Is it ethical to charge for CMS when it is driven by WordPress?

Over the last couple of years I have learnt a lot about building web-sites and seo techniques to raise the profile of a web-site once you have it. One of the most important factors is content and keeping that content fresh. With this in mind I can see why people would want a web-site that has its own content management system so that they can regularly update information, add news, and fresh content as and when they have it. This all seems sensible to me.

I personally love using WordPress. It is very flexible in terms of layout, what you can add, how you can adjust images, the look and feel of posts, and then on the more technical side how you can optimise posts for seo purposes and for easy navigation within your site. It’s also very easy to use and requires no technical knowledge. Another thing that is great about WordPress is that it is FREE, or open source and people call it. You can host a blog on the WordPress web-site in which case the domain name will be yourdomain.wordpress, or you can download the software and install it on your server. Once you have done that you can even receive updates without having to do any technical stuff at all.

The reason why I mention this is that recently I have noticed several software developers offering low cost web-sites which have a full content management system. When I look at these, I realise that actually what they are offering, is a slightly customised front end to WordPress (which is free). Now if a company says “we take free / open source software called WordPress – design a front end for you – and there you have a web-site” and charges a price accordingly I think this is fair and transparent. But what about if a company uses WordPress, changes its name to something different, and then charges you a price, is that fair or transparent?

Open source software is often cutting edge and able to give as good a solution as expensive software. The people who write the software and develop it are not motivated by cash, but by having the credibility of saying “I wrote this, and look how many people are using it”. I do think that the people who have created this kind of software, perhaps without earning a salary for doing so, deserve a fair deal and recognition for their work. So, if your content management system looks like this, then it is almost certainly WordPress.

If everyone knows this, then I think you are probably using a great product, but if you haven’t been told this, perhaps you should ask your web-developer why not? And if you are buying a new web-site, don’t be afraid to ask, what am I paying for, who has done this, where does it come from, and why?