After reading an article written by a marketing automation software vendor that stunned me, I wanted to shed some light on these false and deceitful statements, which clearly show the philosophy and values of certain players in the market.
Without bashing or pointing fingers at these people, I will simply take an educational approach and explain why what is being said is extremely false and malicious, or at best demonstrates the incompetence of certain people.
The context
Here is what I was able to read in this article (up to that point rather coherent) helping companies select their marketing automation software, as we offer at Webmecanik.
Laws are evolving, and data ownership has become an important element in software decision-making. Although American companies continue to be marketed in Europe thanks to the Privacy Shield, nothing guarantees long-term GDPR compliance for data not hosted on national territory.
It is a bit the same with open source solutions: since their roadmap is open, one is exposed to major versions such as Mautic 3, which could very well force all its users, and those of its resellers, to carry out a migration equivalent to changing software, which would make the TCO of these solutions explode.
You will understand that it is not the first paragraph that bothers me, quite the opposite, especially since it helps to understand the following one. And that is exactly where the problem lies.
Open Source
For those who are not very familiar with Open Source, here is my very simple and quick explanation. An Open Source project is a project whose source code is open. In other words, anyone can access the solution’s code for free and do (almost) whatever they want with it. Host it themselves, modify it, integrate it into another app, etc. Anyone who wishes can contribute to the evolution of this code (the app) so that all the other users can benefit from these developments. This is what we call the Open Source community. However, there are administrators who lead this community and make sure that proposed code and features move in a logical and useful direction for the majority of the project’s users. For example, I personally am part of Mautic’s Core team with around ten other people to ensure the consistency of developments.
A few examples of Open Source projects that will show you that this is far from being a problem: WordPress, Magento, Prestashop, Drupal. Even Google, Facebook and Microsoft now provide the majority of their code (frameworks) as Open Source. So you can imagine just how dangerous it is to bet on Open Source (laughter). And finally, please note that the majority (all of them?) of proprietary applications (like at this vendor) are based on code (framework) that is itself Open Source (PHP, Java, Symfony, etc.), Ruby in the case of our favorite proprietary vendor…
Well then, they’ve been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
The reality of Open Source vs. proprietary software
Now let’s go back to this quote point by point and compare how proprietary software (the vendor who wrote this sentence) and the Open Source world operate.
- The open roadmap – It is true: an Open Source project allows everyone to contribute. So instead of having a team of 2 or 10 developers, you can have hundreds of developers working on the project at the same time! And as I explained, there are administrators who ensure the consistency of the proposed developments and do not hesitate to ask contributors for changes, or even reject their contribution if it is not suitable. The philosophy, then, is to put the user at the center of the roadmap. The proprietary vendor and its roadmap? It is the only one deciding, with a limited team that has to handle features and maintenance (we will come back to that later).
- Major versions – A major version is when your application undergoes a very large update. That will be the case for Mautic 3 (moving from 2.x to 3.0). This kind of update also allows for certain code or feature incompatibilities between the two versions, which must be anticipated and announced in the update messages. However, to “be exposed” implies being put at risk by this change. In the case of Mautic 3, this major version has 2 objectives: update the version of Symfony (framework) being used, whose community support will end in 2019 (for your information, it is one of the most widely used PHP frameworks in the world), and bring a structural overhaul to certain elements of the application to make it even more modern, flexible, high-performing and modular. All applications have version updates (WordPress 5.0.2, Drupal 8.6.5, etc.); if your web application does not have version updates, you should worry! That means you have no functional evolution and that your application’s security is deteriorating! Oh yes, I forgot: the proprietary vendor will have to manage code version updates (language or framework) on its own at the same time as features, which is to say everything moves more slowly.
- Forcing users to migrate all their data – Now that… is both true and false. It depends on the vendor’s policy. As for us (since we are being targeted in “all its users, and those of its resellers“), we have already communicated on this in a post about Mautic 3 and the way we are approaching it as the main contributor to this community project. We will ensure the migration of data between the two versions; it must bring value to our users, not take it away. This allegation is therefore false in our case. Proof by example: we already carried out a major version migration 2 years ago from Mautic 1 to Mautic 2. No client had to rebuild their campaigns!
So ends this explanation, which I hope will show you just how much the community-based and Open Source approach provides real added value for all developers and users. If you would like to read more about Open Source, I also wrote an article on the philosophy of Open Source.
This kind of statement, intended to scare users, scares me as well… competition between competitors must not be based on allegations and denigrating others, but on demonstrating each party’s strengths. There is room for everyone in the market, so please remain respectful of your peers and avoid misinformation. And as for you, dear businesses, prospects and clients, remember to choose a vendor that shares your values !
