Love it or hate it, free and open-source software provides many businesses with viable alternatives to their paid counterparts. But, is it right for your business? Here are two questions to consider:
1. Do we have the time? Free software usually requires a much larger time commitment, for one big reason: There’s no support. If any problems arise, you’ll have to fix them all by yourself. This can eat up a lot of time over the years.
2. Do we have the skills? Free software usually requires a higher level of technical proficiency, for the same reason I mentioned above: You must do everything yourself. From installation, to software changes, to troubleshooting, everything is manual.
If you think free and open source software is right for your business, then I have a great list for you to check out. It details 70 of the best open source software replacements for small businesses, though many of them apply to any size business. It’s a really good list–I haven’t heard of many of the software products mentioned.
Of course, if you have any software to add to this list, I’d love to hear about it.
Joe Stangarone is a 30+ year veteran of the IT industry and president of mrc—the software company behind the award winning development platform, 
