Is LightCMS Worth the Cost?
We hear it all the time — "why should I pay for LightCMS when there are other free (or less expensive) options available?" It's a valid question, and one we don't mind answering.
Time Is Money
Yeah, it's a cliche, but that doesn't make it any less true. Time is just as valuable as money, so when you're evaluating the "cost" of your CMS, you have to look at more than just the sticker price. After all, if you're spending your time training, supporting, or troubleshooting for your clients, you're not spending that time designing or building your business. That's why LightCMS maintains a focus on ease-of-use. Everything we develop is built to keep your clients' learning curves short, which saves you time.
But there's also time involved in installing, upgrading, troubleshooting and maintaining the hosting of "free" and even some paid CMS systems. Often, CMS tools require you to host them yourself and a single installation can require significant time to manage. Now, multiply that by however many client websites you plan to develop and you can see that the time really adds up. With LightCMS, on the other hand, you never have to mess with the software. No matter how many sites you add, we handle everything for you. Again, this saves you tons of time that you can use to build your design business.
You Get What You Pay For
Sure, it's also a cliche' but just as true. Here are a few of the valuable advantages of a paid system like LightCMS.
Quality Hosting Included
Hosting is included in LightCMS's monthly fee. And not just any hosting, this is quality hosting. Let's face it, hosting solutions are not all created equal. When you use inexpensive hosting for your own sites, you're generally sharing space on inferior servers. You're prone to lots of downtime, poor customer support, and endless frustration. On the other hand, LightCMS is hosted on our own cloud hosting infrastructure, on high-end servers in a top-tier datacenter. It's very expensive, but the scale of our software allows us to provide this level of hosting to our customers. Free or cheap products cannot provide the same quality of hosting, and the difference is very noticeable.
Free, Seamless Upgrades
Good open-source products do provide regular upgrades, but you're responsible to install and configure them. This can take a lot of time even for one site, let alone when you have tens or hundreds of clients. And then what if something goes wrong? You'll spend loads of time troubleshooting. With a hosted solution like LightCMS, you never mess with upgrades, configurations, servers or anything. Our team of developers continually improves the software in a controlled environment. New updates are rolled out constantly behind the scenes while you spend your time designing.
Dedicated, Person-to-Person Support
When you're building your business around a product, you can't afford to scrimp on support. You need to know who will be standing beside you when your clients have issues that you can't resolve on your own. You need to ask "who is behind this product?" With LightCMS, you can simply email our knowledgeable support team at any time and expect a prompt reply. You also get continually updated online resources and a staff-monitored user forum. Part of the value of paying for a CMS is getting solid support in return.
Built-In Features
Many free and open-sourced systems offer only basic functionality in the core, with other pieces of functionality available through plug-ins or add-ons. Extending software with plugins can make things more complicated for you clients and more difficult for you to maintain. With LightCMS, all of the functionality is built right into the software in a seamless way. It's all laid out logically for the user to discover and use, and it's all maintained by us behind the scenes. Plus, we constantly add new features that are rolled out effortlessly to all your client sites as they are released.
Ease of Use
Less really is more. Systems that "do everything" most always end up complicated and difficult to understand. That's why LightCMS maintains a clear focus on simplicity. We don't aim to do everything, only to do what you need to build a successful web design business.
A Focus on Your Business
Most other systems don't have your business as the priority in their product development, but LightCMS does. Our number one objective is to create a tool that helps your business succeed. Having been in the web design business since 1999, our company knows what it takes to succeed. We know how difficult it is to support a growing client base. We've taken it all into account and designed LightCMS specifically to help web designers build a business around our product. You won't find another product, free or paid, as serious about your business as LightCMS.
See the Difference for Yourself
We can make a good argument, but at the end of the day, you've got to see it for yourself and make a decision. Fortunately, LightCMS is free to try for as long as you like, with no obligation. Create a free account in minutes and take a look around. If you still have questions, just let us know and one of our dedicated team members will be happy to help you out. We're confident that once you give us a try, you'll be sold on the difference a paid solution like LightCMS can make for your business.