Why Should You Use A Proprietary Content Management System?
You may have heard the debate of Open-Source Content Management Systems (CMS) versus Proprietary CMS and are wondering to yourself, “What would be best for my business?”
There are many factors that could help you make that decision, but first, let’s talk about what these terms mean.
What Is An Open-Source CMS?
Open-source refers to the fact that these programs coding is available for public use, modification and implementation. The core coding has been created and posted to the internet for all to use.
Popular examples of open-source CMS are Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla. They are wildly popular and can be very handy for certain situations and businesses. But they do come with their drawbacks.
Hidden Costs Of Open-Source CMS
While they are free to use, if you want to elevate your business and its website to a higher level, there are many hidden fees associated with them that you could be caught off-guard by.
To truly legitimatize your website, setting it aside from the millions of blogs and e-commerce stores on platforms like Wordpress, you will need to plan for a large array of regular maintenance and necessary services that are essential to a website that runs smoothly, securely and effectively.
Maintenance
One of the biggest hidden costs is general maintenance. This could include backing up your site, deleting spammy comments, upgrading your plugins and much more.
While Wordpress does appeal to many for the fact that it can (in its most basic form) be rather easy for beginners to use; to truly learn everything needed to properly manage a Wordpress site takes at least 100 hours, according to Efficient WP. This is not even taking into account the need to have a base knowledge for coding language like HTML. That is a lot of time! And as they say, time is money!
And if you decide to outsource your website maintenance to a web developer, that is where the truly staggering costs will hit you.
Hosting
So you have a site built on Wordpress. Now it is time to get your website hosted.
There are many companies out there that can provide this, with varying capabilities and varying price ranges. But generally, you are looking at around $200 a year in hosting fees if you want your business to be able to handle the large amount of traffic and activity you hope to achieve.
Security
Whether you are running a blog with a newsletter or running an e-store that collects user’s credit card information, the last thing you want to do is put your customer’s personal data at risk of being stolen.
Who is going to go back to the business that was responsible for their credit card being compromised or their email being exposed to hackers?
To prevent situations like this, you will want to ensure you have adequate security set up. Many companies offer security packages that cover most issues that could arise. But once again, it will cost you a pretty penny.
There are some lower-end security packages that range from $50-$100 a year, but security is the last thing you want to buy low on. Realistically, you should be prepared to spend upwards of $200 a year on a security package.
Plugins
There are many plugins available for free download, and some of these may be very handy to have. But are these the plugins you need for your business to stay on the cutting edge? Most likely not.
The plugins that truly elevate your website to the next level lie within the “premium” category. And those will cost you. It may only be $40 or $50 per plugin, but the average user uses 5 premium plugins on their website, bringing that cost closer to $200 a year.
If you choose to only pay this fee once, you can still use the plugins. But you will be left out in the cold for any updates or bug fixes to those plugins. And why should your business be using outdated or broken plugins? Easy answer: you shouldn’t.
Themes
Once again, there are many themes available for download free of cost.
But these free themes are usually limited in their capabilities, are not the most aesthetically pleasing. As with the plugins, there are premium options. And to buy one of those could cost you up to $100.
So What Is A Proprietary CMS And Why Should I Be Using One?
A proprietary CMS is one that is custom-built by a software company exactly for you and your business’s needs. Whatever you may need for your business to run as smoothly as possible online, such as custom plugins and cutting-edge designs, can be outlined to the developer and come ready to use at launch time.
As well, because you are hiring a team of experts in the field, they will come up with suggestions of their own to improve the design and functionality of your website that you may have never even thought about!
On top of the added control over the design and functionality, all the services and maintenance that we previously discussed, like hosting, security and plugins, comes part and parcel with your proprietary CMS. If something breaks or you need a stylistic update, it is as simple as letting your provider know and they will take it from there.
And all this will come at the advertised price; no hidden costs!
Why bog down your everyday business needs with the added responsibility of not only creating and maintaining your website but also innovating to bring your business to the front of the online frontier?
Reach out to us anytime by email, phone or social media, to discuss what our Go.iOPW services could do for you and your business.