I have experience with both plugins: Peepso and BuddyPress.
BuddyPress is a free plugin and offers integration with BBPress forum. It has its own look and feel, very different from Facebook. For visitors it can be difficult to understand where to do what. It does have tons of option to extend it with other plugins. To be honest you will need other plugins to get some functionality. You can customise a lot if you want to. Development is not too fast as it is run by volunteers….also means less headaches with constant updates ;-). To be honest I find the BuddyPress website a bit confusing, like the plugin it doesn’t follow standard website look and feel.
Peepso is a paid plugin. The free plugin is pretty useless if you ask me, so if you decide to go with Peepso you will probably need the Ultimate Bundle. This bundle offers a lot of options and follows Facebooks look and feel. Users will understand right away how it works. Updates are on a regular basis, like every 2 weeks with bugfixes and extra functionality.
Pros BuddyPress
Free
Extendable with other plugins
Cons BuddyPress
Missing some basic options (can be added with 3rd party plugins)
Bit confusing for new users
More plugins needed – compatibility – problems? – multiple developers -> frustration?
Pros Peepso
Complete package if you go for Ultimate bundle
Users understand Facebook…and Peepso
1 stop shop – 1 plugin – 1 developer
Cons Peepso
Expensive
NOT multilingual! (bit weird for a social network!)
Use as is – fast developing means fast updates breaking customisations.
If you want to build a social network in 1 language, got the money and want an easy solution go for Peepso. I choose BuddyPress as I use WPML and 2 languages.
