know where to turn to find something thats worth my time and effort. If anyone can help me with this, please email me: jimsmaildrop@hotmail.com
Thx
How many plugins and mods did you have installed? Also it really depends on quality of customization.
I've seen websites based on SE with 10K users running smoothly. Also I've seen websites with all possible plugins included running slow as hell with almost no users at all.
Previous user was correct that there is truly a problem with how socialengine works with database. MySQL overloads with any amount of significant users.
http://www.socialenginebase.net/....php?f=15&t=2138
The trick to socialengine is MEMCACHE.
We run Social Engine 3 with 80 000 users, some days more than 300 people online at one time.
(www.studentvillage.co.za)
We use 1 DB server & 3 other servers (although we only need 1).
The 3 other servers are used for web servers (load balanced) and they also serve as MEMCACHE servers - 1 GB memcache each.
Our DB server load average is 1 (and it's a quad core, so it's basically doing nothing) and the web servers are at 0.1.
See our live loads at http://server.svo.co.za/load/ (firefox only)
SocialEngine's fluidity depends on the kind of plugins you're managing. I've had an easier time dealing with RadCodes plugins. Please, please be sure that the plugins you're purchasing are compatible with the version you're using.
The Smarty engine is very unforgiving if you upload a SE 2 plugin for your SE 3 script.
Jaco that link is not online.
Fair Review..
Except one should not overlook that the plugins listed do not come with the 250 dollar license..
It's a pay as you go type deal.. Paying individually for the plugins..
I've enjoyed it, and can't wait for Version 4.. But I've literally invested about a grand into the license/software/plugins..
It's slow at times.. and is probably not worth the investment with some other cheaper and free alternatives..
But it's great for those with little webdesign/developing knowledge.
In general SosialEngine is one of the best products we have worked with. Most of code is clear and structured.
However often I see people make mistakes trying to build a second facebook. Eventually a lot of people install all plugins they found to be "cool": blog, chat, groups, forum, video, music, gallery and so on. With addition of a bunch of mods to expend the functionality. The main problem here is that in this case you will require good hosting from the very beginning.
There is another hidden issue here - attention of your users will be spread around the features. People won't know what to start from and most likely some of plugins functionality won't be used at all (but will eat server resources).
Let me show you an example. You are starting a niche community for "art house movie" lover. In this case you can install SE, add plugins like groups (for discussions) and blogs (for movie reviews). Also few mods to improve usability. As an option you can add video plugin to keep movie trailers, but only in case your budget allows good hosting. In addition you can order to build a custom plugin "movies" that will allow admin to add movies and users to rate them.
More than enough for a start. All these functionality won't cost much (~1500-2000usd with design). And you can actually start to work on getting community members (and trying to keep them involved), instead of adding any extra functionality. Your hosting payments won't be high.
You need to pay attention to what makes your social network different and listen to your users. It's much better to enhance your specific functionality instead of general. For example it will make sense to order a custom recommendation system based on users votes.
Just don't try to be a second facebook or myspace. You can always beat any large network in a smaller niche.
With all these social networking software scripts around, its gets tough picking the right one. I decided to toss them all onto one big user review site where users can really say what they think about the software, all in one place, helping us all out! If anyone has an objective user review on socialengine, please post it'