Indie Mobile Development: CMS + Support, Hosting & Maintenance

Back in the day we used to do some web work, but we decided that it was not the best place for a small company to grow in the long run. We still do a lot of web-technology work but only for Breakdesign projects/friends really. The issue was not with building and launching the site (that part was great!), but the maintenance, and long term logistics of running a site, that was what clients really needed - and probably the last thing a small company could commit to. There was no way we could support every client we did a site for, and even today it's hard to find resources which are capable of "running" a CMS on behalf of a client/brand. Looking at how difficult it can be for a brand venturing online for the first time, it's sometimes simpler to first have a "recipe" kind of approach. Truth be told, in 90% of the cases that is more than enough.

Below I have listed a few examples of the current selection of CMS+Services companies out there. These companies give you the ability to create your own micro-sites and communities, but they supply hosting, updates, security and support. You normally pay a monthly/yearly rate that includes everything. The price range varies also, and depending if these sites will be temporary, or exist forever, different schemes could work out cheaper. The advantage of this is that everything is centralized, and standardized, so it's really easy to hand over to someone else, logistically simpler to run and bill. The only thing you might need every now and then is a graphic designer with some basic web knowledge to create assets to insert into templates.

From our experience this can be the most efficient and painless workflows if the complexity of the site is low to medium, we also like the fact that the owner is empowered in the process.

Here are some providers/prices:

http://about.ning.com/spotlight

http://www.concrete5.org/services/enterprise/

http://www.concrete5.org/services/hosting * (I seem to like this the best)

http://www.onesite.com/go/microsites-contests/overview

http://www.modera.com/index.php/products

https://signup.socialgo.com/plans

http://www.igloosoftware.com/pricing/price_matrix

http://www.drupalgardens.com/pricing

http://elgg.com/pricing.php