Elgg
Social network platforms
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if Elgg and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Completely free
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
- Education and training
- Information technology and software
- Public sector and nonprofit organizations
What is Elgg
Elgg is an open-source social networking engine used to build private or public community platforms. Organizations and developers use it to create member profiles, activity streams, groups, blogs, and file sharing with a plugin-based architecture. It is typically deployed on a self-hosted web stack (PHP/MySQL) and customized through themes and extensions. Elgg is most often selected when teams want control over data, hosting, and feature customization rather than using a hosted social network service.
Open-source and self-hosted
Elgg can be deployed on infrastructure controlled by the organization, which supports internal communities and privacy-sensitive use cases. This model allows teams to set their own data retention, access controls, and compliance practices. It also avoids mandatory per-user subscription pricing typical of hosted social platforms.
Extensible plugin architecture
Elgg supports modular functionality through plugins, enabling teams to add or modify features such as groups, blogs, messaging, and notifications. Developers can tailor user experiences via themes and custom code. This approach fits organizations that need a community platform aligned to specific workflows rather than a fixed feature set.
Core community features included
The platform provides common social networking primitives such as user profiles, activity streams, groups, content posting, and commenting. These baseline capabilities reduce the amount of custom development required to launch a basic community. It is suitable for building niche networks, intranets, or member portals where standard social interactions are needed.
Requires technical administration
Elgg typically needs a team to manage hosting, updates, backups, and security hardening. Implementations often require PHP development skills for customization and long-term maintenance. Organizations looking for a turnkey hosted service may find the operational overhead higher than SaaS alternatives.
Ecosystem varies by plugin
Feature completeness and quality can depend on third-party plugins, which may have inconsistent maintenance or compatibility across versions. Upgrades can require testing and remediation when plugins lag behind core releases. This can increase implementation risk compared with platforms where all modules are vendor-supported.
Limited built-in enterprise tooling
Out-of-the-box capabilities for enterprise needs such as advanced analytics, governance workflows, and formal support SLAs are not inherent to an open-source community project. Organizations may need to add external tools or custom development for reporting, moderation at scale, or integrations. This can extend time-to-value for large deployments.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Open-source / self-hosted — Elgg is free to download, install, and use (no official paid plans listed on vendor site). Free tier/trial: Permanently free to use; no time-limited trial stated on the official site. Official hosted/paid offerings: The official Elgg site references "Professional Services" and "Hosting" providers (featured providers) but provides no official hosted plans or pricing on the vendor site. Example costs: Not provided on the official Elgg site; any hosting or professional services costs are set by third-party providers, not Elgg. Discount options: Not applicable / not listed on official site.
