Open Source vs Closed Software
Open Source software is freely available to download, edit and use as you please. Many website companies use popular, cheap open source CMS platforms such as WordPress and Joomla for their clients.
Closed or proprietary software is custom-build to ensure quality, security and ease of upgrades for the future.
Open Source
Great for simple blogs and personal websites, built and maintained by a large community of software enthusiasts.
Pros
- free, including free plugins
- easy to setup for programmers
- many web developers are familiar with the code / programming
Cons
- easily hacked into, weekly security upgrades needed (partly due to the number of programmers who know how to use it)
- can be overly technical and difficult to use (tries to be everything to everyone)
- costly to maintain, upgrades require expert assistance, plugins often do not work with latest security upgrades
For businesses we believe open source software is too insecure, costly to maintain and difficult to keep up with the constant upgrades required. As it is maintained for free, there is little incentive or accountability to fix issues as they arise, especially for the free plugins which are required to customise the website to suit a clients needs.
Proprietary Software
Flexible, customised software which is professionally maintained and held accountable by Evolved Websites.
Pros
- flexible, we custom-build each feature required, making it fast & tailed just to your project
- stable & easy to use, tried-and-tested over 8 years with real businesses to produce a simple, fool-proof website
- secure, only Evolved Websites and our team know the website code used, preventing hacking attempts
- support, we have a vested interest in keeping your site up and running, offering exceptional customer support for over 12 years to 100+ clients
Cons
- costs more than open source initially, however no maintenance costs as any bugs are fixed free of charge
- longer setup as each feature is custom-built for speed and security
- Evolved CMS is owned by Evolved Websites, however the entire public website and all design files belong to the client, we also offer a severance clause for peace of mind:
“Severance, in the case of Evolved Websites not being able to provide reasonable support and future upgrades to the website (at market prices), the entire website including design, content, hosting, Evolved CMS Admin and all related materials will be returned to the Client, who may contract another web developer to work on the website.”
By building a closed (not open source) website, Evolved Websites significantly reduces the risk, and success, of our website being hacked into and exploited.