TYPO3 vs. commercial CMS

There are a large number of commercial Content Management Systems that are primarily intended for implementation in business-critical environments.

The best known of the mature and established Web CMS solutions are surely the products from Open Text with RedDot CMS and Vignette, Autonomy with Interwoven and ECM with Documentum (which as of 2010 will be no longer supported by EMC).

The problem of "Vendor-Lock": The principle problem for users of commercial solutions is that they become, to all intents and purposes, tied to a particular CMS provider. The entire software architecture and even the interfaces are the provider’s proprietary developments and thus especially programmed for use with that particular Web CMS. Thanks to this “Vendor-Lock” effect, extended functions are only possible if the math adds up: in other words if enough people want them for it to be worth the provider’s while to develop and offer them. Special extensions, designed to meet the specific requirements of an individual company, are either not available at all, or only at a considerable price.
Expensive adaptations with commercial CMS: The integration of an Enterprise CMS by a specialist provider doesn’t come cheap. Specialized competences have their price and the more valuable the CMS and the more specialized the adaptations required, the higher the costs involved. To this must be added the license fee for the software and, where necessary, the cost of specialized hardware to ensure optimum running. The provider usually offers a full support and maintenance service although, as mentioned previously, this is generally only for the program components on offer. Special functions must either be paid for at a premium or are often unavailable, on account of Legacy Architecture.
The problem of “market cleansing” in the CMS segment: And of course one can never be certain that today’s CMS solution from today’s provider, including support and maintenance, will still be there tomorrow. The IT and software branch is currently undergoing a major shakedown and commercial Content Management System providers are particularly hard hit: several once well-established products have been taken over by their competitors in recent years (e.g. Gauss, RedDot, Vignette, Interwoven), and whether these products will be continued by their new owners in the years to come is an open question. If a solution disappears from the market, it becomes increasingly difficult for users to get support and know-how becomes a rarity.

Not so with an established Open Source Enterprise Web Content Management System such as TYPO3 that profits from the ongoing development efforts of an enthusiastic world-wide community of independent companies, developers and designers:

With TYPO3 you avoid the “Vendor Lock-in” effect

TYPO3 brings together all the advantages of major commercial CMS as well as Open Source Web Content Management systems: high quality source code programming, a stable, robust and high performance system which, thanks to the work of our own TYPO3 Association security team, offers a high level of protection from hacker attacks or hijacking of the business-critical company website.

Furthermore, an Open Source CMS such as TYPO3 is significantly more future-proof than a commercial one: an individual service provider might fold, but an Open Source project itself cannot simply vanish from the marketplace the way commercial products sometimes do. Since thousands of supporters world-wide are constantly working to improve the software, “vanishing” is a practical impossibility. And since the know-how itself is freely available to all, the client is at liberty to change provider to another specialist without any risk of loss or damage to the company CMS, which in a worst case scenario for a commercial product – for example if the provider company is insolvent – is simply not an option!

And in addition, TYPO3 is significantly cheaper!

The most obvious advantage of an Open Source Web CMS solution over a commercial one is not only the scalability and freedom of choice, but also obviously the cost issue.

Open Source is never free of charge, but it is free of license fees. And because there is no license fee and consulting costs are lower in the Open Source field than is the case with commercial solutions, implementing TYPO3 as your Enterprise Web CMS compares very favorably financially, offering the following economic advantages: