Open Source DXP: What It Is and How to Choose One

An open source DXP is a digital experience platform in which at least one layer, often the content management system, is published under a licence that lets you read, modify and redistribute its source code. The licence decides what you can do with that code. The words "open source" do not tell you, on their own, how the whole platform is built, supported or paid for.

What is an open source DXP?

A digital experience platform (DXP) brings together content management, customer data and integrations, so that teams can publish and personalize across sites, portals and other channels. Open source can apply to one of these layers or to several. It rarely applies to all of them in the same way, because some components are published under an open licence while others are sold under a commercial one.

For the definition of a DXP itself and how it differs from a CMS, read What is a Digital Experience Platform (DXP)?

Open source, open core or proprietary: what the licence changes

The Open Source Initiative gives the reference definition. As it puts it, "open source doesn't just mean access to the source code". The licence must also allow free redistribution and modified versions. Three cases cover most platforms.

• Open source. The licence gives you the right to use, modify and redistribute the code. A community project and a commercial open source product can both fit.
• Open core. The core is open source and the vendor sells an edition or extra components under a commercial licence.
• Proprietary. The source code is not available. The vendor controls changes, updates and maintenance.

Which case applies to a given vendor is a licence question. Read the licence, not the label.

What open source gives a DXP and what it does not

What it gives

• Control over the code. You can inspect it, extend it and change behaviours that a vendor roadmap does not cover.
• Less dependence on one vendor's schedule. If a feature is missing, your team or a partner can build it.
• Security fixes published in the open. Public code can be reviewed by many people and flaws can be reported and fixed openly. Your own team can also add the controls your use case needs.
• Public code and a community that other teams can reuse and contribute to.

What it does not give

• No automatic security. Open review only helps if the project is actively maintained and if you apply the updates quickly.
• No free platform. The open source part may carry no licence fee, but development, hosting, maintenance and skills have a cost.
• No finished experience. Personalization, testing and governance still have to be configured. Someone also has to own the platform over time.

Which layers of a DXP can be open source

A DXP is made of layers and each layer has its own licence. The content management layer can be open source while the customer data layer is not. The reverse also happens. For example, Apache Unomi is an open source customer data platform developed at the Apache Software Foundation. For each layer, ask which licence applies, who maintains it and what is sold on top.

How to choose an open source DXP

Start from the use case. Then check the licence and what your team will have to operate itself.

• Licence terms. What you may modify, redistribute and host. What needs a commercial agreement.
• Project governance. Who maintains the code, how often releases come out and how fixes are published.
• Extensibility and integration. APIs and connectors to your CRM, DAM and analytics tools. How much custom code is needed.
• Delivery model. Headless, traditional or hybrid. With a headless approach, building the front end is a project of its own.
• Hosting. Cloud, on-premise or both. Who runs the updates.
• Skills and support. The team you have, the partners available and the level of support offered.
• Total cost. Licences, development, hosting, maintenance and upgrades over several years.

To weigh these criteria, read How to Choose a Digital Experience Platform (DXP)? If your starting point is the CMS rather than the whole platform, Open Source CMS: What is it and do I need it? covers licences for that layer.

Where Jahia stands

Jahia follows an open core model. The core is published on GitHub under a dual licence, Apache 2.0 or Jahia's commercial licence (JSEL), which covers the supported Enterprise distributions.

Jahia Community, also called Jahia Open-Core, is the open core distribution. It contains only the open source components and ships as a Docker image. It is provided on a best-effort basis, without SLA or support. Jahia Enterprise is the supported path.

The Enterprise DXP brings the CMS together with a built-in customer data platform built on Apache Unomi. It can run headless, traditional or hybrid, in the cloud or on-premise. Some parts are therefore open source and others are under a commercial licence. The licence files of the repository document which is which. To see how this applies to your project, request a demo.