Proprietary vs open source - which should you choose?

When investing in new software, IT managers tend to focus on features, price, support and warranty, as opposed to whether or not the product is open source.

However, as IT budgets continue to be squeezed in Australia and New Zealand, the lack of upfront costs associated with open source software and the level to which it can be customised is becoming increasingly appealing.

Further, with open source comes a freedom from licensing, which means that businesses can stretch this existing infrastructure further without having to pay for upgrades. But let’s not forget that this isn’t the solution for everyone and the long-term needs of your customers must be at the forefront of this consideration.

To a stretched IT department with a lack of resources, the promise of unlimited usage without support costs might seem like a win-win situation.

Yet, there are still some important reasons as to why businesses might be able to provide their customers with a better deal with proprietary software rather than open source, and keep them coming back time and again.

Transparency in pricing

Proprietary software has a major advantage over its open source rivals, which is transparency in its pricing. It might cost more up-front, but if money is tight, that’s often better than the alternative scenario where an unknown amount of money may be needed to bring it up to spec.

While many open source products are initially cheaper, this might only be for a ‘bare-bones’ version of the software, which will require investment in a more expensive version to carry out all the functions an organisation might need from it. Why not sell products with all the options available straight away, so there’s no need for extra man-hours spent customising their new acquisition?

Moreover, customers who have paid less for less may well feel short-changed, no matter how little they paid for their product in the first place.

Dedicated support

This leads on to the problem of support, which is a significant concern of large organisations that have not adopted open source. Depending on the skill of the developers, some open source projects might be made with the same degree of polish and user-friendliness as proprietary versions, but some may be less well designed and require extensive set-up and modification to work on the customer’s system.

Open source projects are often community led, which cuts development costs down to a minimum, but the quality and availability of any follow-up support depends entirely on the continued participation of the community that built it.

That support may only exist for as long as the community are willing to provide it, and may have to be outsourced at an inflated cost if their IT departments can’t manage it.

Strategic software updates

All software requires fixes and updates to keep up with the latest developments in technology, whether that is making it compatible with a new operating system or a new web browser. Commercially produced software has an agreed schedule for updates and, while it remains supported, these updates will continue to be produced.

If a project is community driven, updates will only continue as long as the community has the time and the will to produce them. If key developers move on, again there is no guarantee that there will be anybody to replace them.

This leads on to the next point - if regular updates are being made, there is no guarantee that the product will keep moving in a direction that an organisation’s customer wants. If there is a change in direction or a change in personnel at the developer’s end, updates could end up altering or removing key features that they want to use.

A business moves with its customers, but an open source product is under no financial pressure to do the same.

Reduced risk

Finally, while it is true that off-the-shelf software might not be able to compete with the initially low price of an open source product, customers are likely to shoulder much less risk if they buy commercial rather than open source.

While price is a significant factor in a customer’s decision, the overriding concern in the end is performance. The guaranteed support network behind commercial software provides enormous added value behind an organisation’s service that can never be replaced by a low price.

A large company with a sizeable IT department may well be able to utilise open source software to its full potential, and make financial savings as a result. But a small company, where resources are limited to support its own use of the software, may come unstuck and it won’t be too long before customers become quickly unsatisfied.

Image courtesy Ming Dong under CC.