Elgg
Powerful open source social networking engine.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 81 commits in the last 90 days, latest release 7.1.2 (Oct 2026).
Also an alternative to Facebook Groups.
At a glance
Elgg quick facts
- Health score
- 83/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 1,676
- Last commit
- 9 days ago (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- 7.1.2, Oct 2026
- Licence
- GPL-2.0
Top alternatives to Elgg
Full rankings: Facebook Groups alternatives
In its own words
The project's README opens: "Elgg is an open source rapid development framework for socially aware web applications."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
Elgg scores 83/100, #17 of 40 in Communication - Social Networks and Forums: 81 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the latest release (7.1.2, 9 days ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 1,676 stars add 12.9 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and no advertised Docker image leaves the final 10 unclaimed. That places it in the good band (70 and above). The biggest shortfall is Docker support, worth 10.0 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
81 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
7.1.2 released 9 days ago
- Stars 12.9 / 20
1.7k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support biggest shortfall 0.0 / 10
No Docker support advertised
Commit activity
- 81
- Last 90 days
- 391
- Last 12 months
- 9 days ago
- Last push
Ranked #17 of 40 tools in Communication - Social Networks and Forums by health , between Akkoma (#16) and Friendica (#18) .
Details
| Licence | GPL-2.0 |
| Platforms | PHP |
| Latest release | 7.1.2 · 9 days ago |
| Stars | 1,676 |
| Open issues | 48 |
| Docker | Not advertised |
| Repository | Elgg/Elgg ↗ |
Elgg vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a comparison page or a category with Elgg (Communication - Social Networks and Forums), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discourse | 99 | 48k | GPL-2.0 | today |
| Lemmy | 97 | 15k | AGPL-3.0 | yesterday |
| Elgg (this tool) | 83 | 1.7k | GPL-2.0 | 9 days ago |
| Friendica | 83 | 1.7k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| Flarum | 57 | 16k | MIT | 21 days ago |
| BuddyPress | 55 | 258 | GPL-2.0 | 7 days ago |
Elgg: common questions
What does Elgg replace?
Repoly lists Elgg as an open-source alternative to Facebook Groups. Each comparison page ranks every alternative by the same health score, so you can see where Elgg stands against the others.
Is Elgg still maintained?
Elgg had 81 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 9 days ago; the latest tagged release, 7.1.2, is from 9 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.