Hi there,
Is someone able to give a detailed comparison between the JA Social II and Socialize template/themes ?
I have been looking a lot, but have not been able to get clarity about the features, pros-cons etc.. to make a decision.
The seem both good enough, but I like to understand them before I commit.

Thanks in advance for the support

Hi
Both the themes support Jomsocial and Based on the T3 framework.
Both have different style and layouts if you will compare them. The main difference between these two themes is Socialize theme support Jomsocial only (you can use it with other 3rd party extensions with default style ) . On the other hand, JA Social ii template support some more 3rd party extension for the style.
here you can see the JA Social ii demo ja-social-ii.demo.joomlart.com/index.php/en/


Hope it helps.


Regards

Hi Pankaj,
Thanks for your response and taking the time to answer my question.
I have looked at the features of Socialize, which did not tell me it is T3 based, which is good to know.

To give you better insight, I have pasted my comparison below, which is what I was able to uncover.
What I am after is a social community, but also use Joomla features for front page, news and have a forum and possible virtuemart store all fully integrated - or as much as possible. I am mostly considering JA Social II, but given Socialize is pushed so hard by iJoomla/JomSocial, I wonder if there is a particular integration or features that I would sacrifice? Your response seems to indicate that Socialize does in fact not support all Joomla features well?

name of template: JA Mood JA Social II Socialize
Supports all JomSocial pages: y y y
Responsive: y y y
Right to left language layout: y y n
T3 Framework: y y y
Bootstrap 3: ? y ?
easy to customise: y y y
Megamenu / Off canvas menu: ? y ?
integrates with JA Joomla Page Builder: y ? ?
Supports K2: ? y ?
JoomlArt Advanced Custom Modules extension: y y ?
MagicTheme, and Layout Configuration: ? y ?

Thanks again for your time and assisting me with this.

Hi
here is details:
name of the template: JA Mood JA Social II Socialize
Supports all JomSocial pages: y y y
Responsive: y y y
Right to left language layout: y y y
T3 Framework: Y Y Y
Bootstrap 3: Y Y Y
easy to customise: y y y ( www.t3-framework.org/documentation/ )

Megamenu / Off canvas menu: Y Y Y
integrates with JA Joomla Page Builder: follow the steps given here to use builder: www.joomlart.com/documentation/joomla-te...-builder#integration

Supports K2: N Y N (N= it use default style of extension)
JoomlArt Advanced Custom Modules extension: Y Y Y
MagicTheme, and Layout Configuration: Y Y Y


Regards

Thanks heaps Pankaj, not that it makes my decision easy (too much choice ;-) ), but it is wonderful to have the details clarified.
The only question that remains to you as expert from a novice like me is: which one would you recommend out of these and why? Or based on this, apart from the out of the box styling, it really makes no difference?

I am sure others may have same question, but I am happy for you to take the time to answer me on what must otherwise seem pretty basic to you.

Hi
The final choice is totally yours :)
As each template has its own style and features it totally depends on you which one to choose.
From my point of view, all looks fine.

Regards

Hi There,
Just wanted to follow up my experience, because many may be asking the same question. I have now spent countless hours comparing, playing, researching and asking.
I really like the landing page for JA Social II, but the documentation and support is seriously lacking. I am still waiting to hear how I can actually make the login elements look the same. I am supposed to get advanced support, but am simply told to go to the forum. hhhm.
The module styling on JA Social II are very simple and there is no documentation to make them varied and pretty. I must say I have a bible addon (Zefania) and Kunena Forum and the background on them is grey, unlike articles. Also, the advertised background image feature only seems to apply to the front page feature-intro style. All in all, apart from the landing page, I am not impressed.

Socialize has many more module positions available in the preset styles. I noticed I cannot simply add additional positions to a style, so this is important. top-header, breadcrumbs, top-1-4/5/6 spotlight positions, home-wide, bottom 1-6 spotlight positions and footer are all extra available in Socialize - ofcourse, these can be ignored and left unused or unassigned at will :-) The mega-menu also seemed to work much better with Socialize - don't know why.

My verdict? I am using Socialize by default for my entire site, except for the landing page. I may still end up using the "home-1" style that comes with Socialize, which is pretty neat, but I am too committed to change.

If you are reading this, do yourself a favour, get Socialize out of these two, if they are your top two options. You will be saving a lot of headache and time imo.

To JomSocial - job well done!