Open Source Vs Licensed: Which CMS is Better for Your Business?

No matter how you plan to grow your business, content is the backbone to interact with your customers and the catalyst for effective growth in almost every channel. If you regularly publish any type of content – on your website, blog or even on social media platforms, etc. having a Content Management System (CMS) is mandatory to help you in managing content accurately & effectively.

With the wide range of CMS options available in the market today, choosing the best one can be a hectic task that needs careful consideration. Depending on the factors such as preferred technology platform, the number of users, marketing requirements, budget, etc. one can choose the suitable CMS solution. However, the CMS that is right for your business may not be the right one for another business. The CMS systems are broadly categorized into Open Source or Licensed.

Here’s a quick overview to help you understand the differences between these two CMS types and choose the finest one suitable for your business.

• Pricing

One factor that differentiates an open source and licensed system is the source code availability. Open Source CMS, as the name suggests are freely available & updates are done by a huge community of users. However, it lacks the support & security guarantees associated with a trusted provider. A Licensed CMS is sourced by a third-party CMS provider where one must purchase the license or pay on a subscription-basis that will cover support & maintenance.

• Reliability

Open Source CMS relies completely on users for upgrades, making it less stable & reliable. With the support of a large organization that provides timely upgrades, the licensed CMS ensures the peace of mind of your internal IT team. Investing in licensed & Enterprise CMS Solutions like Kentico can be a good decision as it will provide timely updates & patches as a part of the complete package.

• Help & Support

As CMS can manage your blog, social media, intranet and many more, any issue related to this can lead to a negative impact on customer service. To ensure minimal downtime, you need CMS with the quick support system. While using an open source CMS, one can take control of the code and the overall outcome but with the absence of formal support or extra expenses. While licensed CMS such as Kentico provides 24*7 support and 7-day bug fixing policy.

• Upgrades

To cope up with the technology changes and the demands of the users, it is necessary to ensure that your CMS is functioning effectively. It is possible only with the help of regular updates/upgrades. Though open source solutions give you the access of full source code, modifying code can be complex & upgrades are challenging. While a licensed CMS comes with a clear upgrade path & all the help you can rely on.

• Customization

Every business is unique, which is why your CMS needs to be easily customizable according to the requirements. Open source solutions can lead to an inconsistent user interface as well as complex installation while using add-ons. However, with licensed ones, several add-ons are easily available to customize any CMS on an ongoing basis.

Whether to choose an open source CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. or a licensed CMS like Kentico or Sitecore completely depends on the nature of your business, budget & unique needs. Considering all the features stated above, we can say that both open source and licensed CMS has its own pros and cons. If you wish to use open source, WordPress is the most preferable choice while for licensed one, it is undoubtedly Kentico. Kentico supports clear pricing program with easy content management & customization using over 70 modules. Get in touch with the renowned CMS development company today for the exceptional services of Website Development in Kentico.