Cost is one of the most practical reasons why many enterprises go for open source. Even large, resourceful organizations invest in open source development services. So many other businesses make serious contributions in the open source space. But why would they invest in it so much?

Because even though it has a few demerits, the benefits of using open source outweigh them. Here are a few of open source’s key benefits that are testament to the popularity of the technology in the present digital age.

Cheaper than other alternatives

“You get what you pay for” - this seems to be the old adage that’s invoked when people try to make a decision whether to choose open source technologies to overcome challenges in their business. Because they are practically free, people tend to think they won’t get a lot of benefits but there will be too much risks that could be detrimental in the long run. 

However, as long as the open source applications are researched before use or a custom solution developed instead, there won’t be any issues. In addition, company CFOs would be happier to see upfront and subscription costs, that proprietary applications demand, eliminated from the equation. Even if the open source solution comes with a licensing fee, it’d still be cheaper than the alternatives. 

Security concerns are typically few

The open source community is one of the largest tech communities in the world. A single open source application could have thousands of people working on it – augmenting the features, scanning the code for bugs, adding more functionalities etc. With that many brains working on it, serious problems are generally identified and fixed quickly. 

It’s also likely that even minor issues would be fixed without delay as the community is always ready to spend time to fix them. In proprietary software on the other hand, even a minor fix can take weeks or months. Only the publisher would be aware of the problems that exist within the software. 

Add to the features

According to software development Dubai, one of the most common concerns of people thinking of using proprietary software is what to do when the proprietary software they use lacks a feature they want. In such scenarios, they will have to submit a request to the publisher and wait to get a response. 

It may not be the highest priority for the publisher in most cases. Unless the user’s organization is big enough to get the attention of the publisher, this can take a while. You may not even get the feature either. 

When it comes to custom open source solutions, they can have it updated when necessary at their own time. The code is easily modifiable and there will always be support from the community as well. This is also one of the prime reasons behind the growth of open source ecommerce development. 

Flexible licensing

A typical commercial license can be ominous. Many people may run afoul of such licenses, receiving unexpected setbacks in return, especially if it’s from a large publisher. Open source licensing is much more flexible and permissive.

At least 2000 licenses are used with over 2 million open source projects today, of which some are of course restrictive. Nevertheless, the fact stands that it’s more flexible than proprietary licenses. The dual licensing trend also allows the licensor to use both open source and closed source licenses. The safe approach is to go through the license accompanying open source products, because violations could have similar consequences like when violating proprietary licenses.