The Hidden Costs of Open Source (pssst….It’s not free!)
Posted in Content Management,SaaS by Brian Bolton on June 8th, 2009Open Source Content Management – The Hidden Costs
Just like an iceberg - there is much below the surface when considering open source software
When compared to a SaaS Content Management System (CMS) solution, deploying and maintaining an open source CMS package, either by yourself or via an outside agency, can be surprisingly expensive. An open source integration can frequently incur substantial costs, despite the conventional wisdom. The following is a partial list of costs associated with any open source software implementation:
Software License Costs
This is probably the only good news. License costs are always zero - but keep on reading, there are many hidden costs…
Dedicated IT Staff
Developing and running a quality website takes considerable time and effort. The usual rule of thumb is one FTE – for example, 2 dedicated IT staff each spending half their time on the project and ongoing support.
Hardware
Depending on the amount of redundancy required, you could need anywhere from one to four servers. With SaaS, the hardware cost is built into the monthly fee.
Setup Fee
Agency costs often include basic software installation and hosting setup. This can vary from $1,000 to $5,000 or more, so it’s worth paying attention to.
Hosting
Outside agencies can apply a significant markup here. With a SaaS product – it’s built into the monthly license cost. Find out from the agency where your site sill be hosted. If it’s godaddy.com (or similar) - then that $100 per month you are being charged for hosting alone might be a substantial premium over the actual cost.
Training
While open source software is free, most open source CMS are notoriously complex. Be sure to account for training costs to get you and your team beyond just the initial implementation.
Site Development
If you are going to develop the site yourself, be sure to include any outside design costs you might occur. When working with an agency – be sure to break these costs out separately.
Software Maintenance
Now that YOU are in charge of the software, it’s critical to budget for necessary security upgrades. Be sure to take into consideration all of the third party add-ons that may be integrated as part of your website development. Quite often a necessary third party add-on (like an image gallery) might not be compatible with the latest security patch releases.
Network Maintenance
There are many tasks associated with network infrastructure that need constant care and attention. If you are hosting your site within your own network, you may need to worry about load balancing, firewall management, setup and installation of web and database servers, and license management – to name just a few.
Support
Most custom developed software has bugs (this definitely includes websites) – do you have the bandwidth to track down bugs? Is there a support phone number to call? Are you going to have to wade through multiple forums and blogs to get your answers?
Conclusion
For some customers that have excess IT expertise and limited CMS demands, open source might be just the solution. However, if your organization has limited IT expertise but considerable business needs for a CMS implementation, an open source solution can bring considerable risk and cost. Regardless of how inexpensive it may appear when downloading “free” open source software, any substitute for an enterprise SaaS CMS must factor in ALL the actual costs when using open source.
Note: This is part one of a three-part series of postings on open source vs. proprietary CMS.
With all due respect, “open source” is not the same thing as “free”. A person can use software that costs nothing financially to acquire, yet has the source code completely locked up. By the same token, there are programs that cost money (or specifically charge a commercial entity), yet have their source code partially or completely opened as well.
When both aspects of freedom are involved, it’s specifically called Free Open Source Software, or more recently, Free Libre Open Source Software. The “Libre” has been added in specifically to address the very common confusion that your post showed.
More strangely, the issues you described can be involved in any system that isn’t being managed entirely by a single paid team like yours. If a company were to have its IT department deploy a commercial alternative, they would run the very same risks, just as your company would lose the income either way.
The trouble for you is that anybody even marginally experienced in IT will notice the same problems I did and be much *less* likely to hire you. A far more effective strategy would be to use the same information to show prospective customers all the ways *your* company can save them time and money. Even if I’d known little enough to believe your claims, it wouldn’t have shown me that your business in particular is more worthy than any other commercial entity.
Xyzzy, the goal here was not to show how our team is more worthy than any other entity, but rather to highlight some items that many people don’t take into account when they start a project using say, a Drupal or ExpressionEngine.
Both are great products, but the inexpensive allure can really hurt in the long run.
Your clarifications on FOSS/FLOSS are appreciated!