Does Open Source Content Management is what you really need?

What they don’t tell you about Open Source Content Management? Open Source solutions have received positive press because of free and open model. But which solutions provide really the best option for businesses? This question has been widely discussed within the industry. Let’s have a look at the benefits and drawbacks of the Open Source solution.

The main advantage with Open Source solutions is the source code is made available to the website administrators make customized changes to the software program in a way they see it. That’s great for immediate updates, but is it good for the long term? Customized changes to the underlying code can limit the future support and growth of the application. This could happen because changes made to the core program can prevent the ability to apply updates in the future. In this case a company may find itself in the perilous situation of having to remain with the current version together with any limitations or issues that version may have.


Before start an Open Source website project think about the following issues:

Expenses. Free access to an open source solution doesn’t equate to free of charge or cheap content managed website. The product is not going to be imbedded as you could expect compare to a commercial package.

Uses. Commercial CMS has technical support and their specialists take time to ensure advanced usability of the product and help you with training guides to non-technical staff take control of their website. Meanwhile Open Source solutions are developed for more technically minded users. It doubts the purpose of a client’s investment in a CMS by limiting content management to those with technical expertise.

Community. Open Source products rely on its community network to deliver support to its user base via forums and deep web blogs. For organizations looking for a comprehensive support package, Open Source solutions are unable to provide the responsiveness that a product specialist willing to take ownership of that issue is capable of.

Before make a decision on choosing Open Source or commercial CMS consider about your website’s future growth even your current wishes could be covered by free CMS, your requirements in the future could not be able to support by Open Source solution.