The answer depends on two considerations: How you intend to use the software, and what resources you have to support it.
Both SE PHP download and cloud versions are the same product. With SE PHP Cloud, all hosting is managed by SocialEngine. This is a great option for those starting out with a smaller budget or who don’t want to fiddle with hosting setup. Support is also included for as long as you remain a subscriber. Some cloud plans do allow the installation of specific third party products and customizations. Please view the cloud terms for more details.
SE PHP download offers more flexibility for customizations as you’ll have full source code access. It also has the ability for you to add third party products that you purchase separately . With SE PHP download, you are responsible for all hosting related matters and applying any SocialEngine upgrades. Support with SE PHP download is included for a specified period depending on the plan you choose.
Yes. You own all of your content and member data. Self-hosted clients own any customizations made to the SocialEngine PHP source code but not the core code itself. SocialEngine Cloud clients can transfer ownership of their cloud account, and site, if needed. SocialEngine PHP clients cannot transfer the license itself to anyone else but can sell their sites and have the buyer purchase a new license.
You can purchase a SocialEngine PHP Advanced license at any time. Once purchased, you can move your SE PHP Cloud site.
You can add a new SocialEngine Cloud site at any time. However, note that migration features for transferring your site content and members from one site to another are currently unavailable.
No, our source code is 100% unencrypted so you can make absolutely any changes you need. Additionally, the source code is very heavily commented with notes about what is happening throughout the code.
We’ve gone to great lengths to make SocialEngine PHP incredibly easy to work with and customize. With SE PHP cloud, you will be able to customize your theme via the admin panel. You can also arrange widgets however you would like via the layout manager. There will be no access to files so if you need further customizations, you would want to choose SE PHP self-hosted. Note that our 32GB Enterprise Cloud plan does allow customizations per the cloud terms.
SE PHP self-hosted clients will have full source code access which is unencrypted and very thoroughly commented with notes about what’s happening throughout the PHP code. We also provide fully commented HTML templates for every single page of the social network, including global header/footer templates and an organized CSS stylesheet.
Absolutely not. Unlike other products, we do not display “SocialEngine PHP” on your social network in any place that is visible to the public. We would never let our product interfere with your brand.
For SocialEngine PHP self-hosted clients, minor updates such as 4.1 to 4.2 are provided free of charge. These updates are small releases that contain bug fixes and small improvements. Major updates such as 4.x to 5.x can be purchased for a small fee and include a massive amount of new functionality and improvements. As an exception, version 4 was provided free of charge to all current clients. SocialEngine Cloud clients do get all updates for as long as they subscribe to the cloud plan.
SocialEngine PHP comes with English only by default. However, we include all of the language used on the system in a single language pack, which makes translation very simple.In addition, you can find third party language packs on our third party plugins page.
We’ve worked hard to make SocialEngine PHP an optimized, lightweight platform. The performance of the platform however is primarily dependent on the capabilities of your server. As with any web-based application, you may need to upgrade your server if your social network attracts a large amount of traffic. It would also depend on the activities of your users; for example, if your users are uploading large amounts of media (photos, videos, etc.) you may need to upgrade the disk space on your server.
No way! SocialEngine PHP Cloud service is not an ad-supported service. We’ll never put ads on your site, but you’re welcome to insert your own if you wish.
The purchase of SocialEngine PHP self-hosted licenses and all plugins are one-time fees and the license is valid indefinitely. We do not charge any annual fees.
You will be able to download the files very shortly after purchase, after a brief validation to prevent fraudulent orders. The files will be found in your account.
At this time all SocialEngine PHP Cloud sites are billed on a monthly basis.
You can purchase SocialEngine PHP self-hosted now and update your registered domain name later. If you want to start a SocialEngine Cloud subscription, you will need a domain first. You are free to change your domain at any time by sending a request to our support desk.
