12 applications in this category
Social Networking
This category groups software for creating your own social networks or communities: user profiles, activity feeds, messaging and groups, without relying on third-party platforms.
See applications ↓When does this category make sense?
Building your own social network makes sense when you want a closed or niche community, with full control over the data and without the rules of a generic social network.
Catalog
Social Networking applications
| Application | Needs a database? | Size | Recommended for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dolphin | Yes | 60.86 MB | Community or dating projects that want built-in video chat and video messaging, not just text and images. |
| Elgg | Yes | 131 MB | Educational, business and recreational contexts that need a mature, highly customizable social engine via plugins. |
| Etano | Yes | 27.66 MB | Versatile projects that can range from a dating site to a classifieds portal, using the same software base. |
| Family Connections | Yes | 24.51 MB | Extended families that want their own private space to share content and coordinate dates, instead of using public social networks. |
| GNU social | Yes | 117.06 MB | Communities or businesses that want a Twitter-style microblog but self-hosted, with full control over the data. |
| Hubzilla | Yes | 136.18 MB | Users and communities that value decentralization and want to federate with other open social networks like Diaspora or Friendica. |
| HumHub | Yes | 240.46 MB | Businesses wanting a lightweight social intranet to improve internal communication between teams and departments. |
| Jcow | — | 8.24 MB | Projects that want to build a themed social network from scratch, with built-in monetization options. |
| Open Source Social Network | Yes | 11.51 MB | Interest-based communities wanting a complete social network with collaboration tools, similar in spirit to Oxwall. |
| Oxwall | Yes | 44.09 MB | Projects wanting a complete, flexible social network, from family communities to enterprise solutions. |
| pH7Builder | Yes | 280.86 MB | Entrepreneurs who want to build a dating site or niche social network with security and SEO tools already built in. |
| UNA | Yes | 163.52 MB | Projects that need to manage both people and organizations within the same social network, with enterprise-grade capabilities. |
Dolphin
Comprehensive community software with video chat, forums, groups, events and video messaging.
See full guide →Elgg
An open-source social engine for building social intranets or communities, with an activity wall and granular access control.
See full guide →Etano
A versatile platform for dating sites, social networks or classifieds, with saved searches and captcha.
See full guide →Family Connections
A private social network for families, with a collaborative family tree and an important-dates calendar.
See full guide →GNU social
Twitter-style social microblogging, with selective user following and Twitter API compatibility.
See full guide →Hubzilla
A decentralized, federated social network, compatible with Diaspora and Friendica, with WebDAV cloud storage.
See full guide →HumHub
A lightweight, powerful social network for social intranets and enterprise collaboration, with spaces and groups.
See full guide →Jcow
A flexible PHP platform for building themed social networks like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.
See full guide →Open Source Social Network
An open-source social network with activity feed, video conferencing and built-in collaboration tools.
See full guide →Oxwall
A flexible PHP/MySQL community platform, with activity feed, instant chat and video conferencing.
See full guide →pH7Builder
An open-source platform for building enterprise-grade dating sites or social networks.
See full guide →UNA
A customizable social network platform with independent modules: people, organizations, groups and events.
See full guide →Frequently asked questions about social networking
Can I migrate users from an existing social network?
Most of these platforms allow importing users via CSV or their own registration forms, but there's no automatic migration from commercial social networks.
Do these platforms require a lot of maintenance?
Like any database-backed application, they require periodic security updates, which you can manage directly from Softaculous in your hosting panel.
Install any of these applications today
All of them are available from minute one on miHosting's professional shared hosting, with Softaculous, PHP and databases already configured.