EVERYBODY’S DOING IT
We learned in our last post that more than 60 per cent of the world’s websites are hosted on WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. This week we’ll touch on the reasons why. The first reason is that most people don’t know there is a simpler, safer and more affordable content management solution available to them yet, but more about that later.
INITIAL SET-UP
Although choosing a content management system (CMS), depends on your organization’s individual needs, committing to open source software (OSS) (we’ll use WordPress as an example) is viewed by most as a ‘no brainer’, because, free set-up = unlimited time to test the platform in a natural environment without feeling pressure to buy.
Small businesses and organizations with minimal resources, like not-for-profits, are most likely to benefit from a free-at-first system, initially. However, as business needs expand, so does the need for the predictable costs, technical support, and seamless integrations.
APPLICATIONS
To that point, let’s address app integration. It’s true that both WordPress and QuickSilk offer relatively limitless app integrations. However, the majority of WordPress’ features and functionalities come at substantive costs (the ‘pay for what you need’ mantra).
Depending on how many applications a user purchases, WordPress can either be a cost-efficient, limited option, or incredibly expensive custom one. When add-ons are excluded, WordPress (and others!) has a significantly higher total cost of ownership than QuickSilk does, as shown in the annual cost comparison chart below:
Who would want to pay upwards of $299 USD for WordPress’ recommended security plug-in (add-on) by Automattic when security features are included in subscription fees with QuickSilk?
CUSTOMIZATION
I’m just going to go ahead and address the elephant in the room: closed cloud platforms are often viewed as limited, while open source softwares like WordPress are known to be ‘limitless.’ Though we can’t speak for other closed cloud solutions, we can guarantee that, with QuickSilk, this isn’t the case.
Here’s the thing, platforms like WordPress and Drupal were created by developers, for developers. This means that they are intended for coding experts. With these types of platforms, companies can highly personalize and brand their sites, but they will pay tens of thousands of dollars to do so.
The great thing about QuickSilk is that you don’t need to be technologically savvy to build secure, custom websites. Our pre-built integrations and drag and drop tools are not only flexible, but easy-to-use. Your imagination is truly the only limit when it comes to customizing your website with us.
MAINTENANCE + SECURITY
Trust plays a huge factor in choosing a CMS provider. Site owners who simply can’t risk security sometimes have a difficult time trusting that software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, like QuickSilk, offer a safer solution.
We can assure you that our standards are higher than the norm. We understand that web platforms weaken when they are not regularly maintained, which is why we monitor yours around-the-clock, regularly upgrade and secure your site with inaccessible anti-virus protection.
Don’t get me wrong, web maintenance, regular upgrades and antivirus protection is also available with OSS’ like WordPress, only - you guessed it - at an additional, substantive cost.
OWNERSHIP
We get it, some users feel safer keeping the security of their precious data in their own hands. As most software-as-a-service platforms come without third-party, impartial experts to validate the system’s safeguards, it makes sense that users sometimes feel more comfortable hiring IT experts internally.
There is a myth around OSS that its maintenance can be more stable, because it is conducted by a company-hired and paid expert. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Because QuickSilk monitors your site 24/7, and upgrades are conducted as-needed, we are able to identify potential issues with your site at the root — and do our best to fix them before your website is ever impacted. Additionally, all QuickSilk sites are hosted on Canadian servers, which are proven to be the most reliable in the world.
Furthermore, we keep information around our anti-virus protection and security safeguards closed, which means that access to it is limited to our QuickSilk developers. We do this because it is the most efficient method to ensuring your data remains in your hands.
VERDICT
Although we’ve learned that open source softwares are the right option for some, we also learned that QuickSilk has the capability to do almost everything WordPress, Drupal and Joomla can do (just more simply and securely, and at a fraction of the cost). This begs the question: why would anyone choose open source when QuickSilk’s empowering platform is an option?
