Roll call, who is actually using flynax with success?

[Jon Roberts]

Hello flynax community,

My name is Jon and I have a flynax site online since 2021. I am looking to get more engagement and find out from others that have been using flynax with success and also those with troubles as well to learn and share experiences. I don't know if it's allowed for others to share their sites or if some will view it as secret information. I have both positive and negative sentiments about the software itself and wish I had understood things better when I first started in this direction after failed attempts with other solutions (i.e. Wordpress or purchased JS scripts). I give lots of credit to the flynax solution being very specific and purpose built for classifieds software (very robust with many plugins too), but also feel it is very outdated. Why do I feel this way? ...perhaps it's hard to understand the concepts initially. Then there's the admin panel and while there is a lot of logic, it's not intuitive. Then on the frontend for visitors and users I think there's a lot to be desired from an aesthetic and user experience (UI/UX) perspective. And let's be honest, that first impression really is make or break.

My live site: BaseCamper.com

I would appreciate any feedback good or bad. What can/should I do next?

What is your site and what are your top Pros and Cons?

Are there any large scale sites out there using flynax wether mostly out-of-the-box or heavily customized? Why did they have to customize (for features or for looks?)
Is anyone building new custom software themselves to replace their flynax?

Lots of questions, just looking to spark some conversation. Looking forward to hearing from others!

[Chris Brown]

Hi Jon, Im Chris

I have been using flynax since 2011 I think so its been a while. Originally I had a car classifieds but as the competition is fierce in the Uk I shut it down about 4 years ago. I still use the software but more as in information site rather than a classifieds. My current site is linked in my signature below.

I have done most mods to the code myself after learning bits and bobs over the years ( but I am no expert)

I do think the admin could do with an overhaul

[kiowa]

Bottom line is if you want a unique site with latest frameworks best you invest alot of money for a team of developers to have a site built from scratch.

Go google "smarty", this is what framework flynax use for their development. Its old and not loved by many.
Flynax said they are not designers for templates, wich shows in what is offered.
Flynax knows what the good and the bad is about tjere software.

I have been using flynax since 2010.
Have seen many sites popup and go.
Yet too see one that was successfull, and i blame the templates.
Lack of proper user dashboard like other frameworks offer.
Theres no perfect script out there.
If flynax folds your site and business will fold too, no more support, no more updates, no more php bersion updates.
You are basically at the mercy of them.
But this goes for wordpress, ossclass and others too.
Regarding nive templates, nice user dasboards ect.
All to be desired.

Was waiting for the new service script for a while, umfortunatly needs alot of work compared to others out there.

Boatfind.com
Taskerjob.com
Taskerfind.com
Quickfreelancing.com
Jobfreelancing.com

These are my domains waiting for a great product.

[Jon Roberts]

Hi Jon, Im Chris

I have been using flynax since 2011 I think so its been a while. Originally I had a car classifieds but as the competition is fierce in the Uk I shut it down about 4 years ago. I still use the software but more as in information site rather than a classifieds. My current site is linked in my signature below.

I have done most mods to the code myself after learning bits and bobs over the years ( but I am no expert)

I do think the admin could do with an overhaul

Sorry for the delay responding. I never got any notification. Thank you for your reply. I am definitely working on a new solution for my classifieds marketplace. Flynax is really good SEO wise, but of course that's only part of the marketing strategy. Is there any single thing you would do differently if you started something like MotorAdsUK back up?

[Jon Roberts]

Bottom line is if you want a unique site with latest frameworks best you invest alot of money for a team of developers to have a site built from scratch.

Go google "smarty", this is what framework flynax use for their development. Its old and not loved by many.
Flynax said they are not designers for templates, wich shows in what is offered.
Flynax knows what the good and the bad is about tjere software.

I have been using flynax since 2010.
Have seen many sites popup and go.
Yet too see one that was successfull, and i blame the templates.
Lack of proper user dashboard like other frameworks offer.
Theres no perfect script out there.
If flynax folds your site and business will fold too, no more support, no more updates, no more php bersion updates.
You are basically at the mercy of them.
But this goes for wordpress, ossclass and others too.
Regarding nive templates, nice user dasboards ect.
All to be desired.

Was waiting for the new service script for a while, umfortunatly needs alot of work compared to others out there.

Boatfind.com
Taskerjob.com
Taskerfind.com
Quickfreelancing.com
Jobfreelancing.com

These are my domains waiting for a great product.

You really nailed it and shows. I think you and I both are on the same page about the software (strengths and weaknesses). As mentioned above in another reply I decided to start investing in the 'from scratch' approach and it's been a journey that's for sure. It's coming along and I hope to launch my beta with core functions and features by Q2. It certainly will not be as robust but I do think we are focused on the right features and core elements to start. I'm a little excited to start building the Admin panel soon. My custom dev obviously will not be a plug and play solution for quite some time, but maybe a small base of committed admins (stakeholders) to work closely with each other for customizations could prove to be a strong approach. Perhaps when I launch beta maybe it will be worthy of one of your domain concepts?

