Question

Topic: Other

Dotnetnuke Functionality

Posted by Anonymous on 1/19/2011 at 5:20 PM ET 250 Points
My organization's (non-profit) web site is built on DotNetNuke. I am not a programmer and know little about how a web site is built.

We pay a computer services company $2,400 per year for their proprietary content management software -- their "annual license fee". I asked about clarification on the cost. I said that since our site was built with DotNetNuke, which is free and in the public domain, could they clarify which parts of the site are their proprietary software and what they $2,400 annual license fee was for.

This is their response:

"Our product is a content management platform which is built on top of the Dot.Net technology…we have invested thousands of hours developing the product and built an infrastructure to support it…our product requires components such as a backend SQL database and a fairly intensive Cisco WAN infrastructure….for security and protection of the content it serves.

"Our product is a licensed product that is not separated into pieces. It is a major development effort that was built using our internal staff. It is not a couple of free or public domain modules that were thrown together hastily...because of that, it is licensed as a complete product."

My question: Does that sound like a reasonable response for the money we are paying? How much does hosting cost? I've done a little research on DNN and the screen shots I've seen thus far looks like our web site's back end. It would be a pain to re-create our web site, however, I don't want to pay for something that is not needed.

Thanks for any help!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 1/19/2011 at 7:15 PM Accepted
    It's not clear what you need, so it's impossible to tell whether the service package you describe is right for you or not. What functionality do you need? How frequently do you update the site?

    You may need to pay someone knowledgeable about website options to look at this for you. It shouldn't be terribly difficult for the right person to ask a few questions and do a little research to give you some good direction.

    If you need a referral, let me know offline. I have a few folks I know who might be able to help.
  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 1/20/2011 at 7:20 AM Accepted
    Yes, many DotNetNuke providers create their own modules, that may be proprietary. The core program is free and there are many modules that cost from $9 and up.

    If you are paying $2400 for hosting and technical assistance for the year, I think it is fair. Then again you really didn't share the site or the functionality so I cannot really tell for sure.

    Hosting alone can cost $200 a month or more if you have your own server or as low as $20 or more for shared hosting.
  • Posted on 1/20/2011 at 7:38 PM Accepted
    FWIW, I use shared hosting for about 20 websites/domains, and the cost is less than $160/year. They range from extremely simple to fairly complex, but the host doesn't care.

    What you're probably paying for are creative work, software licenses and/or technical support. If you're getting the kind of support you need and want, then the price is not out of line. If you're not, then it would be too expensive at half the price.
  • Posted on 1/27/2011 at 9:59 AM Author
    Thank you for helping me put some perspective on this!
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