Today’s digital landscape is rife with plenty of so-called “freemium” software, which often means they are able to cut costs by leaving out necessary features while allowing third-party developers to fill these needs through an online marketplace. The initial low entry cost may seem appealing for many SMEs who just want to get their business up and running online, but there are serious dangers associated with this approach.
1.Security
When every developer has access to your software, it can make it far more open to vulnerabilities. There have been plenty of examples of hackers freezing or restricting access to sites using popular software because of hidden vulnerabilities which exist as a result of this third-party ecosystem, and this is not a risk that any SME should be willing to undertake.
2.Reliability
It’s tempting to see a massive garden of third-party extensions and tools that seem to cover your every need, but developers come and go all the time. There’s no guarantee that they’ll continue to support a particular feature or service if something happens to them, which is not an uncommon risk for many smaller developers. If you are relying on many custom tools and plugins, you may have to continually restructure your entire site when things change, which is a bad look for your business and customers.
3.Price
It seems obvious that a free software would lower the cost of business, right? Well, that’s often not the case. Since plenty of “free” software simply doesn’t offer key features off the bat, the client has to pay a premium for tools that are a necessity, especially when your business expands and you suddenly need to use multiple currencies, promotional tools, and other plugins that quickly balloon your monthly costs to unreasonable levels. In the long run, you’ll often save money by simply paying a flat fee for having all features included.
4.Interconnectivity
Finally, the biggest flaw is the fact that when you have multiple third-party programs that nominally are connected, their level of integration is entirely up to the third-party developer using the API. They simply aren’t going to put the level of detail and thought into integrating with the original software that the primary developers will, and this can mean integrations that only work for a limited number of cases. Often, these integrations are also buggy as well, or they fail to take into account all the pieces of customer data that are required to gain a holistic view of your entire online business. One of the reasons Google’s business software has been so successful is because it’s so well-integrated with their other tools such as Google Translate and Google Drive.
Ultimately, SMEs will be able to be even more successful once they stop relying on these piecemeal programs that only offer temporary or expensive solutions. DG1 has everything SMEs need to succeed without blocking off features based on pricing, making it simple for SMEs to start growing their online business without having to worry that they will need to restructure their website every time they grow.
Read more here:
https://dg1.com/pricing
Tags: software, affordable, online, profits, growth, SMEs, integration, security, marketing, e-commerce, reliability, business
