It may appear on the surface that a company who owns its own proprietary CMS software may be the best route to go for your website or for your website needs. That isn’t always the case. When building sites on these platforms, you lose the ability to be fluid with the site. If you as a client decide you want to leave, it may not be possible to take the site with you and it certainly doesn’t provide you the flexibility to be more creative. There are other disadvantages in utilizing proprietary CMS platforms.
Sites should not be built on the CMS platform
This means you cannot move into more creative directions with your website. In other words, the way your site, and the functionality of it are confined into a set of rules owned by the company. There are heavy restrictions in using it, and oftentimes the coding is kept secret. As business changes – certainly as your clientele changes, you will require more flexibility for your website and its functionality. Without that freedom, you are doing your site a disservice. Templates don’t make good websites and it is obvious, costing users valuable dollars.
Dealing with salesmen is not productive
You do work with a design team and not a sales team. Working with a sales team, they are not interested in how your site looks; rather, they are looking for their next sale or the bottom line. Proprietary software often has an expiration date and the renewal is pricy. Working with a design team with a design firm gives you the flexibility to work within the confines of your own imagination and you’re not getting charged absorbent amounts of money to make changes.
You are not tied to a yearly contract
When you sign on with a firm to use their proprietary software you are usually signing on to a yearly contract. This is especially dangerous for those clients who require constant updates and changes to their site. Once a company that offers proprietary software obtains your contract, there is little you can do to take it elsewhere to get what you need done to the site. Terms of breaking a contract can also be abnormally high.
Industries such as medical, aviation and corporate have needs and requirements for their website that can’t be confined within a template and a set of rules put forth by the company that own the CMS software. In order to be effective, it is vital that changes and updates, management, maintenance and programming issues can be addressed in a timely manner.
Instead, consider a local web designer that can create your site without the rules and requirements. You will net better benefits by doing that and the flexibility will be nice. Don’t get a hard sell from someone with proprietary software. It’s not worth it and you will save money, time – and headaches when you get your site designed by a local designer.