Another Good Reason To Use Open Source Software Vs. Close Source

I had coffee with a friend of mine the other day. It was great to catch up and hear about how their business was going. We touched briefly on their website and I learned that their closed source content management system software wasn't supported anymore. 😵‍💫

Eek! The first thing I thought about was they might get hacked due to the lack of upkeep of the CMS by the developers.

This is what happens when you rely on closed source systems. Your at the mercy of the developers to keep developing the software. And getting your information and design out is next to impossible. Your stuff is s-t-u-c-k!

The good thing about open source is that even if the main maintaining company goes out of business, the code can be forked (aka used and modified) by the community to keep things operational.

WordPress is this kind of system. Not only does it power 40%+ of the websites online, the community is massive and extremely supportive of the software and each other. Another great thing about WordPress is the expandability of the platform and the accessibility. If you need added functionality, you can get a specialized plug or you can even build one yourself.

Services like Wix, Webflow, or Squarespace might seem like a good places to start, but when you're building a presence online you need to look to the future and how things will continue to operate beyond the lifecycle of your CMS.

What do you think? Am I off base or spot on? Let me know what your thoughts are! I love to hear from all of you!

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That's it for this week! Keep rocking it!

-Seth