CMS Clash: Content Management System - Part 2

Some open source products can be a great way for a business to lower costs, but they can also have their share of problems.

Many open-source products are supported by the community around them. While this can be great, it can also mean that there is not really someone to call when something goes wrong. There is also normally some technical expertise required in setting up and using open-source products. For instance, Joomla is a product that needs to be installed on a server with PHP and MySQL support. There are many different settings that can be adjusted on such a server which can cause problems with the way a product runs. Also, maintenance that must be done to ensure that the server continues to operate at its best. When using a product like Joomla, you are depending on its developers(who are probably working on the product on their own time) and the community surrounding it(forums, etc) for support. If something happens and your site goes down, you can ask around on the forums or look around on the internet or maybe even send a question to one of the developers. Eventually you will probably create,find or receive a solution to the problem. Also, with an open-source CMS like Joomla, your site has to fit within the confines of the CMS. The additional functionality you need may exist in the form of a plug-in or it may not. You may also be able to find someone to develop it for a fee or you may not. There may also be design constraints put in place by the product.

It may be possible to find a company that is able to handle the technical side of implementing and maintaining a product like Joomla, but even then they will be working within the constraints of the system. They may be willing to customize it to your needs, but customization of the product can lead to trouble upgrading down the road.

Our CMS has been built by us and is supported by us. It is a hosted application, meaning that we manage the servers it is hosted on. We have also optimized the servers for running our CMS. If there is a problem with your site, we are here to talk to you and get it fixed. No need to spend your time searching around on the internet for the solution. We also have control over the functionality available within our CMS, If you need new functionality, we can talk with you about your needs and find the best way to handle them. We have also worked to make sure we do not back our designers into a corner with our CMS. If we find that something needs to be changed to allow for a certain design, we have the ability to do it.

One of the key problems we have seen with open-source products is their complexity. In order to allow a designer to create a site within a CMS, they need a lot of flexibility. This flexibility can lead to a confusing interface for someone trying to make small changes(for instance changing a picture or a spelling error). With our proprietary CMS, we have been able to give ourselves the flexibility to create sites while also creating a clean easy to use interface for our clients. And since we built it, we know the ins and outs of how it works which makes it easier on us to add new functionality or fix any problems that come up. We also rely on our CMS for use with our clients so we need to be sure it will continue to be maintained and upgraded. By developing our own CMS, we are able to decide when upgrades need to happen based on our own use and the feedback we receive from our clients. 

There are pros and cons for both proprietary and open-source products. When deciding what to use for ourselves, we couldn’t find a product that did what we wanted in the way we thought it should. We decided to develop our own.  The rest is history.

If you missed Part 1, here it is.