Three Benefits of Open Source Web Design

Three Benefits of Open Source Web Design

When evaluating options for your e-commerce website, it’s important to consider the following options: adaptability, flexibility, and performance. Many web design platforms are standard in terms of how they operate for every client. Furthermore, the developers for that web design platform may work on a project and then discard it, only to return to it years later for a new release.

Open source software is software where the original source code is freely available. Some examples of open source projects include Linux, WordPress, and one of the leading available searching engines in Mozilla Firefox.

Open source software has the added benefit of drawing on the entire community of coders. When one coder wants to make a change, it can be implemented in the original source code. This process leads to the organic development of software.

One new company is trying to aid designers of e-commerce websites through open source code. The company (and software) is called Magento and it uses both a relational database system and PHP, which is a server-scripted language, to provide software that enables a designer of e-commerce websites to produce the result they want to.

With web development increasing in importance every day, Magento websites may stand out through the options of adaptability, flexibility, and performance. Here are a few examples.

An open source code is naturally adaptable to many kinds of situations. While Magento websites often adhere to a basic e-commerce template (the themes and the code can be altered), the gain of using open source code is that the software can evolve to suit different situations. A bug may be quickly fixed or a problem with CSS may be resolved because Magento has over 100,000 coders contributing to the project.

Flexibility is important as well. Magento software allows for the altering of the code–whether that is PHP, CSS, or HTML. There are also server related tools that come along with Magento hosting, and the ability to choose between four different software packages that come with different specs and qualifications (one of those packages is free and available for download).

The final issue to consider with Magento websites is performance. While their coding process is both adaptable and flexible, Magento allows for total lower cost of ownership (reducing cost for the e-commerce business owner) while offering analytics, support, and hosting.

The main key with choosing any company that allows multiple uses (in Magento’s case, the software, the support, the hosting, and the analytics) is to think carefully about the entire package. With this many options, the process would seem less like simply purchasing a product and more like entering into a relationship with a company.

Education on the value of open source versus closed source is critical too.

With any open source package, however, it’s easy to test it out for yourself. Magento web design is available free for anyone, with a simple download and click.