THE IMPORTANT DECISION YOU'RE PROBABLY RUSHING

Starting down the path to building a new website can be daunting. When we ask our clients about their last website projects we get a lot of eyes rolling. Then we let them talk - and it's usually not good. They explain to us their frustration not just with the agency's involved, but with the process. Then when the site is complete and the painful process is over, they are unhappy with the end product - which is probably why they are talking to us in the first place!

However, it doesn't have to be this way. The agency you choose is a very important decision in the process, and how you evaluate those agencies is important to picking the right one. In this post, we will examine one important factor when choosing an agency: Is the agency involved using a proprietary or open source CMS (content management system). There are benefits and drawbacks to each, but making sure you know these will greatly help you decide which agency to choose and ultimately this decision will impact your satisfaction with both the process and the end product.

This post is Part 1 in a series of posts! Check our blog soon for part 2, or check out our Free eBook by clicking below and turn your website into a lead generating machine!

1. Proprietary

The Good

One of your options when it comes to a CMS is a proprietary CMS. These CMS are developed by agencies and digital marketing firms and are generally designed to fit a specific industry. For example, an agency may develop a CMS specifically for care facilities and target those companies in their marketing efforts. These CMS will often include features and plugins within that are tailored to that industry and it's specific needs. This is probably the greatest advantage that proprietary CMS have over open source (we cover open source below...). Another advantage that these agencies will spin is that they are familiar working with the industry as all of their clients are within that industry.

The Bad

Proprietary CMS have limited 3rd party support. Since they are usually developed by the single agency selling them, the only 3rd party support that they come with is that which has been built in house. Very rarely do outside developers dabble in building out plugins, API's or any other type of usable 3rd party web ware for proprietary CMS. There simply isn't enough of a user base to justify the time and money for development. The only exception to this are those that are used extensively and there aren't many out there. Bottom line is, you're stuck with what's available and paying another agency to build a plugin or API just adds more costs to a web project and who wants that? It's the bad of website built using proprietary CMS.

The Ugly

It's probably the biggest downfall of proprietary CMS and I discuss it in greater length in this post, but here it is: You're stuck with the agency that built your website as long as you'd like to use it. BAM. It's a tough one to swallow, and the primary reason that we'd recommend using open source 9 times out of 10. Not having the flexibility of changing agencies when dissatisfied with the product, support or people involved leaves you very little flexibility. It can often leave you stuck in long term contracts giving very little incentive to the agency to make sure you stay satisfied after the product launch. In our experience, agencies that sell and build websites using proprietary CMS are plagued with bad service and support records. It's the elephant in the room and there's just no ignoring it.

THANKS FOR READING:

Remember, choosing the right agency is crucial task. You need to evaluate the agency in a variety of ways, one of which is what CMS they are building in. This decision will have a profound impact on the effectiveness of the website as well as your satisfaction with the results. 

Check back soon, in the next part of this series we examine using Open Source CMS as a platform and all the pros and cons that go with!