Every company or organization nowadays has to use some kind of software in order to finish certain tasks, operations, or run marketing campaigns. Computers really changed the way many businesses work, and the truth is that without proper IT support, you will be overrun by your competitors in the corporate world.
Today we’re talking about the difference between commercial and open-source software, so if you are interested in learning more, feel free to continue reading until the end. Here’s what you need to know.
Every business owner that needs a personalized software needs to make a choice between two options. Choosing a commercial software or open-source software. If you are not familiar with these two terms, worry not, we’ll explain everything.
What is a Commercial Software?
As echoua explains, commercial Software is software that’s made and delivered for purely commercial purposes. The companies that make this kind of software are usually going “all-in” on the product and constantly support it with regular updates, dedicated customer support, and non-stop bug-fixes. Also, when you’re purchasing commercial software, you’re getting a legitimate and well-documented license that guarantees you have support behind it at all times.
One of the main reasons why companies choose commercial software is because they know that if a certain issue arises, you have a huge team that you can address it to, and they’ll take care of it. For open-source software, it is quite different.
What is open-source software?
According to many people, open-source software is one of the best things that happened in the IT fields. It’s basically software that’s made by someone else, but it is uploaded with the source-code online for everyone to see and use. This means that you don’t have to pay in order to use it, but there are quite a few drawbacks as well.
First of all, with open-source software, you are not getting any license, and there are no support teams behind it that are dedicated and open 24/7 to help you with a problem. Next, finding an open-source software that is exactly like the one you need is quite hard, but you can always take certain fragments and functions of code and modify it for your cause, greatly reducing the amount of work that needs to be done in order to get it to function properly for your needs.
These types of software receive updates from time to time, but it’s nothing compared to the regular updates that commercial software receives. According to a few statistics, back in 2018, about seven hundred million dollars were lost in IT technical debt in all US-based businesses due to legacy system problems. By “legacy system problems,” we mean software that isn’t updated frequently and fails to keep up with all the latest changes that are happening in the world of technology, and the IT department in particular. If someone that made the open-source software decides to cancel it for whatever reason, you will be left without a solution in your business field, and you’ll need to transition to something else, which will cost you a lot of time and money.
