If you're getting a website for your business, you should be getting a content management system (or CMS) that isn't really up for debate. The ability to modify and change content on your website is just too valuable a proposition to pass up! However, one of the first decisions to make is which direction you want to go for the actual CMS software. Do you go with a company offering an open source freely downloadable solution or do you select a firm offering a proprietary solution built in house. Let's exaime some of the factors and benefits related to this:

1. Cost

Open Source is going to win out every time in this department because it's freely available and can be downloaded by any one. This means there are no licensing costs or ongoing licensing fees to pay like there almost always are with a proprietary CMS. When a company has spent significant financial resources building an in house CMS solution, they just can't feasibly compete on price, especially when the price of open source is $0.

2. Security

Security is almost always in the proprietary camp. If nothing but for the fact that the source can't be downloaded and viewed by anyone who wishes to see it where as a proprietary system's source is a closely guarded secret. Even if there is a security flaw in a proprietary CMS, unless it is glaringly obvious, it will most likely go un-noticed until it's discovered and repaired by the developers due to the closed nature on the system. On the other hand, open source CMS software is often prone to hacking and usually needs constant vigilance and updating to ensure the latest security flaws are patched and your website is not vulnerable to attack. Even with the latest patches and updates it's still possible for your site to be compromised. Proprietary CMS systems are the clear winner in this area. Not only are they less likely to be hacked, but there is no added expense / time sink that comes with frequent updates for open source systems.

3. Ease of Use / Usability

This one is kind of a toss up, and really needs to be judged on a case by case basis. For instance if you compare our CMS with Joomla in terms of the learning curve and ease of use, we win hands down. However, it's all across the board for both open source and proprietary CMS solutions, so you really need to demo any potential systems to test them out and be sure you are comparing apples to apples. I've seen many open source CMS solutions that have terrible usability, but there are exceptions and there are some proprietary CMS systems that are quite complex and very daunting to learn, so no real winner can be declared here.

4. Portability

Let's face it, most web development firms don't offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee like we do. So the portability of the system can be fairly important. What happens if you have reliability problems with your developer and want to move your CMS to a new company in hopes that they will be able to meet your required deadlines for feature additions. Another category where open source stands above proprietary systems. Due to the nature of open source software, (the very same nature that causes significant security concerns) everyone has access to the software so there are many firms that can develop for it. If you aren't happy with your current developer, it's a relatively easy process to find a new one. Conversely, a proprietary CMS has absolutely no portability. Zip. Zero. Nadda. Since it's developed by a particular company and often times encoded (or rights to modify the software specifically excluded in your licenseing agreement) you have only one choice for continuing development on your CMS and if you're not happy with them, you can either put up with the trouble or throw out your website and start from scratch. This is not a pleasant situation to find yourself in. This one isn't even a contest.

5. Developer Reliability

One of the trickiest parts of picking a company to develop a new website or redevelop your existing site, is judging how reliable your selected provider will be. With a company offering a proprietary CMS solution, you can be fairly certain they have been around and established for some time and have had the significant financial resources required to invest into the development of a proprietary system. Whereas with an open source CMS, the same factor which is both a blessing and a curse pops-up again. Anyone can download the opensource software and call themselves a web developer, so you really can't make any generalizations about the establishment of open source CMS developers or their reliability as you can with a proprietary system. This can be a significant issue, as we have many clients who've felt like they played Russian Roulette hiring a open source developer and lost, having had to redevelop their website from scratch only a few years after going with an open source CMS.

The Round Up

Ultimately the best solution for your business will depend on what aspects are most important to your project. If you have a extremely limited budget, then cost is going to be a major factor. If the security and protection of your data is the key factor, then that will change your needs. This is only a guide to outline the options available, there is no one-size fits all solution. Every website is different and must be evaluated as such.