Self Hosted: Because we provide a 14 day trial which is identical to the full version, we can only provide refunds for any SocialEngine products in the case that they cannot be properly installed on your server that meets our server requirements. This means that both you and the SocialEngine staff are unable to install SocialEngine PHP properly. We must have received the login requirements listed in our Support Policy.
Cloud: If you cancel your SocialEngine Cloud site, the cancellation will take place immediately upon you initiating the cancel. If your server has not yet been set up and you want to cancel, you can request a refund as long as it is before the server is set up.
For established monthly plans, you will not receive a refund or credit for the unused portion of the then-current paid-up period. For example, if you are on our monthly plan and have a payment due on May 31 but decide to cancel on May 15, you won’t be charged on May 31, but you will not be refunded for the period between May 15 and May 31.
Your SE PHP cloud site will have all of the features of the Advanced plan as seen at our demo. The free native mobile apps will also come pre-installed but will need to be set up if you choose to use them.
Yes, we can provide substantial discounts for multiple license purchasing for self hosted bundles. Please contact us using the contact form with information on how many licenses you’re interested in purchasing and whether you are purchasing on behalf of a web development firm. We will respond promptly with a price quote.
Yes, you may! You can create as many sites as you’d like.
If you’re still running the trial version and want to upgrade to the full version, contact us for updating your license. In order to keep the trial site, you’ll need to purchase the Advanced Bundle from SocialEngine first.
The trial is set to work for 14 days from the time it’s requested. After 14 days the license will expire, but all your data is safely stored in the database. You’ll be able to continue right where you left off by updating the full license key at BryZar.
Nope! When you purchase the full version, all user data and settings will be retained from the trial because they’re stored in the database.
As the trial is only for testing the core SocialEngine features, it does not allow installation of any third party products, or server access.
Absolutely. Your information is processed via PayPal’s secure payment gateway.
Please sign into your client account and follow these instructions..
To install SocialEngine PHP on your server, follow the instructions provided in this article: Installing SocialEngine.
This depends on what type of customizations you’ve made. If you’ve simply created new files and linked to them from SocialEngine PHP, it’s unlikely that you will lose any customizations you’ve made. If you’ve edited the core SocialEngine PHP code and you overwrite it with the new files from the upgrade package, you may lose your customizations. To avoid this, you can choose to skip the overwrite process when you install your packages. If you want to ensure that you don’t lose any changes you’ve made, you can use a file comparison program to compare your files with the newly updated ones. Regardless of the changes you’ve made to your source code, it’s unlikely that you will lose any of your admin panel settings when you upgrade. Never-the-less, always take a full site backup before you begin.
Absolutely! You can install SocialEngine PHP on any location on your server per the license terms. For cloud clients, you can have us install to a subdomain. Please be sure to set the domain accordingly during the order process.
First, check to see if your new host provides a migration service. If they do not, please follow the tutorial for moving to a new server.
If you’ve decided to add our professional installation service to your purchase, please log in to your client area and click the Support link at the left of the screen to submit an “Installation Request” ticket. Please review our Support Policy to review the login details we need. After we receive your login credentials, your installation will generally be completed within 1 business day, however it is often completed within hours.
Once you signup and pay for the subscription, it can take 24-48 business hours for your site to be ready. This also depends on your domain propagation as some domain registrars can take longer.
We do offer an upgrade installation service, however we do upgrade sites with any code customizations, nor do we upgrade any third party products. Self-hosted clients would pay an upgrade service fee for standard sites. Cloud sites with third party products or customizations would require special upgrades. Custom upgrades for cloud sites would not be free, please request an upgrade quote in that case. Cloud sites with no customizations would receive free upgrades.
The purchase of a SocialEngine PHP license is a one-time fee, and entitles you to the complete unencrypted source code for use on one domain.
The subscription to Cloud SocialEngine PHP does not include a license for SE PHP download. You would need to purchase a license if you want the download version.
