Hi. I am planning a social website and am thinking to build several other ones if the first one becomes a somewhat good success. I am looking into Joomla and Community Builder for the moment. But, I am unsure if Joomla and CB is the right way to go. It will require a lot of work. I know it is more commercial solutions out there, but if I want to build more sites it will cost money. The website is to be a meeting place for people interested in a business niche where they can connect with each other and discuss different topics within this niche. I need some recommendations to people who can set up a Joomla website with CB for a good price (if anyone knows anyone who does this).
I Seriously prefer Joomsocial/ Easysocial over community builder. And trust me $99 is really worth spending it. They are modern social component with tons of integrated features, and a paid commercial support (because u purchased it). Rest community builder is absolutely fine but required a little extra labor to get things working. If your requirement is not too high and want to keep free. You can also try Buddypress on wordpress.
I too agree that Joomla is best content management system after WordPress. You can consider a managed web hosting service provider for Joomla based website and they can assist you with proper website setup.
I also prefer Jomsocial, although I'm still stuck on version 2.4 and need to find time to upgrade at some point. Community builder is a nice free alternative though, and has plenty of good plugins. I could see using it to start and then upgrading to a paid community component like Jomsocial once you have active members. There are plenty of great template options designed to work with either of these, so you can have something ready to go, out of the box, and can then customize it based on whatever needs arise. What kind of budget are you working with?
i would say you can prefer joomla. we are joomla experts and done many websites in joomla. we can help you with joomla installations and setup in reasonable cost. can contact me on rahul.shingi on skype if you have any quarries.