Flynax is a very cost efficient solution and should/could be any classified marketplace MVP, but I do think for real progress and success there are a few key changes needed to engage with UX.

[kiowa]

Make no mistake, flynax is still your best bet for classified turnkey software out there.
You can always pay them to change what you need changing.

[Artur]

Flynax application is a very good industrial application for building multiple websites.
Possibility to create groups of user announcements, etc.

Unfortunately, this affects performance - many loops are very poor, e.g. for fields in categories
You can see that the authors are trying to save themselves with disk cache and this is a good solution and a good direction, but that's not all.
A serious problem is Samrty templates version 2.x which is a disaster for this application.
Smarty is good for construction, it is easier to build templates, but their performance is currently a disaster... currently smarty is already in version 5.0 and that is almost 14 years old.
And it should be added that the new version of smarty templates is also not a solution because they are also slowly.
Another issue is the creation of templates - they are nice templates, but when tested in Google Core Web Vitals they have the lowest indicators, e.g. 4/100 in CLP.

Currently, an application purchased in this way without any significant modifications has no chance of success.
The indicators in Google are so weak that even if the content is the best, it is disqualified by Google Search Console.

There is no full-text search engine and when ads exceed 50,000 words, the website is so slow that it is unsuitable for viewing.

I put a lot of work into ensuring that the website could have over 200,000 ads and high indicators:
Please see zoomia.pl

I have been using this application since 2010.
I also have the latest service applications but nothing has changed in terms of performance and smarts.

If anyone is interested in professional modifications to make the website work properly and quickly, I can sell several modules.

Artur

[Jon Roberts]

Flynax application is a very good industrial application for building multiple websites.
Possibility to create groups of user announcements, etc.

Unfortunately, this affects performance - many loops are very poor, e.g. for fields in categories
You can see that the authors are trying to save themselves with disk cache and this is a good solution and a good direction, but that's not all.
A serious problem is Samrty templates version 2.x which is a disaster for this application.
Smarty is good for construction, it is easier to build templates, but their performance is currently a disaster... currently smarty is already in version 5.0 and that is almost 14 years old.
And it should be added that the new version of smarty templates is also not a solution because they are also slowly.
Another issue is the creation of templates - they are nice templates, but when tested in Google Core Web Vitals they have the lowest indicators, e.g. 4/100 in CLP.

Currently, an application purchased in this way without any significant modifications has no chance of success.
The indicators in Google are so weak that even if the content is the best, it is disqualified by Google Search Console.

There is no full-text search engine and when ads exceed 50,000 words, the website is so slow that it is unsuitable for viewing.

I put a lot of work into ensuring that the website could have over 200,000 ads and high indicators:
Please see zoomia.pl

I have been using this application since 2010.
I also have the latest service applications but nothing has changed in terms of performance and smarts.

If anyone is interested in professional modifications to make the website work properly and quickly, I can sell several modules.

Artur

Thank you for this insight from someone with long-term experience and dedication. I checked your site and while I don't speak Polish I was able to browse the site intuitively and see that you do have good activity/traffic going. Your information regarding the technical limitations of search and performance along with the echoing of poor smarty template engine is very insightful and thank you for this. Do you think you will find workarounds to supplement the trouble areas for your project or do you think you would consider a different platform (more modern) to address the issues?

[Artur]

I've fixed a lot of problems before.
The website runs on 2 application servers and 3 database servers.
Unfortunately, I had to "cut" nice templates into less "nice" ones to avoid shifts caused by javascript elements and to improve Google indicators.
Now I have to change the templates to smarty 3...

I'm not going to change the platform now because it has a lot of advantages and I'm already used to it.
I know how to build efficient applications and I wrote 20% of new code, once I deal with a few problems, I should be able to handle 10 million users without any problems.

[kiowa]

Flynax application is a very good industrial application for building multiple websites.
Possibility to create groups of user announcements, etc.

Unfortunately, this affects performance - many loops are very poor, e.g. for fields in categories
You can see that the authors are trying to save themselves with disk cache and this is a good solution and a good direction, but that's not all.
A serious problem is Samrty templates version 2.x which is a disaster for this application.
Smarty is good for construction, it is easier to build templates, but their performance is currently a disaster... currently smarty is already in version 5.0 and that is almost 14 years old.
And it should be added that the new version of smarty templates is also not a solution because they are also slowly.
Another issue is the creation of templates - they are nice templates, but when tested in Google Core Web Vitals they have the lowest indicators, e.g. 4/100 in CLP.

Currently, an application purchased in this way without any significant modifications has no chance of success.
The indicators in Google are so weak that even if the content is the best, it is disqualified by Google Search Console.

There is no full-text search engine and when ads exceed 50,000 words, the website is so slow that it is unsuitable for viewing.

I put a lot of work into ensuring that the website could have over 200,000 ads and high indicators:
Please see zoomia.pl

I have been using this application since 2010.
I also have the latest service applications but nothing has changed in terms of performance and smarts.

If anyone is interested in professional modifications to make the website work properly and quickly, I can sell several modules.

Artur

Hi artur,
Can you explain more about these modules you have?