Date: September 11, 2025
The Importance of Website Ownership
Have you ever thought about who owns your website? Many services own the code powering your website. Open source vs. propriety technology can be a real deal breaker for some businesses. This is a topic that is often forgotten about, and it’s an important decision for any project. Allowing a large company to own your digital presence can severely hinder any business owners possibilities.
Why you Should Care
Your website is a living organism that’s part of your business. It should be able to grow and match your needs. Owning your code ensures you have control of the future of your website. Since they can become such a large and vital part of your business it’s important consider your options carefully.
When researching how your website will be built it’s important to read people’s personal experiences with them. Some people have absolute nightmare stories with some providers, while sometimes those issues are far and few between.
Pros of Proprietary Websites
These companies make setting up a website easy for anybody. With zero coding knowledge or design skills, anyone can put up a stylish working website. They will typically take care of hosting, security, and maintenance as part of their pricing plans.
Cons of Proprietary Websites
Setting up a website with these companies means you’re signing away your ownership. They force you into their ecosystems limiting you to their services. You’re dependent on the companies ability to update, and push their platform forward. If you’re not happy with their services you won’t be able to move your website to another hosting service. You can also be limited in customizing the sites appearance and functionality. Relying on a single company for everything can be a double edged sword, either making websites easy, or an absolute nightmare.
Our Opinion on Proprietary Technology
Proprietary platforms are currently the easiest ways for small business owners to create beautiful websites at a low cost. Most allow you to add your own custom code, but still get criticized for a lack of customization features.
There’s also plenty of stories from consumers losing “ownership” they never had to begin with over errors they have nothing to do with. Countless frustrated website owners having to rebuild their entire website when switching platforms when they’re not happy.
At Right Syntax one of our largest goals is to set our clients up for future proof success. The last thing they should worry about is the actual technology powering their website. We feel that open source platforms are the most secure way to go for business owners
Examples of Open Source Websites
These are some of the most used open source platforms:
Pros of Open Source
Open source platforms give owners full control of their websites. These have unlimited flexibility and customization options. Biggest pro of open source websites? You own your website. Don’t like your provider? Bundle your files up and move to a different hosting service. You’ll no longer need to worry about the health of a corporate company for your website.
Cons of Open Source
These platforms can have a much steeper learning curve so setting websites up isn’t as simple. Most platforms don’t offer a simple UI for non experienced users. Site maintenance, security, and backups are handled by the website owner as well. Some might argue this is a benefit though.
Why we Choose WordPress
Standing the test of time WordPress has been a reliable CMS for business owners. Allowing for infinite flexibility it’s the perfect platform for a business to grow on. With an open source code there’s plenty of talented developers and a large community pushing the platform forward. WordPress allows us to own our websites enforcing our confidence in our future proof services.
WordPress is the most popular open source platform out there. Finding talented developers can be easy, and WordPress is always being pushed forward. You can feel safe for your online future with a well set up WordPress website.
What you Should Choose
For business owners with a small budget and no time to learn web development, platforms like Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify are great options. Do your own research on the pros and cons of each platform you’re interested in.
With either the budget or determination to learn yourself, we feel it’s best for business owners to invest in their future. When thinking about the future of your online presence it’s worth investing into your website from the beginning.
Conclusion
Using proprietary services has some benefits but it can severely hinder any website. These services give you the ability to create good looking websites quickly, but have underlying issues. From poor code, limited flexibility, and locked ecosystems these problems can really bare their fangs. It’s important for any business owner to weigh the pros and cons of open source vs. propriety technology to make the best decision for their future.