5 Places To Take Your Ning Network
In case you hadn’t heard, Ning has decided to go to a pay model and force existing free users to either migrate to a premium plan or step off. The details of how this will work are still unclear, but your free Ning social network won’t last much longer.
Many Ning users are upset and looking for alternatives. There are many factors you will need to consider in figuring out what will work for you. Many people can make do with a simple wordpress blog with certain widgets or plugins installed. Other people need a full-on, collaborative, social network with discussion forums and the whole nine yards. Here are a few services to take a look at in your search.
Groupsite
Groupsite ties together social networking and collaboration in an effort to make group communications easier and more efficient. It’s a hosted solution with Pro plans and a free tier for social networks. With the free account, you can add individual premium features at $9/month each.
Groupsite has all of the features you would expect to find, including forums, calendars, blogs, file sharing, and profiles. Some have said that Groupsite is to Ning what Facebook is to Myspace. Check out our coverage here and go take it for a spin yourself.
SocialGo
SocialGo, founded in 2007, is more of a direct competitor to Ning as far as their goals. They allow “anyone to create a professional-grade social network for their group, business or interest.” They are focused on expanding premium services, but do offer a free (forever) account to get your feet wet. If you don’t really feel like setting up your network on your own, you can pay $149 and have a SocialGo Concierge do it for you.
Grou.ps
“Any organization seeking to aggregate and organize people online can greatly improve its effectiveness, engagement and appeal by migrating to the GROU.PS platform.” Grou.ps focuses on customization and creativity as far as creating your site goes. Their free option gives you 10GB of storage and 100GB of bandwidth. Grou.ps will also allow you to add advanced features on top of an existing Yahoo group. (our coverage)
Google FriendConnect
Google FriendConnect is one option you can go with if you want to add social networking features to an existing website. Possibly a blog or something of that nature. By itself, it doesn’t offer some of the features that Ning does, but it gets you most of the way there as far as connecting people around your content goes. Again, which options you can consider is based on your specific needs. More details on FriendConnect right here.
@Anywhere
This is a new initiative by Twitter that allows you to easily integrate Twitter into any website. Like Google FriendConnect, this is not a stand-alone social networking platform and may be lacking some of the features you might need. It all depends on what you’re building on top of and what type of network you have. What it will give you is a method for millions of Twitter users to congregate around your site.
This is just a small number of the alternative solutions out there. Some people don’t even need all that Ning currently offers, while others can’t survive without the full set of features.
What Ning alternatives have you come across?
Category: Social Web | Tags: @anywhere, friendconnect, grou.ps, groupsite, Ning, socialgo
About the Author Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was the thing to do. He started programming and tinkering in the 4th grade. Now, Rahsheen mostly writes on various sites about technology trends in social media and mobile. . He is also a musician, singer, rapper, writer, and producer. @rahsheen - +Rahsheen Porter - coachrah.com
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My vote for Grou.ps! Check out their blogs – http://grou.ps/groudotps/blogs
They have announced really cool things recently.
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I only have one question: Which of any of these type of sites let you post to your blog from iphone's email app? Thanks.
I evaluated six of the most popular social networking platforms to replace Ning. You can read my findings here. I liked Webs the best. So long, Ning, you twit.
Well, you can also try this one http://vsevteme.ru/
Main pros – its free (but has premium features if you need them) and have wide range of features.
Another free alternative is mixxt.com, offering functionalities very similar to Ning but with some additions.
Some of the advantages are:
- Strong Community Management features (e.g., newsletter system, access control)
- Powerful sub-groups
- Full collaboration features including wikis, image albums, file systems, event-management and CMS
- Advanced customization
mixxt's philosophy is different from Ning's: it is based on White Labeled solutions for large institutions and enterprises, as well as Freemium services.
mixxt networks are especially popular among education, work-related and event networks.
Users wanting to import their Ning network to mixxt find a useful tool in our Ning importer (http://bit.ly/migrate-ning).
Give your own mixxt network a try for free here: (http://mixxt.com)!
I have been hearing some good things about KickApps. Anyone heard about them? They have a cheap(er) paid model of $9.95 a week. I worry about many of the free alternatives getting to a paid model eventually.
I'm going to reach out and try the buddypress. I think I can do this. My ning network has over 1000 members now and I want to keep them in the know, but without all the work it takes to inform them of things.
I think since I already have wordpress.org site built for the group, I should just incorporate everything on into it. I'd love to hear of others who are going out for the buddypress option
You could also try http://www.enjin.com if you are a gamer clan or guild!
if your network was about gaming, guild hosting, clan website or entertainment go to Enjin http://www.enjin.com they are perfect for gaming communities.
I'm using VBulletin. It may require more customization than most are willing to perform but I can rest assured that what's mine stays mine as long as I like. The developers stay on top of stability and security issues with easy-to-install updates and a new CMS front end has really improved the functionality. It's not free but the license is relatively inexpensive for the peace of mind it gives me.
If you're interested in a mobile optimized option that provides the best of ning but for on-the-go people, you should try http://www.Zerista.com . With close to 50% of social media users accessing sites like ning from their phones (see twitter's stats from last week), mobile functionality is important. Zerista provides check in, location awareness, and custom maps. Disclaimer: I work for Zerista. Sign up for the free beta here: http://www.zerista.com
It's also in Spanish.
Have a look at http://www.partnerpedia.com. We are a free B2B social networking site for technology companies. Like Ning, you can collaborate here, share content and even message members in the community.
Thanks for the list of options. Some more info can be found on a post we just put up.
http://bit.ly/aq1Dsd
http://www.bligoo.com is a good option, is better than ning, and more open, also it is free!
i saw on webs.com that they offer the same things as ning, and have even more cool options.. i have a webs.com account- theyve been around for awhile now, and you can build a free social network website in a few minutes..
it’s definitely worth checking out:
http://www.webs.com
BigTent is another free alternative to Ning. Check us out for discussion forums, announcements, subgroups, event & membership management, and more – http://www.bigtent.com. Good luck with your search.
I've not used BuddyPress, I've had a good expirence with Spruz though. I always thought they had a better service than Ning anyway.
BuddyPress is cool however it is very glitchy if you are trying to use it on multiple sites w/ WordPress MU, also we couldn't find any social network connectors (FB Connect etc) for it.
I have never actually used BuddyPress, but I hear good things about it. Also, I have heard mention of WordPress MU in this context. Probably good solutions overall, but I wonder how hard they are to get going for the average Ning user.
You guys should also check out http://www.webs.com. They have been around since 2001. Have Facebook Connect, tons of free apps and free site stats.
Great list! It's a shame Ning is doing this
Nice list here. Groupsite sounds interesting. What is your thoughts on BuddyPress?