Ning is described as 'The social platform for the worlds interests and passions online. Millions of people every day are coming together across Ning to explore and express their interests, discover new passions, and meet new people around shared pursuits' and is a Social Network in the social & communications category. There are more than 25 alternatives to Ning, not only websites but also apps for a variety of platforms, including Self-Hosted, Android, iPhone and Linux apps. The best Ning alternative is Minds, which is both free and Open Source. Other great sites and apps similar to Ning are Discourse, Friendica, Flarum and phpBB.
An open-source platform for decentralized social networking. Users can monetize posts through ads or monthly support, engaging in various features such as Blogs, Videos, and secure private chats. Minds supports free speech and facilitates sharing across networks and exploring global trends.
United States
Discourse is an open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. A modern forum, everything's been redesigned to be easy.
United States
Friendica is a distributed social network application. Which allow users to connect with others via their own Friendica server, but may also fully integrate contacts from other platforms including Twitter, diaspora*, Pump.io and StatusNet into their 'newsfeed'.
Australia
Flarum is free, open-source forum software with a focus on simplicity. You can use Flarum to easily set up a discussion forum for your website. Flarum is developed openly on GitHub.
Australia
Since its creation in 2000, phpBB™ has become the most widely used Open Source forum solution. Like its predecessors, phpBB™ 3.2 “Rhea” has an easy to use administration panel and a user friendly installation process, which allows you to have a forum set up in minutes.
United Kingdom
HumHub is a free social network software and framework built to give you the tools to make teamwork easy and successful.
Germany
EU
Social networking in a box. Build a social network for your company, school, sports team or niche community all based on the power and flexibility of WordPress. Install BuddyPress directly through your WordPress dashboard plugins page, or download it manually from the WordPress.
United States
opensource-socialnetwork also know as OSSN is a social networking software written in PHP. It allows you to make a social networking website, helps your members build social relationships with people who share similar professional or personal interests.
United States
An all-in-one social network platform tailored for niche communities, offering user-friendly customization, advanced features, scalability, and seamless integration for enhanced community engagement, branding, and functionality.
United States
Mumblit is a free speech social media platform for those who are tired of being censored and blocked on the larger social media giants.
Plush is the most polished, user-friendly forum experience ever, featuring real-time discussions, beautiful design, an integrated blog, member directory, private messaging, paid subscriptions and a world-class mobile experience.
United Kingdom
Booklet is a asynchronous discussion forum as an alternative to chat. It sends calm, automated summaries to everybody so that they stay informed and engaged - without having to stay logged in.
