I'm new to the SE community, so maybe this is a dumb question.

I'm looking at themes and plugins, and have naturally come across both from SocialEngineAddOns and SocialEngineSolutions (among others). Visiting the web sites, it seems they have almost the same (but not exactly the same) collection of plugins. 

Are these essentially the same company/people? Or have they literally developed the same plugins? Or are they just fronting components from the same independent developers? Or is there something nefarious going on?

Regarding the themes- SES seems to have more themes, and SEAO's themes tend to have "jerkey" scrolling affects while SES's are smooth. So even though I've already bought a couple SEAO themes to review, I'm probably going to look closer at SES. Any advice on code quality or other issues between the two?

I'll also likely be looking for custom development from one or more teams. How do these teams stack up? Would you recommend that I load up with plugins I think I need, then look where they need to be customized? Or just go strait to the developers with requirements and let them pull in plugins to speed development?

Thanks for the advice!

Help

I’m new to SE also.

Currently my experiences with both of these vary.

I have 1 addon from SEAO which is their PWA which is a mobile view theme. It’s a nice addon apart from a couple misalignments to which I got a response to buy their advanced wall fees to fix the issue. Unfortunately this is an option for me as I have SES advanced wall plugin. So I’ve asked for a refund and I’ll remove the addon completely from my server. I’m not happy with that kind of support.

I’ve bought 3 addons from SES which app require the core plugin which I can’t find to download, install instructions claim it’s in my account area which it isn’t. I’ve emailed support but haven’t had a response yet.

Going off the other threads around the forum it does seem to be hit and miss when it comes to fixing bugs. Some don’t get any and some say they have had no issues. Currently off my first couple days I’m feeling a bit let down by SEAO at the moment.

My advice be wary, we shouldn’t be expected to buy more products just to fix what’s wrong with another product.

Just to update on here.

SEAO has resolved the issue with the PWA alignment which is fantastic.

SES has added their core plugin so I now have that.

Great productive morning.

When I first moved to SE from another script I decided that I would only work with one developer so that I would not encounter any conflict issues. (which I always came up against with my old script and using multiple developers). 

I went with SES and they have been responsive and easy to work with since day one. Keep in mind they are based in India so (for me anyway) that is a 12 hour difference.

Social Engine Add Ons are also based on India. I've worked with them on a few things and I have had no complaints to speak of. Be aware not all their plugins are certified.

In terms of custom work, figure out what plugins you want built. If one company tends to build interfaces better than another, go with that one for custom work. Custom work will if not made into a plugin directly, not make core functionality work as expected depending on the task. Custom work is also not Social Engine certified unless it's placed into a module for everyone to be able to use. A lot of custom work can be ported into a product to be used for credits to the creator of the job if it's popular enough. If the developer understands the interface and the functionality you need, any company certified for social engine should do nicely.

I won't say one is better over the other. SEAO makes more plugins, whereas SES makes more themes. Either way, it'd probably be a good idea to get SES to manage all your theme issues and SEAO to manage all your interface and or functionality issues. You can always ask for improvements from them as well as other companies such as Social Engine Mobi or Pixiethemes if you wish among others. Generally speaking, people appreciate the polished look of SES themes. But again, not everything is certified. Meaning updates to SE will likely completely break your site if deployed. So use with caution.

Generally speaking, updates occur fairly often, particularly from Social Engine Add Ons to core services and popular plugins.

"..Either way, it'd probably be a good idea to get SES to manage all your theme issues and SEAO to manage all your interface and or functionality issues.."

 

Hi Elshara , I have  a question

We have 60 odd plugins from SEAO on one of our websites , so its primarily SEAO all the way on that website.

If we used another 3dp like SES for just the theme,

We dread that there  would be all sorts of css or front end incompatibilty issues.(activity wall, events, music , video etc)

Like its a big mystery to us what would happen with one 3dps theme on say all SEAO products regarding compatibility and breaking of features or the site

Using say SES theme on all seao products would not be an issue?

Thanks for your insight.

 

 

This post was edited by playmusician at January 17, 2019 6:21 AM EST

@playmusician

I hope you don't mind me responding to the ques you posted to Elshara, but my site is living proof the scenario you mentioned does in fact work properly.

 

I'm using SES' SpectroMedia because it's so flexibile, easily configurable, and primarily because it does a phenomenal job at being extremely responsive.  I have about 100 SEAO Plugins plus about a dozen from SES and 1-2 dozen total from about 7-8 other 3PDs.  Yes, there have been some .css issues, but not many (considering the # plugins and 3PDs), and they were all minor and easily/quickly resolved.  

gs said:

@playmusician

I hope you don't mind me responding to the ques you posted to Elshara, but my site is living proof the scenario you mentioned does in fact work properly.

 

I'm using SES' SpectroMedia because it's so flexibile, easily configurable, and primarily because it does a phenomenal job at being extremely responsive.  I have about 100 SEAO Plugins plus about a dozen from SES and 1-2 dozen total from about 7-8 other 3PDs.  Yes, there have been some .css issues, but not many (considering the # plugins and 3PDs), and they were all minor and easily/quickly resolved.  

 

Thanks GS for the real world feedback

I will test spectromedia on the site. Fingers crossed)

 

Best ~