Honest Unbiast Feedback

What is your honest opinion about this product? 

I am torn between this and another, although I have found this easy to modify I still believe the UX is rather chunky.

Can anyone convince me?

Your question is very guarded.  What is the "other" product? Oxwall, Elgg and Dolphin offer a different approach to the social media solution. What one does, the other doesn't.

You need to test them all to find out which one gives the best results for your proposed application. All have great features we wish were in the other product - but they aren't.

Yes the other is Oxwall. They both pretty much do what I need out the box. Just find Dolphin a little dated in terms of UX but love the fact that it is easy to modify. I Just need to make sure I make the right decision.

How long have you been using Dolphin for?

I'll give my 2-cents. I'd agree that the initial front-end look of Oxwell is more refined and "modern" feeling. However hands down Dolphin has a huge advantage in depth of flexibility and support from long standing trusted developers thru marketplace mods or custom work.

So as was asked above, it really boils down to your intentions and needs. My personal experience (I've worked with dolphin as a user).

Best of luck

Just be aware of what you are looking at when viewing the Oxwall Demo Site and read their Disclaimer, what you buy out of the box might not be exactly what you are expecting.

*Disclaimer: The demo website is extended with additional both free and paid plugins from the Oxwall team and 3rd parties to demonstrate possible product capabilities extension

@syclops - very good point. I much prefer being able to go to the boonex demo site and see exactly what I am getting and can expect from the software with zero additional money invested beyond the license.

Or free if you don't mind leaving the branding on your site 

I was user of Oxwall. I ran into a lot of problems and road blocks due to the code. Wasted a lot of money on plugins as well that went out of date and were never updated. Also bought plugins where the developer just vanishes. There are two things I wish I had from oxwall and that is the image module and the administration features. Other then that Dolphin won when it came down to a better solution. Oxwall server wise was a mess. I ran into problems all the time and that was on a dedicated server. The two major differences come down to money and free. If you are looking for a real free solution then Oxwall. If you do not mind paying to have more flexibility, control, and performance then I would say go with Dolphin. I do the monthly being I didn't have $600 down. It all adds into the total thanks to the loyalty program.

Then there is Elgg where modules are free and there's a lot. Two of the major module providers have turned Elgg into a brilliant package and it's my preference except it doesn't have a forum which my members want and it doesn't reduce photos. So if someone posts a dozen 3 meg photos, that's what your server has to deal with. This slows down load times at the user's end. Elgg also has a 250 page commercial book available and it's almost essential reading to get the script working. I paid five bucks for my copy.

DolphinPro is by far the most capable social platform on the market. You can also get a more "modern" look using different templates. 

Elgg is a fine system too, and in fact, we have been Elgg project supporters for many years ( https://elgg.org/about/supporters ). Elgg is more barebone and opinionated. Dolphin builders allow for more customisation. 

Oxwall wouldn't be that different from Dolphin in general. They are good 10 years behind, so Dolphin has more extensions and has been through more iterations. Note that to get any kind of support for Oxwall you'd have to pay at least $69/mo billed annually. Updates are $399/year. Installation is $199.  

With Dolphin you can get a hosted, supported, updated site for $49/mo or $99/mo if you want dedicated server and Rocket.Chat. 

If you want modern UX and don't need the full spectre of Dolphin capabilities, check out UNA.io.

We tried Ellg and i just saw the demo of Oxwall, which made me a little confused with the layout. May be, the demo has not the best template installed. So Dolphin was our choice because it is easy to install and clear for me in handling and to configure.

Importan for us is the support which is very good in the moment. We have to build a new photo social media site and need some important things facebook offers: photo and video friendly, clear in architecture, easy to handle by our members, ajax function in the timeline and and and...

At this time i don´t know if Dolphin is the best solution for us, but we will try it out in the next few weeks.

Greetings

Klaus