Each license is valid for a single public installation of the software. You are of course welcome to create a private copy for development purposes in a “development” subdomain of the main licensed domain.
Yes, every installation of SocialEngine PHP requires a license. However, you are entitled to create a second private installation for development purposes provided it’s not publicly accessible.
We do not currently offer a license which entitles you to use SocialEngine PHP an unlimited number of times. Each installation requires its own license.
SocialEngine PHP licenses are non-transferable. Our website, SocialEngine.com, is the only legal source of SocialEngine PHP licenses. By purchasing from third parties, you also risk missing out on the great support and software updates from the SocialEngine PHP team. If in doubt, please don’t hesitate to contact us regarding the legitimacy of a license or to report a reseller.
Yes, you’re free to sell your website but not your SocialEngine PHP license since the licenses are non-transferable. In other words, if you choose to sell your website which contains a SocialEngine PHP license on it, the new owner would need to purchase their own license. What many clients do is simply incorporate the cost of the new license in to the sale price of the website and purchase a new license on behalf of the new owner. SocialEngine Cloud clients can sell their sites and submit a transfer request. The new owner would need to either create their own account or be invited to your account which can then be transferred to them.
Self-Hosted: We provide complimentary support for the initial purchase, for 30 or 60 days depending on the bundle purchased, in the form of an online ticketing system. Our excellent team of in-house support personnel are extremely knowledgeable and dedicated to providing the highest level of customer service.
Cloud: Your subscription includes complimentary support via our online ticketing system for the duration of your subscription. Please see the cloud terms of service for additional information.
Our support team will assist with initial software installation questions, general questions related to the script and technical errors encountered during the normal use of unmodified script. We cannot assist with customization of the script or with any third party product issues.
Response times vary based on ticket volume but we do our best to respond to all tickets within several hours during business hours, or the next business day if submitted during off hours.
Yes, once your support expires you can purchase extended support in blocks of 1 month for a nominal fee.
Our support is only offered through a ticket based system at this time. We’ve found this method to be the most efficient means to assist customers since it allows issues to be easily tracked and relevant information to be indexed.
If you’ve forgotten the password to your client account, you should start by using the “Forgot Password” feature. This will email a reset link to the email address associated with your account. If you can no longer access the registered email address, you can contact support and provide information to verify ownership. Due to privacy and security policies, we will need specific identifying information to match with the original purchase.
We are not offering customization services at this time. However, you can find highly skilled experts that specialize in SocialEngine PHP development in our Experts page if you are self-hosting. If using our cloud service, it does not allow for customizations as there is no server or source code access if you want more customizations than the theme and layout editor provide. The exception is our Enterprise 32GB cloud plan which does allow for customizations per the cloud terms.
File Comparison: WinMerge (for TortoiseSVN or standalone), SourceGear DiffMerge (Mac OSX)
FTP Client: Filezilla
Telnet/SSH Client: PuTTY
Text Editor or IDE: https://www.sublimetext.com/, https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/, https://netbeans.apache.org/, https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/
Some other programs and resources for finding other programs:
File Comparison: Wikipedia
Image Manipulation: Adobe Photoshop, GIMP
HTML (HyperText Markup Language): Provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document. W3C, Wikipedia
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): Describes the presentation of a document written in a markup language. W3C, Wikipedia
PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor): Computer scripting language designed for producing dynamic web pages. Used for server-side scripting. PHP Site, Wikipedia
Javascript: Scripting language most often used for client-side web development. Wikipedia
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML): Group of inter-related web development techniques used for creating interactive web applications. Wikipedia
We are thrilled that you’re enjoying SocialEngine PHP! If you would like to write a testimonial about how you’ve utilized SocialEngine PHP for your project, please feel free to send it through our contact form. With your permission, we will publish your name, website URL, and testimonial on the SocialEngine PHP website – unless you would prefer to keep any of these items private.
The resale and/or transfer of SocialEngine Licenses are not permitted under any circumstance.
