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What is Closed Source Web Hosting?
Closed Source Web Hosting is when a website is hosted from servers on a proprietary platform. This means that only websites containing that Closed Source’s CMS are allowed on that Hosting platform.
What is Open Source Hosting?
Open Source Hosting is when a Hosting platform hosts websites regardless of CMS. As long as the CMS is also Open Source and thereby allowed to be hosted from any server, then it could be hosted on an Open Source Hosting Provider.
What is an Open Source Content Management System?
And Open Source Content Management System (CMS) is basically software that is used to create websites. I’m sure you have noticed, whenever you visit a website it has a front page, a header, a footer, columns, boxes etc.
A CMS also allows you to organize and design all these types of features and structure your website including colors as well as visuals and functions in any way you like.
Best of all, an Open Source Content Management System can be hosted on any Web Hosting Provider, usually an Open Source Hosting Provider that will allow a CMS to be hosted on their servers.
What’s the difference between Open Source and Closed Source Hosting?
A Closed Source Hosting platform will only host the CMS that is proprietary to that platform. A Closed Source CMS for example will not host any other CMS on their platform.
Let’s say you were to have a WordPress website, which is an Open Source CMS, you wouldn’t be able to host it on a Shopify Hosting platform nor on Shopify’s servers.
However, you can host a Shopify CMS on the Shopify platform.
As I’ve just mentioned, you can host a Shopify CMS website on a Shopify platform. But you cannot host a Shopify website on any other platform, Open or Closed Source Hosting platform.
Is Open or Closed Source Hosting better?
In my opinion, Open Source Hosting is far better and Closed Source Hosting. Why? Simply because if you have an Open Source CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or any other Open Source CMS, you own your website.
That means you can customize it with whatever theme you like and you can also add any plugins you like to make it function in the way you want it to function, etc.
You can also take an Open Source CMS website and host it on any Web Hosting platform except on Closed Source Hosting platforms. If this seems confusing, it really isn’t.
You might think well what’s the difference if Open Source Hosting can only host other Open Source CMSs and Closed Sourced Hosting can only host Closed Source CMSs. Where’s the difference?
The difference is on a Closed Source platform like Shopify you cannot host a Wix website (Closed Source CMS) nor a Joomla website nor a Drupal website etc.
Whereas with an Open Source Hosting platform you can host not only WordPress, but Joomla, Drupal as well as any other non-proprietary and Open Source CMS as well as applications.
In a Closed Source Hosting environment you’re only allowed to host the CMS made for that Closed Source platform and no other CMS including other Closed Source CMS’s can be hosted there.
Is Shopify a Closed Source CMS?
As I briefly mentioned above Shopify is a Closed Source CMS. In addition, Shopify is also a Closed Source Hosting platform.
So if you have a WordPress website and want to go all in and turn it into a Shopify store, you would have to get a whole new Shopify theme as well as plugins in order for Shopify to host it on their servers.
The converse is true however, if you decide to take your Shopify website and ecommerce store off of Shopify’s Hosting platform to another Web Hosting Provider, you would also need to get a new theme, plugins etc.
In other words you can’t do it. Since Shopify’s CMS is not only Closed Source, but it is also proprietary and can only be hosted on Shopify Hosting servers.
Are all websites Open Source?
All websites are not Open Source. You do have Open Source websites that are made from Open Source CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal as well as a few others.
However, you also have websites that are Closed Source CMS like Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly, etc.
What is a Closed Source CMS?
A Closed Source CMS is a CMS that is owned by a particular company. This means that all themes and plugins etc. are proprietary.
This also means that although you may create your own custom theme with a Closed Source CMS, you can only host that website on that particular Closed CMS Hosting platform.
Any customizations that you have made or purchased including any themes or plugins are not transferable to any other Web Hosting platform or Provider. Whether that Web Hosting Provider is Open or Closed Source.
By having a Closed Source CMS you are basically stuck with that particular Closed Source CMS’s Hosting as well.
Is Wix a Closed Source CMS?
Wix is a Closed Source CMS. This means as I’ve mentioned throughout the post that you can only have your Wix website hosted on Wix’s Closed Source proprietary Hosting platform.
In fact, any website you create with Wix themes, plugins etc. as well as customizations are also proprietary.
This means that you cannot simply take your Wix website and host it on any other platform whether that is another Closed Source platform like Shopify or if it’s an Open Source platform like any number of independent Web Hosting Providers.
So for example if Wix decides to raise its Hosting fees, you cannot simply migrate your Wix website to another Web Hosting Provider since Wix’s CMS as well as their Hosting platform are all proprietary.
Another example is if you have a bad experience with Wix’s customer service or website support, you also cannot move and migrate your Wix website to another Web Hosting platform.
Closed Source or Open Source Hosting conclusions.
As you can see, it is obvious that I prefer Open Source Hosting to Closed Source Hosting. All for the same reasons I prefer an Open Source CMS like WordPress to any Closed Source CMS like Wix, Shopify, Squarespace etc.
You have so much more control, especially when it comes to scaling your website as well as pricing and performance flexibility with an Open Source CMS and Hosting.
Whereas with a Closed Source CMS and Hosting, you go through all the trouble of creating a website that you can never truly own. Somehow, it doesn’t seem right.
With an Open Source CMS, you not only own the website that you create including the themes and plugins, whether you buy them, make them yourself or even get free ones, they are all yours to keep.
You can even host an Open Source CMS on your own server at home if you want to go through all that trouble.
You cannot do that with a Closed Source CMS though, which needs to be hosted on their proprietary Closed Source Hosting platform.
Hopefully, you can see how limiting a Closed Source CMS is as well as Hosting are for the website owner. To me, there’s no other choice but Open Source.
Whether that Open Source is WordPress or another Open Source CMS.
You have much more control, flexibility and freedom to build whatever you like and to host it on any Open Source Hosting platform you like as well. It’s a no-brainer.
