Build a WYSIWYG editor in-house or use an off-the-shelf solution?

You often consider writing a new piece of software when the products already available on the market seem insufficient in terms of their functionalities, or simply do not fit the goals of your company. It’s obvious that you wouldn’t want to use a random out-of-the-box solution that doesn’t exactly do what you intended it to do. However, when you consider these few points before you decide to create a completely new content editing solution, it becomes clear that reinventing the wheel is the last thing in which your company should be involved.

1. Cost and Time

These two factors are of the utmost importance when you’re running any type of business. Before you decide to write your own web text editor in-house think about the cost of your development team and the time they will have to spend creating a vital software component from scratch. Writing a functional and scalable WYSIWYG editor is no piece of cake. It will certainly take a large amount of your dev team’s time, which could be better spent on creating your product instead of one of its components.

Think also about the future costs and time related to extending your editor’s functionalities, maintaining and testing it in various environments, or recruiting and training new staff members who will need to know your custom-made software as the back of their hand. In other words - you shouldn’t go there if you’re not serious about software maintenance and creating detailed technical documentation.

2. Maintenance

Maintaining your custom-made editor is a big endeavour. Without constant updates of the software and its documentation, the time and money you’ve spent on developing and implementing it with your staff will quickly become obsolete (along with the code).

Bearing in mind the constant succession of environments in which your WYSIWYG editor will have to thrive (the most widely used browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are updated once per month on average), it’s good to have a solution which is being regularly maintained, tested and updated. Choosing Open Source Software can ensure the quality of the code and its longevity.

3. Customization and Integration

Is your business need so unique that you really need to create your own web text editor? Do a thorough research before you make up your mind. Perhaps you can use a customizable editor which is already on the market? If so, make sure that you choose a solution that offers flexibility with a large range of customizable features and professional assistance when it comes to integrating it within your end product.

4. Expertise

Before deciding to create a new solution that will cater to your needs you first need to find out whether you have the necessary expertise in-house. Your team of developers may lack the knowledge indispensable to create such a specific piece of software as a versatile and robust web text editor. Expertise comes from years of experience and with online content editors it’s not only about software developing skills - it’s also about the knowledge of semantic content and the variety of shapes and forms it can acquire. Will your team of developers be ready to deal with edge cases they haven’t even dreamt of when they started off writing their own web text editor?

5. Scalability and Accessibility

A successful software solution is easily scalable and accessible to the widest possible customer base. Not to mention the need for its compatibility with the constantly evolving tech platforms. Software made in-house often lacks stability and accessibility features that mature WYSIWYG editors have been cultivating and improving for years and years of past development.

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Our Solutions for Businesses

Do you feel like you’ve got what it takes to build your own web text editor in-house? If not, you might want to consider what we have in store for you.

By choosing CKEditor (a fully documented, customizable, widely used and reliable piece of software) you will reduce the costs of your software development and significantly speed up your product’s time to market. That also means getting rid of unnecessary red tape connected with initiating the development of a new product within large enterprises. We have successfully developed, maintained and implemented our web text editor for the last 12 years and are able to offer you services of the highest quality. This includes maintenance of your customized web text editor throughout the entire lifecycle of your software. Let us do the WYSIWYG editor part while you can fully focus on your end product.

Our Enterprise license includes:

• Absolute freedom to customize the code and keep your business safe and secret.
• CKFinder (online file manager) and Accessibility Checker integration.
• Consulting, support and custom development services.

Please contact us to see how the our solutions could add value to your business.

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