If you are a marketer or developer who has actually been tasked with building branded or niche social networking site, then your head might be spinning right now from all the research, suggestions, endless options, and of course the implications. Relax! You have come to the right place.

We have built social sites for both small and large clients, using a variety of the top software and we hope to shed some light on what works, what doesn’t, and what to expect.

We will cover both remotely-hosted and self-hosted solutions. These include popular platforms like PHPFox, Social Engine, Boonex, KickApps, and Ning. We will also compare benefits and drawbacks to each with eye to important subjects such as Level of Customization & Branding Available, Fixed Costs, Hosting Requirements, and Ease-of-Management.

Most importantly, we will also reveal which company has done it right in terms of how well their platform plays in the sandbox when it connects to other important social network sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Self-Hosted

PHPFox

The first in this series is PHPfox, and you can find them here.

Remotely-Hosted

Ning
KickApps