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Social networks! The first thing that would come to your mind when you hear this word would be 'Facebook,' right? A social network isn't just a platform to interact; it is beyond that. We are so acquainted with social media that at times we cannot function without it.While developing social network sites, it is important to have deep knowledge of PHP, MySQL, and Linux. But what if you don't? Can this stop you? No! Also designing and building a social network is a tedious job and success ratios are very less. Then how to make a social networking site? To develop an efficiently running network with wide functionality, you would need tools. Open source social network development platforms are available with some pre-defined tools that would provide you flexibility to customize and build an efficient website.

Here is the list of top 10 open-source platforms to create a social network:

1.Oxwall

Oxwall is developed and maintained by a small but dedicated team of 22 peoples. Oxwall has very impressive and flexible content management system, one that cannot be ignored. It has won 2012 people's choice award for best social networking solution. It gives a professional touch that can be experienced by both users and administrators. It uses PHP and MySQL environment for social network development. It comes with a varied range of plugins that helps you personalize with add-ons to add functionality to the website. Its CMS is compatible with both small and large scale networking sites and even with executive websites. It has features of blogging, photo sharing, advertisement file and video sharing amongst friends.

2.Elgg

This open source social network software won the best networking engine in 2008. It has features such as activity streams, user management, powerful data model, web services API, plugin API and access controls. It operates on Apache, PHP, MySQL and Linux environments that enable its easy installation and configuration. This is the best option for the developer as it provides every tool that they would require to start their website. And it is not only designed to build a social networking site but as many more uses.

3.Insoshi

Long Nguyen and Michael Hartl developed Insoshi. Logical Reality and Evan Dorn Designs maintain it now. It is a platform designed on Ruby on Rails. This free social network builder is released under MIT license. It takes around 30 minutes for installation. It has an efficient deployment system and support for version upgrades.

4.Lovd by Less

It is the first amongst few open source social media platform designed on Ruby on Rails. As it is developed by using model view control patterns, developers would just need a server and to update the database. It includes features such as user blogs, following mutual option, and the creation of a profile, private messaging, ease of interact, comments, and electronic mail activities. You can even link YouTube and Flickr to the wall.

5.XOOPS

XOOPS is a classic tool for evolving from small to big community sites, intra-company web portals, and more. XOOPS has a modular format that can be extended as per needs. The web content management system helps in it. You may start with a blog and further augment it into a social networking website and with more functionality. The module that is used to build a website with XOOPS is Yogurt. Environments used are MySQL, Linux, PHP, and Apache. But mainly MySQL and PHP are used. YouTube, friend list, pictures, communities, mp3 tracks, wall to post your messages are some of the features of XOOPS.

6.AstroSPACES

It is one of the finest social networking website development companies. It is coded from scratch and is very efficient and easy to use. It is customizable, and PHP environment is used. It is licensed under GNU General Public License and uses Smartly Template Engine.

7.Mixxt

Mixxt is a social network design company, developing social extranets and intranets. It enables collaboration, communication, and Knowledge management through a single tool. It has a dedicated platform for fast development and enhancement. Develop your site with the help of custom designs, forums, wikis, and photos. It also provides a private network to set up your community and also makes it possible to work along with the others to help them and, grow yourself and your community.

8.Pligg

Pligg's CMS is designed from scratch with the help of many contributors to help you build up your website. This open source social network software can be easily managed and used and helps to lively setup communities. It provides plenty of options for templates and useful extensions and plugins. It has a great marketing strategy where it asks the visitor to fill in some general details to which they share your website details and asks to share it much more ahead. As it managed by many rather than few, it asks for their suggestion and comments. It evolves by maximum vote gained on suggestions and thus always remains updated.

9.SocialEngine

SocialEngine provides the best social media development services and is the first choice among the users. It has features similar to those of the social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Members' signs in through their accounts and brings along their friends to interact. It works similar to these major sites where users posts and share their data and contents with other users, and the same process goes on. This strategy helps in increasing publicity of your website. It gives you an upper hand by giving the developer the features of customization so that developer can keep the website updated as per user's demands and compatibility. Such features cannot be found anywhere else. It runs on dedicated servers by Amazon Cloud and has plenty of add-ons and extensions. This engine has a feature where you can have complete access to the HTML code along with layout editor. Give a unique look to your website with SocialEngine.

10.BuddyPress

As you all would be aware of WordPress; BuddyPress is a social media service that helps you build up your social networking website using the WordPress. It has same frame structure as WordPress and enables you to customize into a unique site. It is a free open source development platform. Its content management system provides the features such as private messaging, personal profile, a medium to connect with friends, a platform for discussions and much more. It even provides extra plugins and extensions. It is perfectly the best choice to go with!

Conclusion

I would say that a period in which people like to connect to each other and socialize, building such platforms doesn't just get easy but also a good source of income for the developer. Most of the developers have switched, now it's your turn. Now don't be worried about how you are going to make your website. May you be working all alone or in a team, these varied ranges of open-source development software are going to help you. I hope that the blog helped you with gaining insight for which tool to use. Do share and comment. Thank you!

( DVMS )