Ask HN: Thoughts on CMS business | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Thoughts on CMS business

5 pointssamm328 comments

I have the opportunity to buy a 90% finished CMS web app. I'm really unsure as to the risk/opportunity since I know it's a very crowded space (with both free/open source and paid versions.) While I belive that this product will offer a solution that is different and more robust, I'm still somewhat skeptical.

The site basically functions to allow designers to outfit their client sites, giving them their own backend to control content. It is really well done and offers a great deal of customization and options.

Thanks in advance.

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My first startup was a CMS product in 1998. At the time, it was a terrific space, and we did well.

But by 2002, the space was filled, because CMS software just isn't that difficult to write. The factor that made it a viable business in 1998 was that most sites were still static HTML. A DB-driven site with dynamic content was a relatively new concept, so writing software to make it happen was a great opportunity.

But it seems like EVERY site is now dynamic content.

Even if your product really is the best ever, it is 2010. You are 12 years too late. I cannot recommend this business line at this point in time.

My suggestion for making money in this space is not to build a CMS and sell it, but rather to build add-ons for existing systems. I use ExpressionEngine and I have seen popular add-ons sell for as much as the CMS itself (personal license.) That way you have left the hard part to the developers of the CMS (growing a community, attracting developers and building a customer base.)

What is involved with the 10%? Is it a PHP/MySQL? Sounds risky to me mainly from a time point of view. Can you give us a bit more info on why the backend is such a great deal? I mean you can easily get that with open source such as Drupal.

The product itself is done, it just needs the payment facilitation added. It's built in Ruby on Rails and has a very robust templating system/api.

If you think you might be able to give it a competitive edge pretty similar to ExpressionEngine give it a go:) It's difficult to offer more without having more details like costs etc.

Have you looked at Django lately? They basically give you everything you need including a full-featured with JQuery admin back-end. Their template system is extendable and swappable for alternatives if you want more flexibility. Not to be a nay-sayer, but this sounds like a tough sell when there is so much people can get for free.

Can you beat Squarespace in terms of features, performance, support, etc.?

Unfinished software in a crowded space? Sounds pretty risky to me. Are you getting a smoking deal on it?

Yeah, all in all we are definitely getting a good deal.

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