Open source or proprietary website CMS

Every business website, regardless of whether it is a corporate website or an eCommerce website, its size, it must be built for ease of operation, maintenance, and update. In addition, it must be able to grow with your business and execute your online business strategy.

On top of that, such websites must be highly customizable and easy to maintain by a website design company or web application development company that knows the website CMS/web application inside out to align the website or web application to future business requirements or strategy.

In this context, open source website CMS or web applications, almost all of them, if not with a big spending budget, won’t work for most businesses. In other words, the open-source website CMS is most unlikely an option for your business website. Here’s why:

1. Open-source website CMS and web applications are spearheaded by a few individuals and developed and maintained by a group of application developers worldwide. It includes the core open-source website CMS and its extension components. All components are provided free of charge.

   Spearheaded means to lead or initiate a project, movement, or activity. It describes someone who takes primary responsibility for driving an effort forward.

2. Open-source website CMS and web applications are built with predefined functionalities initiated by individuals or groups. As usual, customization is not part of it. But unfortunately, customization is necessary for businesses to adapt or utilize the solution.
3. Since the authors or the web application developers are not providing any customization services, such services are provided by the website design companies providing the open-source solution.
4. It seems to be a great solution where website design companies would do the customization, right? But wait, think again, and consider the followings:
   1. Suppose those website design companies that use open-source solutions can build a web application from scratch. Why would they use open source as their primary solution where the web application is readily available? Why would they willingly be tied down by the open-source web application's limitations?
   2. Can open-source web applications be customized? Yes, that's the truth. Website customization or application customization is done within the specific open-source website CMS and web application limits. But how many website design companies can customize it? How many of them are willing to customize it and be tied down by its limitations?
   3. Here’s the catch :
      1. 1st, those website design companies who do not have real application developers chose to provide open-source web applications or website CMS customization as a solution to their clients. They live with the limitations and the risks of not being able to customize it entirely according to your requirements and strategy. Such nature will affect your website operation, affecting your business operation.
      2. 2nd, say you got a website design company specializing in custom build components for open-source website CMS and web applications, which may be rare. How much do you think you have to pay for the customization work? Web Temple can custom-build components for open-source web applications.
         
         We are charging at the range of USD 70 – 200 / hour ( range MYR 300 – MYR 860 & SGD 96 – SGD 275 ), compared to our proprietary web application solution at USD 50 – 160 / hour depending on the skill set needed, level of complexity, urgency, and other factors.
         
         Open-source web applications are more expensive due to more limitations and development protocols, which makes the website or web application development and maintenance a lot tougher, and more resources are usually needed.
5. Dead components are a threat. When an open-source component or extension has been abandoned by the authors or application developers, you must scrap the dead extension and find the closest replacement.
   Additional costs and downtime are involved.

   A dead component refers to a part of a system, website, or software that no longer functions, is inactive, or is not being used, often due to being outdated or broken.

6. The “why” list goes on and on.

On the other hand, the proprietary website CMS is being developed by a web application development company or a website design company. So the whole deal is pretty straightforward.

Most proprietary website CMS is built with business-friendly features, such as standard business features that most companies need and industry-specific features specific to certain industries in terms of industry-specific requirements, processes, or flows.

In contrast to open source website CMS, you’ll get the followings advantages from professional proprietary website CMS:

1. You focus on your website content and online business strategies rather than the technology that powers your website or eCommerce website.
2. You don’t have to face the challenges of the open-source website CMS such as dead plugins, web application compatibility issues, and customization that may not completely fulfill your online business requirement.
3. You do not have to decide which modules you should use. Instead, consider whether your compromised decision is worth it or would risk the whole operation of your website.
4. You can subscribe to premium technical support that would provide peace of mind support for your business website or eCommerce website.

End of the day, as entrepreneurs and business owners, you are looking for a solution that is secure, highly efficient, excellent performance, highly scalable or customization for future business needs, and, more importantly, reliable support for your website. So then, I think you should seriously consider proprietary website CMS over open source.