With a plethora of Content Management Systems (CMS) in the market, web design teams can find it challenging to choose the best CMS for building a website. The usability and applicability of the site play a vital role in selecting the right option. It all boils down to the amount of incoming, outgoing, stored, and processed data in your business or organisation website.
You need to consider factors such as security plug-ins, site performance, and speed when a choosing CMS solution. Additionally, you don't have to select a trending CMS or an industry leader when a credible niche player can support your organisation's vision and meet your specific needs.
Small businesses that need a simple website can satisfy their needs with an open source CMS solution with a set of plug-ins. On the other hand, a complex business should consider a commercial CMS solution that can be customised according to the business's specific requirements. As a publisher, the decision to use open source versus proprietary platforms have pros and cons. Here are some of the main differences between open source vs commercial off the shelf CMS systems and parameters you need to consider when choosing the right option.
Open source CMS have an open community that contributes to the creation of the website CMS. Most of these systems are available to the public and web designers can access them free of charge. Typically, a group of coders and website developers from across the world form a community that creates different plug-ins and codes used on these open source CMS platforms. Meaning, users can choose from an extensive range of community developers or website developing companies of open source CMS.
Since the source code is known to many people, the risk of hacking is slightly higher compared to using commercial CMS. While you may access some of these tools for free, you may be required to pay for others. Joomla, Drupal and WordPress are some of the most popular open source content management systems in the market.
Users of commercial or proprietary CMS, which are developed and owned by a single company, are required to buy a license key to access the features of the platforms. A proprietary CMS is integrated with various functionalities and plug-ins. Proprietary CMS solutions such as WebLITE, Sitecore and Sitefinity don't allow third-party plug-ins.
Users can personalise the functionality of the CMS platform based on their specific web design requirements. Commercial CMS comes with organic version upgrades and a more dedicated support channel. Security is also stronger and very often these CMS are built to integrate with other system - making commercial CMS the choice for many Enterprises.
Selecting the right open source or proprietary CMS platform depends on your marketing budget, web design requirements, available skill sets, IT support, and usability. In other words, you need to have different benchmarks and features when selecting the right open source or commercial off the shelf CMS suitable for your marketing campaigns.
The CMS you choose plays an integral part in safekeeping and conveying your content marketing assets. Talk to one of our technical experts today to find out when is the best CMS for your next website.