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Comparison · Collab

Elgg vs pagedown

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Elgg and pagedown — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Shared themes:maintenance

Elgg vs pagedown: at a glance

FeatureElggpagedown
SectorCollabCollab
Velocity score5.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesopen-source, social-networking, maintenance, security-patchesr-markdown, paged-media, pdf-output, browser-rendering
Last editorial update2h ago6d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Elgg?

A social-networking engine in careful maintenance across two supported branches.

Elgg is running a two-branch release cadence: a 7.0.x line taking bug fixes and a 6.3.x line receiving backports. The recent pairs shipped within two hours of each other — 7.0.5 carrying a single performance fix that stops likes generating ajax response data for unsupported entities, while 6.3.8 carries the longer list: improved sanitization of installer config values, a valid client IP for the core, embedded-image handling in notification emails, mute-option validation, and a permission check before a profile header image can be changed. Contributor counts stay in the low single digits with the same one or two maintainers on nearly every release.

Read the full Elgg trajectory →

What is pagedown?

pagedown is down to one small fix a year, mostly absorbing changes from elsewhere.

The last six releases contain no new capability. 0.24 fixes missing horizontal rules under unnumbered h1 headers in the poster_jacobs format; 0.23 stops non-ASCII header text erroring during TOC processing; 0.22 drops a call to `xfun::attr()` before it disappears upstream; 0.21 sets an `is.paged.js` knit option so knitr knows paged.js loads its own JS and CSS; 0.20 raises the R floor; 0.19 patches a browser rendering regression with `overflow-x: clip`.

Read the full pagedown trajectory →

Elgg vs pagedown: editorial side-by-side

E
Elgg
COLLAB
5.0

A social-networking engine in careful maintenance across two supported branches.

◆ Current state

Elgg is running a two-branch release cadence: a 7.0.x line taking bug fixes and a 6.3.x line receiving backports. The recent pairs shipped within two hours of each other — 7.0.5 carrying a single performance fix that stops likes generating ajax response data for unsupported entities, while 6.3.8 carries the longer list: improved sanitization of installer config values, a valid client IP for the core, embedded-image handling in notification emails, mute-option validation, and a permission check before a profile header image can be changed. Contributor counts stay in the low single digits with the same one or two maintainers on nearly every release.

◆ Where it's heading

This is a mature project maintaining a stable base rather than pushing new capability, and the balance between the branches is worth noting: the older 6.3 line is receiving more substantive hardening than the current 7.0 line, which has already settled into single-commit patches. That is what a project looks like when most of its deployments have not migrated yet. The 6.3.8 items — input sanitization, permission validation before a mutating action — are the security-shaped fixes that earlier 6.3 releases summarised only as 'small security update'.

◆ Prediction

Expect the alternating pattern to continue: 7.0.x patches as issues surface, with matching 6.3.x backports carrying the hardening work, until a 7.1 cycle opens. The entries give no indication of when that might be.

P
pagedown
COLLAB
0.0

pagedown is down to one small fix a year, mostly absorbing changes from elsewhere.

◆ Current state

The last six releases contain no new capability. 0.24 fixes missing horizontal rules under unnumbered h1 headers in the poster_jacobs format; 0.23 stops non-ASCII header text erroring during TOC processing; 0.22 drops a call to `xfun::attr()` before it disappears upstream; 0.21 sets an `is.paged.js` knit option so knitr knows paged.js loads its own JS and CSS; 0.20 raises the R floor; 0.19 patches a browser rendering regression with `overflow-x: clip`.

◆ Where it's heading

pagedown sits between three things it does not control — paged.js, headless Chrome, and Pandoc — and its release history is a record of each of them moving. The one release in the window with anything resembling design intent is 0.21, which lets other packages detect a paged.js context rather than guess it. Cadence has thinned to roughly one release a year, and the last genuinely new features (long-table headers, Sass support, streamed PDF transfer) are outside this window.

◆ Prediction

Expect another single-fix release triggered by a paged.js, Chrome or Pandoc change. Nothing here suggests new output formats are coming.

Alternatives to Elgg and pagedown

Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Elgg or pagedown.

See all Elgg alternatives → · See all pagedown alternatives →

Recent activity from Elgg and pagedown

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 17h agoElggLikes stop generating ajax data for unsupported entities
  2. 18h agoElgg6.3 branch gets installer sanitization and profile permission validation
  3. 20d agoElggGatekeeper fix for inaccessible deleted entities
  4. 20d agoElggSecurity patch on the 6.3 maintenance branch
  5. 1mo agoElggCKEditor pinned to the correct GPL-licensed version
  6. 1mo agoElggSmall fixes across the 7.0 line
  7. 4mo agopagedownpagedown 0.24 fixes header rules in poster_jacobs
  8. 11mo agopagedownpagedown 0.23 fixes non-ASCII headers in TOC processing
  9. 1y agopagedownpagedown 0.22 drops deprecated xfun::attr()
  10. 1y agopagedownpagedown 0.21 signals paged.js context to knitr
  11. 3y agopagedownpagedown 0.20 requires R >= 3.5.0
  12. 3y agopagedownpagedown 0.19 fixes paged.js rendering in modern browsers

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Elgg and pagedown?

Both compete on the same themes — maintenance — within Collab. Elgg is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Elgg better than pagedown?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Elgg is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Elgg?

Top Elgg alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Elgg alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/elgg for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to pagedown?

Top pagedown alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pagedown alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pagedown for the full list with editorial commentary on each.