BuddyZone vs. PHPFox vs. Handshakes, which is better for a college social community?

I am torn between these three and wonder if anyone is using one of the following and can provide some feedback on them.

The thing i don't like about Handshakes is they don't have a built in forum.

www.dzoic.com
www.phpfox.com
www.vastal.com/buddy-zone-social-networking-script.html

 

Why not going for http://www.drupal.org ?
Is it because you don't know or want to learn how to use it? I believe Drupal has everything these 3 links provide, just not out of the box, you'd need to add modules and spend some time, so maybe that's the issue for you?

 

Both buddyzone and phpfox are good.

Only bad thing about phpfox is that its encoded while buddyzone is not.

Buddyzone is bit more expensive that phpfox.

I am using phpfox on my site and am impressed with buddyzone as well...

if you want to buy phpfox pm me i can get you 10-15% discount on the price...

I haven't used or researched on handshakes script so can say anything about it...

 

I bought one of these kinds of scripts back in the day for $600 + and never ended up using it.

But now I rolled my own social network (in Ruby on Rails) and things are going much better.

 

fezbucks..

Can ya send me the script you bought ?

Pm me an offer if you wish to sell.

 

Oh yeah, now I remember.

It was AlstraSoft efriends. (now it's only $280 but it was $600)

 

Thank you for the info. Do you have your script for sale?

Thanks

Sholiviks

 

Hi,

I want to take you up on your offer. I want a copy of phpfox. I look forward to hearing from you

Sholiviks

 

I will be placing an order with you as soon as my money transfer to paypal goes through (I'm transfering funds from another site and they seem to be dragging their A$$es over there.)

 

Alvin,
I just finished making my purchase. I had to wait two days for my funds to be transfered and when I go to make my purchase I find out that they are using 2co for payment processing. I just wasted 2.5 days for nothing.

Everything is cool now. I will be starting my site development project now and waiting on you in the mean time.

 

i would suggest phpnuke it has everything

 

you mean phpfox...?

 

buddy zone is phpfox so dont cosider each of them as buddy zone is the ripped version of phpfoz

 

The latest version 3.0 has a forum buildt in

 

I'd like exact clone of orkut.com

 

phpfox has forum Built in

 

Hello,
How do you recoken that Buddy Zone is a ripped version of phpfox.
Do not post invalid information on any forums, without verifying.
Buddy Zone is registered Indian Copyright Act, 1969 in Mumbai. If it was at all a ripped version of phpfox why will the government grant us the copyright?
And if it is a ripped version of phpfox why had phpfox not taken any steps? Have you in realty seen the code of both the softwares?
I am giving you one final warning to not post stupid and illicit messages like these. We can very well track you down and get back on to you for posting these messages. Buddy Zone is being openly advertised on many platforms if it is at all a ripped version of phpfox we would not have supported and developed the software for more than a year now. I pity your intelligence because by simply the looks, I can say VBulletin is a ripped version of phpbb or vice versa, but it is not because it is written in a completely different way. You are hereby served a warning to stop posting such information which holds no meaning at all.
For Vastal I-Tech & Co.

 

PHPFOX IS TOTALLY SUCK

http://ww2.phpizabi.net/ <--FREE BETTER THAN PHPFOX LOL

http://ww2.phpizabi.net/?L=temp_static.live_demo

 

You want objectivity?

phpFox is not that great, I would not buy it personaly, I bought it for a client who was too impatient to wait for a better script and I needed to justify the $800 web design fee, but if you take a good look at the code (for the coders out there) you will see that it's very messy and the structure is horrible, what does that translate to you, the admin?
It translate into you spending more time sending fix tickets to support and asking people who will most likely charge you a leg and an arm to fix your script, than actually building your website, DO NOT try to upgrade either without having to check in at the forums for the many bugs you have to manually fix before everything works fine.
The backend (admin menu) is just very primitive and a pain in the ass, it reminds me of phpBB forums, where things are very simple yet very robust and functionless.

One high point in the recent 1.1 release which only gives you half the headaches the first version used to give you and it comes with a semi-robust and primitive vBulletin integration, it costs $300, too expensive for a script that to be honest with you really sucks.

phpFox http://www.phpfox.com full license: $300 includes 1 year upgrades.



Buddy Zone is not great either, although it could be better than phpFox if they ever get the user menu organized and the must-be-just-like-myspace-to-the-teeth attitude and change at least some graphics on their default skin, then it could be at least not as bad as phpfox, but stil very php unfriendly code, hence the very low support from coders and lack of modifications, the community support is... well there isn't, last time I checked their support forum was... empty.

I would not buy buddy zone sorry, just not worth the money, I think the developers could improve upon the current code and make this script much better, it has potential, but as it is right now it just doesn't.

Buddy Zone www.vastal.com/buddy-zone-social-networking-script.html Full license: $399.99




AlstraSoft efriends honestly I won't waste my time writing about it, I will write to words for it: DO NOT.
Reasons: no support, no community modifications, high priced (for a low quality script), waste of money.

AlstraSoft efriends http://www.alstrasoft.com/efriends.htm Price: $280




Dzoic's Handshakes, the underdog really, this script is the best well written of the ones mentioned above and has the most functionality of the rest, sadly it's actually a good script, not a great one though since it has a lot of flaws such relatively little community support, and lack of significant upgrades, for example the first script didn't even have an integrated forum and it was expected for members to spend the extra buck to buy either vBulletin or Invision Power Board (even though phpBB was also an option, one I would not take) Handshakes' lastest version of the script (Handshakes Professional V3.0) actually comes packed with extra features many admins take for granted but if you are serious community manager you will use such as music and videos modules, vBulletin and Invision Power Board integration among others, I would had purchased this one instead of phpFox for my client.
This is the least of all evils.

Dzoic's Handshakes http://www.dzoic.com/ Price: full license $349 includes 1 year of upgrades/support.





Free Myspace Software

There are a couple of scripts out there that replicate the myspace experience and that are open-source and fully developed by the community, these in my opinion are much lower quality but with a A LOT of time and effort could make great social network websites.

Alicia is by far the best one out there, why pay when you can go open source check it out yourself:
http://demo.phpizabi.net/





This post to be continued.

 

How do i get alicia ? I have installed phpizabi on www.gujratis.com