The Price You Pay for Using the Market Leader - Is It Worth It?

At Doggone Good Technology, we've dealt with this issue quite often. The issue of, "Is it best to use the 'market leader' in a given technology segment, or should you look for an alternative?" We have an opinion.

Perhaps some examples would help provide context to the discussion.

• If you're looking to use accounting software to manage your business, there's a clear market leader. It's Quickbooks. The "old schoolers" will gravitate towards the Quickbooks program that works locally on your PC, but the reality is that Quickbooks online offers some significant advantages. Yes, Intuit (the parent company of Quickbooks, TurboTax, Mint, and the like) struggled with these integrations at first, but it seems that they've got them under control now.
• There is no question that QuickBooks provides top-notch, quality and reliability to one of the most important aspects of your business - namely your financial infrastructure.
• But, the question remains, "Is this the best option available?" Especially in a cost/benefit analysis?
• We don't think so. We use a different system for both our business and personal financial management. Why? Because, the base program is absolutely free, and we're happy to pay the competitive rates they charge for options like credit card processing.
• And, this is no stripped down version of accounting software - unlike some others, it's full double-entry accounting. Full reporting capabilities. The real deal.

• If you're looking to register a new domain name for a website, where do you go? The obvious choice - and market leader - would be GoDaddy.
• Best choice? Maybe.
• They're certainly reliable. But not the most cost effective.
• We, at don't use GoDaddy unless we're forced to. Why? Because, they're simply too expensive. And, frankly in a somewhat "sneaky" way - really cheap introductory prices, but the followed up with expensive renewals.  We provide domain registration services that include EVERYTHING that GoDaddy does at a cost, in the long run, is a significantly reduced cost on both domain registrations and business email accounts as well! And, forwarder email accounts - a big help to our clients - are free and essentially unlimited.

• And then there's the "ultimate" vendor/platform question - particularly as it applies to our business - what's the platform upon which you build websites for your clients? 
• Clearly, the market leader is WordPress. After all, it powers approximately a third of all websites on the internet. There's no question that it's powerful. And adaptable. And free!
• But, at Doggone Good Technology, we don't use it. Why? 
• Because we think there are better alternatives. Better in terms of stability. Better in terms of security. Better in terms of service to our clients. So, if a potential client approaches us with the request to build a WordPress website, we're going to refer them to someone else. Because, we honestly don't think that's the best choice. 

So, in our opinion, here's the bottom line - if you choose to use the market leader in any given need, you'll get some of the best available products and services available from a technology point of view. And, to be fair, the position of market leaders is such that you will have many, many service providers who know and use these products daily. So, you'll have easier access to expertise if you need it. BUT, you'll pay a premium for the product (AND, it may not be the actual best available product/service). We often think that there are better choices.

Interested in knowing more? Contact us!