One of the biggest benefits of using an open-source platform, or any other platform that’s free to use and modify, for your business is that you can do so without having to pay licensing fees. This benefit alone can save you tens of thousands of dollars in your first year alone, which is money that you can then funnel into growing your business even further! And if you don’t have the money, to begin with, the savings make it more likely that you’ll be able to start your own business in the first place.
Open Source usually costs less.
Customers often ask whether open source software is cheaper than proprietary software. The short answer: yes, it usually is.
The long answer: in most cases, proprietary software requires a license fee for every user, and that license fee can quickly add up when you're talking about thousands of users. Open-source software is frequently free to use and distribute because it's not subject to licensing fees.
There are additional costs associated with open source software that isn't typically incurred with proprietary software, but they tend to be offset by the savings gained from not having to pay the licensing fees. For example, you may need to pay a developer to customize the open-source software so that it meets your organization's needs but you would likely have to hire someone to do the same thing for a proprietary solution, even if it were marketed as "fully customizable."
Another important factor: more people are familiar with open source solutions than ever before, so hiring developers who are already familiar with the technology and can customize it without extensive training is easier now than it was ten years ago.
Open Source is known for its reliability, security, and support. (Not all)
It used to be that companies were skeptical of open-source software. It was unreliable, insecure, and there were no guarantees the company would continue to build or maintain it.
But today, that’s not the case at all. The open-source market has grown beyond expectations, and many of the most popular pieces of software are open source. In fact, a study from GitHub showed that 78 percent of people using open-source software believe it’s more secure than proprietary software.
This is a common misconception about open source: it’s easy to assume that because you can see the source code, hackers can too, and that makes it easier for them to find vulnerabilities or bugs. But that’s not true at all! Open-source software is more secure because everyone in the world has access to its code if someone finds a security flaw, they can quickly report it to the software’s creator. Compare this with proprietary software, where only the company knows about any security flaws—and they have no incentive to tell anyone else since they don’t want their customers to know their product is flawed!
Open Source has more flexibility for customization.
With open-source, customization happens from within, and you don’t have to wait months (or even years) for a software company to update your platform with new features. Instead, when you need something new and innovative, you or anyone else on your team can do it easily by customizing your own system or adding a plugin. No waiting involved!
For example, let's say one of your clients wants you to deliver projects in a new format that your current platform doesn't support. With proprietary software, you'd have to wait for the next release and then upgrade your entire system.
With an open-source, though, you can simply add a plugin that gives you exactly what you need. And since it's open-source, other people have already built plugins (and written documentation) on how they work. So instead of waiting weeks or months for an upgrade, you get what you need right away and spend almost no time getting up
Open Source is the preferred choice among developers.
The reason this matter is because software is constantly evolving. And when you're using something that's constantly evolving, you need to know the company behind it will be there for you, committed not just to the product but to you as a customer.
With open-source software, companies are making a commitment to users about what kind of product they should expect and how it will be supported. They commit to being transparent about the codebase and give other companies an opportunity to contribute code that can make their own lives better. It creates a community around the software itself where people are working together toward a common goal: make this tool better for everyone!
If you're looking for new tech solutions in 2022, I'd strongly recommend considering open source products. That way you'll have peace of mind knowing that any issues with your software will get fixed quickly because of all those developers out there working together on making it perfect!