An open source company – one that implements marketing solutions and builds a technology stack with open source software – is far better equipped to navigate the rapid changes in the digital landscape than companies using proprietary solutions. As new channels and devices emerge at a dizzying pace, an open source company can easily adapt existing technology to serve content to new platforms and render ambitious digital experiences without being limited by the constraints of proprietary solutions.

For enterprises looking for an open source content management system that makes it easier to build experiences and connect with customers while future-proofing their technology stack, Acquia offers an open digital experience platform built on Drupal.

Why an open source company is more competitive

An open source company relying on an open web content management (WCM) system or digital experience platform has several advantages over their competitors. With the open source Drupal platform, for example, enterprises can:

• Engage audiences on their omnichannel journey: Because open source technology can be easily modified, improved and extended, an open source company can easily transform their martech stack as new technologies and business requirements emerge.
• Create more ambitious front-end experiences: When it comes to rendering a front-end experience, an open source company is not locked into a single set of tools provided by one vendor. Open source solutions enable headless or decoupled architecture, where developers can choose the front-end tools and the back-end architecture that makes the most sense.
• Integrate data sources more easily: While proprietary marketing systems are challenging to integrate with marketing automation platforms and CRM systems, open source technology can be easily modified to access siloed data for a more complete understanding of customers and comprehensive view of marketing efforts throughout the organization.
• Adopt a responsive, mobile-first approach to design: An open source company can easily migrate to the new mobile-first standard for building websites and other digital experiences.
• Innovate at the pace of change: As the digital landscape evolves, open source companies and technologies can easily keep pace, supported by a vast community of contributors who are continually improving and extending the platform.
• Minimize the cost of marketing technology: While legacy systems may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, open source systems are free of licensing costs.

Acquia: a digital experience platform for the open source company

Acquia’s open digital experience platform, optimized for the Drupal platform, enables open source companies to build, operate and optimize ambitious websites, apps and other digital experiences across the entire customer journey, using cutting edge tools to drive engagement from start to finish.

Acquia’s suite of solutions include:

• Acquia Cloud Platform, a solution for web hosting for Drupal that makes it easier to build and manage Drupal-based digital experiences.
• Acquia Cloud Site Factory, a platform for building, updating and centralizing hundreds of Drupal websites with a simple, central dashboard.
• Acquia Lightning, a Drupal 8 distribution that helps developers build better sites faster. 
• Acquia Site Studio, a low-code solution with more agile, collaborative and inclusive tools for accelerating build times by as much as 4x.
• Acquia Digital Asset Management, a cloud-based DAM with a central library for achieving brand consistency across all sites.
• Acquia Commerce, for delivering integrated content and commerce experiences to build customer loyalty.
• Acquia Personalization, the only personalization tool optimized for Drupal, allowing marketers and developers to point, click and personalize content.
• Acquia CDP, a tool that helps marketers listen to and learn from customers, to better determine what content users need based on a sequence of personalized touchpoints.
• Acquia Campaign Studio, a full-featured marketing automation platform for personalizing multi-channel communications at scale. 
• Acquia Campaign Factory, a solution for managing multiple Campaign Studio marketing automation accounts from a single location.

Advantages of Acquia’s open platform

With Acquia, the open source company can:

• Create more personalized experiences: Acquia’s point-and-click personalization tools make it easy to personalize everything from the homepage to specific parts of individual pages.
• Deliver exceptional experiences: With support for decoupled architecture, Acquia enables developers to render front-end content with whatever tools will help build the most compelling experience.
• Serve content across channels and devices: As the number of digital channels and devices continues to grow, Acquia’s enables the Drupal enterprise to provide content in the format and design that is most effective for each channel.
• Future-proof the marketing technology stack: As a Drupal open source solution, Acquia allows the open source company to evolve and quickly adapt as new technologies emerge.
• Integrate systems: Acquia easily integrates with platforms for marketing automation, CRM and commerce to deliver unified tools that more effectively engage customers throughout their entire journey.
• Move with speed and agility: Acquia provides all the tools that open source companies need to quickly build, manage and optimize a wide variety of Drupal-based digital experiences.

Why choose Acquia?

When open source companies are looking for a digital experience platform for Drupal, Acquia is the obvious choice. Drupal and Acquia were both started by the same open source pioneer and Acquia remains the leading contributor to the Drupal platform. When it comes to an open source CMS, Acquia can deliver solutions that integrate with and leverage Drupal in ways that

no other platform can. With Acquia, you get best-in-class tools for building and managing the most compelling digital experiences in the world.

FAQs: what is an open source company?

What is an open source company?

An “open source company” refers both to companies that sell products or services for open source technology, and companies that are dedicated to using open source solutions in their technology stack.

What are open source projects?

Open source projects are software applications with source code that anyone can inspect, modify and extend. Companies who use open source software can modify the application or platform for their own needs and integrate the open source solution more easily into their existing technology stack.