Rent Or Own Your Website? Part 2

I just got off the phone with Kristine, one of my design partners. We were talking about a new client who has her Web Mama eCart, which is the same software as the Shop Kit Plus. This client is moving from their current host to my hosting because of issues with the database on other company’s server.

While I had Kristine on the phone, I asked her to take a peek at the Rent Or Own Your Website post I wrote on July 23. I wanted to know if she thought I was out of line with what I wrote.

And I figured she’d be the perfect person to let me know, seeing how she is a competitor and design partner, too.

Kristine pointed out that the license is indeed owned by the software developer. The reseller cannot sell ownership of the cart, only the right to use the cart under specific circumstances. Which brings me to something she pointed out something that I hadn’t even thought about when writing the original post.
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Rent Or Own Your Website?

One of my Watersweb Shops competitors claims on her website that while her cart is the same as many other similar carts, hers is better because you can actually own it.

From her site directly:

However, the AAO Easy Site Builder plan offers the ability for the customer to actually OWN your shopping cart/site builder! There are NO differences in our site builder when compared to the other sites listed.

All other plans on the list are for a monthly “rental” of the cart and hosting, but you will not be able to take the cart with you if you should ever leave their hosting. If you ever left your host you would essentially be leaving your web site!

Now, before I make any comments, I want to state for the record that I’m not trying to suggest that there is any reason to not use her service. As I (and the website) mentioned, the cart is essentially the same.

That said, I’d like to point out that you really cannot truly own your shopping cart and sitebuilder or your web hosting account. Well, you could, but the expense and learning curve would be outrageous for a small home business. I’ll talk about that more in a bit.

I am intimately familiar with the shopping cart/sitebuilder that this site discusses, and know for a fact that the only owner of the software is the developer who created it. She then licenses the right to resell the cart. The resellers then license the right to use the cart. So, at this point, you can’t really own the cart, no matter what anyone says.

Let’s talk a bit about the hosting account. She is right in that with her version of the cart, you can take it from one hosting account to another without starting over. (Of course, if you decided you wanted to switch carts, you’d still have to start over.)

With the other competitors and our ecommerce solution, you must host the cart on our servers. (FTR, I do allow you to purchase an un-hosted license, but it does not come with free support.) We do this so we can immediately rule out server issues when problems arise, cutting out situations where the host says the problem is with the cart and the cart owners says the problem is with the host… And you’re stuck in the middle.

Sounds like “renting” isn’t so bad now. Or maybe you’re not convinced. You really want to completely own your website.

We talked about some of the basics of owning your copyright and your domain name in an earlier blog post. Those are very important tips to remember. But should we take it further? Should we make sure we completely own the website? Let’s talk about what this would require.

First, to truly own your website 100%, you’ll need your own server. This means you’re have to purchase and/or install:

• Computer and networking hardware
• Server software (Apache web server)
• Email software (Argosoft Email Server)
• FTP software (BulletProof FTP)
• Database software (MySQL)
• Script software (PHP, CGI, etc.)
• DNS software (SimpleDNS)

And that will just get your server up and running. According to one do it yourself web server site, you can use your own DSL or cable connection to connect to the Internet, if your ISP allows it.

Of course, if all of this sounds like Greek to you, you’ll also need to hire someone to update your server, maintain it and troubleshoot problems. That’s where you start running into some money…

On the other hand, if you’ve been digging around the innards of computers since 1986, this might be right up your alley.

Let’s take this a step further though. If you’re wanting to truly own your site, you will need to hire someone to create a cart for you. And you’ll need to make sure that your contract with the programmer gives you full ownership rights over the final product. Otherwise, if you just outsource the project, the creator of the code is the owner and he may just license you the right to use the code. So, you’ll have paid thousands of dollars - -and be right back where you started.

So now you own your web server and you’ve purchase your very own cart. If you really want to own everything, you’re going to need to create your own payment gateway. Authorize.net and Paypal take their cut of your money, so let’s go all the way and create your own. And while we’re at it, let’s start your own bank.

OK, so yes, I’m taking this way out into left field.

But let’s look at it. What’s the purpose of having a website? It will make running your business more effective, cost efficient and just plain easier. And what is the best way to do this? Outsource tasks to people who specialize in what you need.

So yes, outsourcing your web hosting makes sense. You don’t own the server — but it doesn’t own you either. When problems arise, you submit a helpdesk ticket and someone else worries about it.

“Renting” a shopping cart makes sense for the same reason. If you have trouble, you know exactly who to turn to for help — and you may not even have to pay extra for it, if it’s on their servers.

What’s the morale of this story?

1. It’s OK to “rent” your hosting and shopping cart. It’s even a smart business decision to outsource your critical services to experts.
2. Make sure you choose the right host and the right cart for the long term, even if it means spending more. Then you won’t have to worry about changing hosts or shopping carts.