We’re often asked by clients what the best solution is for them with regards to Open Source software or Licensed Software.

To clarify what we mean, Open Source is a community developed piece of software that is free to download and use, whereas with Licensed Software you normally pay a monthly fee to use the software and development is restricted to the company who developed the software.

Why should you care?

As a consumer you just want a solution that works for you, fits the needs of the project and is reliable. However, the two models are totally different and could have far reaching consequences further down the line.

To draw on an every day comparison it’s a little like owning the freehold to a building or simply being a lease holder, you never truly own it outright.

It’s now possible to open an ecommerce store within 5 – 10 mins and be trading almost immediately. That’s fantastic convenience and will suit some people, however your business is not truly yours as the store will be hosted on someone else’s server and you won’t be able to take it with you when you get fed up of paying the monthly fee every month.

With Open Source software you can get your hands on the source code and with a small amount of technical know how, upload it to your own web hosting account and truly own your little piece of internet real estate.

But, what are the pro and cons of Open Source software, and what impact will it have on your business? Below we look at some of them in more detail.

The pros of open source software

• Free to download – if you have the technical know how, the software is free. Even if you don’t have great technical skills, the fact it’s open source should mean developers fees are lower as there’s a wider community of people supporting it.
• Self hosted – for about £100 per year you can host the software on your own web hosting account, should you wish to move web hosts you can take your site and leave
• Lower development costs ongoing – usually open source software has an army of supporters who are constantly writing new plugin functionality to the software, this means upgrades you want to make will be lower or even free as usually someone has written a plugin to do what you need it to.
• Updates are normally free – open source software is usually supported free of charge, this means updates to the software will be free. This is useful as the world moves at an amazing pace, and you need your website to keep pace with it!
• You’re not tied in to one company - the fact you have it hosted on your server means if you don’t like your developers you can walk away. This is opposed to a licensed situation where the software has been developed by them and supported by them. Fall out and you’re on your own, or to bring in outside help with no knowledge of the coding could be expensive.
• Bugs are ironed out by the community – usually open source software will go through phases of development such as beta testing and release candidate testing. The community will report bugs to the developers and these will be ironed out in advance of a full release.
• No ongoing fees once you’re up and running - with open source software you don’t pay a monthly or yearly licence. You only pay for the work you need doing, if everything is tickety boo then you don’t have a monthly fee to consider.

The cons of open source software

• Support is by email or forums only if things go wrong – this means usually you won’t have a person to call if things go wrong. However, your web developer should be able to help if you need a question answered. Or if you are a little technically minded there will be forums where you can ask a question and get a response.
• No guarantee of ongoing development – sometimes due to work commitments or a general swing away from an open source package the development of it may halt and you could be left having to find another solution ongoing.
• It’s ‘sold as seen’ - ok, not literally as its free, but you may find your off the shelf solution doesn’t do everything you need it to and you may end up paying someone to add it in for you. Open Source is great for lots of projects but sometimes you may need a bespoke solution.
• Support is not instant – if your website is the mainstay of your business and something goes wrong you may find it takes a little more time to fix. With licensed software you normally have phone support where you can get issues resolved more quickly.

Well, there you have it, some helpful comparisons between open source and licensed software. It’s a vast topic that cannot be covered in a single article, so if you need some free advice as to what solution would best fit your project call Steve at Demon Creative on 01442 560054 or 07849 020558 or email steve@demoncreative.co.uk