SiteWrench vs. Open Source
The allure of open source implementations with seemingly no/low monthly costs sounds attractive. However, evaluating the ongoing relationship and total cost of ownership quickly exposes the hidden costs. We can and do implement open source solutions, but here are a few reasons we believe SiteWrench® sets you up for a successful web partnership that achieves the best results for your organization.
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SiteWrench
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Open Source
(WordPress, Jooml, Drupal, etc)
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Setup Cost
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None
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Small to significant
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| Setup Time |
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Available Immediately
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Can take hours or days to implement core system and even more to find and install plug-ins
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| Hosting |
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Top-tier hosting is included
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Additional cost
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| Server Environment and Upgrades |
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Highest Tier Data Center with 24/7 monitoring, regular maintenance and equipment upgrades. 99.9% or better uptime
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Completely dependent upon your provider’s choice. Note: many server environments inhibit your ability to upgrade Open Source implementations. Typically low cost solutions are also low performance setups
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| Support and Training |
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Comprehensive support ticketing system, live phone support, free weekly training and fully documented website with help articles and videos
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Typically an added cost at your provider’s hourly support rate. Any documentation is written by developers for developers and is the responsibility of the open source community |
| Bug Fixes |
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Aggressively addressed and included with SiteWrench monthly license. It’s our system, so we’re in control of it |
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Dependent on the third party developer who made the plug-in or the maker of the CMS. This likely means that bug fixes are out of your vendor’s control |
| Standard New Features |
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New features added regularly (monthly or more often) as part of your plan |
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System you have today is the same system you’ll have 1 year later |
| Custom Feature Development |
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SiteWrench Development Team can create custom features very efficiently on the SiteWrench platform
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Custom feature development requires expertise in the codebase of the Open Source implementation. Building new features requires significant time and expertise.
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| Instant Scalability |
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Additional system features can be added instantly when you need them
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Not available. Your vendor must acquire, install and configure open source plug-ins
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What about a company that wants to implement an open source system for you?
There are many providers who use open source systems as their base for application development. We use our own system because we have complete control over all of the potential variables to provide the best and most reliable experience possible for our customers and ultimately your customers. Our model ensures that as technology changes and improves we will be able to quickly take advantage.
Consider this scenario. We build your website using open source program XYZ Version 3.0 and deploy it somewhere for you. Within a year (or less) XYZ Version 4.0 will be released. Suppose it has some new features and fixes several issues you're having right now. To take advantage of the upgrade we would have to create a new instance of your website using the new version and then conduct extensive testing to be sure that everything we built for you still works properly. It is highly likely that some things won't be compatible so we would have to do several hours of work for you to use the new version of the "free" software.
Because we own our system and control 100% of it we can make improvements and fixes as they are needed and everything works together. We don't implement a version that will eventually be out-dated. We are always working on SiteWrench and are always improving it which means that we are always working on and improving your website. You definitely don't get with a "free" system.
Have questions? Ready to get started? Contact us today!