Be Wary of Properiety Content Management Systems

Written by Margaret Shakibaie

Using a Content Management Systems for your website design will allow you to easily edit your website, giving you ownership to manage your website content yourself. 

But do all Website Content Management Systems really give you that ownership you require?

Propriety Content Management systems will tie you to the website developer and their hosting environment. Our opinion is that once you have paid for your website, the website is yours. At the ICT Shak we only use Open Source Content Management Systems for our clients website. The more popular examples of Open Source CMS include Joomla and Word Press.

Disadvantages of Propriety Content Management Systems.

The major disadvantages of a propriety content management system include

  • It is difficult or impossible to move the site to another hosting provider
  • Limited web developers will be "experts" tying you to the web developer
  • Often less affordable
  • Can often require specialised, propriety web hosting environment thereby increasing your hosting costs
  • Limited availability of add-ons and extensions decreasing the functionality of your website

What to look for?

If your prospective web developer uses words like "Our own CMS" then be wary and ask what for more details on the content management system they are using. Google it and read some of the reviews before going any further. The CMS you choose should be portable, customisable, and re-distributable. Using propriety content management systems can be a costly mistake.

Want to know more, contact us to talk about how you can use a Open Source Content Management system for the development of your website design.