User Reviews - ParaInvite
Reviews (7)
5 of 8 people found this review helpful
Wouldn't recomend it!
Insane price for something that is only extension! It works alright but it's not worth to buy! Problems with installation, quite hard to make it work etc... Crazy! It's even more expensive than Jomsocial itself! (Price for one domain name for Parainvite + Parainvite Pro = $144 !!!)
Owner's reply
Some people has the idea that just because ParaInvite integrates with JomSocial (or CB), it is considered a sub-component and should be cheaper than JomSocial itself. That is a very warped way of thinking, and cannot be further from the truth.
Imagine another viral marketing solution that functions exactly like ParaInvite, minus the JomSocial integration. It will be a lot less useful, and much more easier to develop.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Nice One!
Dear Mike,I have installed the latest version of Parainvite and have it working on my site now.
I appreciate the time you took to help me find the conflicts that were causing issues.
Once I had the latest versions of other components installed and running, everything just started to run smoothly.
So I just thought I would write to thank you for your help and for building an excellent component.
Kind regards,
Lee McClelland
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
The usefulness of this is just OUT OF THIS WORLD!
I've been using ParaInvite and the Pro addon for a while now, and I have to say I can't disagree more to peter_pan's review. I have tried another invites sender and I really regretted not starting with ParaInvite.In my opinion, what really set ParaInvite apart is the ability for users to manage and resend invites. The other invite components don't have this. You find users sending out invites and forgetting about it.
ParaInvite also automatically add the invited user as a friend of the inviter. I also couldn't find this feature on any other invite components.
What *REALLY* (and I simply cannot stress this enough) increased my site's membership a thousandfold, is the badges feature. I run a fashion blogshop, and with the badges feature, my customers can place their own badges on their own blogs, inviting their own readers to come to my site. I can even have a mini-contest to see who invited more users using badges. With badges, there is no email or facebook spam, which makes it MUCH more effective!
The invites management and badges features have literally helped my site jumpstarted in terms of membership. If you look at my google analytics account, it's like the moment I installed ParaInvite, a few days later, and BOOM!
I also have SIMBunch's SIMGallery installed on another site. That is one gallery that is designed to blow off anyone's mind!!! Maybe I'll write a simgallery review when I have the time :)
1 of 3 people found this review helpful
Never again $$$$$$
This component was the most expensive 200.00 for parainvite and Pro add-on also paid an additional 40.00 because I had the hardest time getting it to work. For the pass year I have been trying to work with Mike Feng and his team to this thing stable to no avail. 1. These guys are very unprofessional and condescending in there approach to assisting. Some responses took up to 8 days. On many occasions I had to pinging Mike Feng thought twitter and ask if anyone was manning tech support. Most of the time they rather fight with you and to try to prove that your lack of knowledge is the reasons for your issues. Refunds are out of the question. I would never buy any thing from Mike Feng again.
Owner's reply
It should be noted that all prices are in SGD, *not* USD.
http://www.simbunch.com/shop/product-prices
With regards to the review, I grew tired of trying to defend against rude people.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Excellent Extension! EXCELLENT Support! Try it to see what I mean.
If you read these reviews, please notice the trend. People that weren't able to get this working for some reason, leave short angry reviews. The people who are using it leave long reviews praising it. If you're focused on the price of it compared to JomSocial, let me just say that you are missing the point. You need MEMBERS to make your JomSocial community work. You need a viral catalyst. ParaInvite is the tool to bring in the members. It's worth it. And remember the price is not in $USD, so it's not as high as it seems. Many people don't notice the currency conversions and get scared away by the price since it's listed in Singapore dollars. Just do the math to convert the currency and you'll see it is a very reasonable price for a high quality component. A much less powerful inviter component is available from the competition, but it is a price only slightly lower than ParaInvite. ParaInvite is a professional class of component and worth the few extra dollars.
I strongly suggest you try the demo on the simbunch.com website to see what I mean. If you have played with the other inviters, you will quickly see the difference between ParaInvite and the others. ParaInvite really is in its own class of component.
Of course I started with the free and less expensive Inviter extensions because I didn't know how any of this worked. I quickly found they are rough and limited compared to ParaInvite. Not "bad", just very limited in features. They are fine for a casual hobby site.
But ParaInvite works the way you want an Inviter to work if you are serious about growing your members. It's just that powerful and polished. Facebook grows because they have tools to make it easy to bring in new members. People expect the same type of tools Facebook provides. Parainvite is in the same class. That's important. If new members become frustrated when trying to invite their friends (i.e. doing YOUR marketing) then they leave your site. Don't give a reason for people to leave.
It also looks good. You don't have to mess with CSS or anything else to make it look good like you do in the other Inviter components. I spent hours on another one and it still looked amateur by the time I gave up on it.
It also works with all the services from OpenInviter, not a restricted list. You can also limit the services if you'd prefer. Yes, it requires you to also install OpenInviter separately, but Mike provides clear documentation on how to do that. It works perfectly if you just read it and follow his steps. The admin back-end is very detailed and offers many features.
If you have an affiliate program, this is your only choice. ParaInvite works with the popular iDevAffiliate so you have an all-in-one inviter: with 1 email you can invite people to become your "friends" on JomSocial and also get affiliate credit. You can unleash all the "viral" features of ParaInvite to your affiliates can use the inviter power. Add Parainvite Pro and you have badges that are a combination of affiliate link + JomSocial friends. It's very powerful AND simple for users.
I have the highest respect for Mike's support too. If others have had bad experiences, I'm sure it wasn't started by Mike. He is a human and I see nothing wrong with a person wanting to be treated with respect. Just read any forum and you will see how rude people can be when they think nobody can see them.
He has already developed detailed documentation. This is a powerful extension. He would never sleep if he had to personally answer every little question that he already documented. He was very supportive with my iDevAffiliate integration challenges, and stuck with me to find a solution. I get the impression it was like "finding a needle in a haystack", but he solved it! I thank him for his support and for the extension.
I could write much more but I hope you are interested enough to at least try out the demo at simbunch.com. Please don't let a few frustrated people persuade you to miss out on the only inviter extension like this. It's a little more money for a LOT more power. Definitely worth it.
I'm not an affiliate or employee for SimBunch or anything like that. I just really feel that ParaInvite deserves the time it took to write this review.
Thanks Mike for ParaInvite and your support!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I would like to buy the product but I am afraid of being robbed
The component is perffettamente what I'm looking for but reading bad reviews, I understand that the owner making crafty, so for safety do not buy the product even if it's what I'm looking for, I don't want to throw away my money 
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Worst customer support ever found!
I bought this but didn't work. Customer service is very poor, it's like once you buy they don't care about you anymore. I forwarded the issue and they simply answered after one week that it was not their component problem, it was T3 framework problem but did not identify what was the problem. I wouldn't recommend to anyone.Owner's reply
Hi
Just so everyone is clear, this is the screenshot of your site (which you sent me) http://i.imgur.com/AMhFzjl.png
The last message I sent to you was on the 12th of May (2 weeks ago. Have you actually checked the ticket?), after which I have not heard from you. I explained to you that the warning messages you pointed out is from the T3 extension you're using, and not from ParaInvite. They are also appearing on every single page of your site, not just ParaInvite. However, because you have configured Joomla to show error messages, it is interfering with everything else on your site.
Since we do not own or create T3, obviously we are unable to identify the problem. Do you go to Amazon and expect them to fix a table you bought at Bed Bath and Beyond? Of course not.