Many companies still treat open-source software as a way to save money. But that perspective is fundamentally misguided. Adopting open source means taking full ownership of what you run—its operation, maintenance, and long-term upkeep. The initial setup is deceptively easy: download a well-built project, follow the manual, and it works. The spreadsheet comparison against a commercial product may even look satisfying. Yet seeing open source purely through the lens of cost reduction is short-sighted.
Reality sets in over time. Upgrades, security patches, and troubleshooting begin to pile up. The absence of vendor support turns into operational risk. Maintaining stability requires real technical depth within the organization, but most engineers don’t have the bandwidth to focus on a single component. When a system depends on dozens of open-source tools, the long-term risk becomes obvious—it’s a time bomb waiting to go off.
Eventually, many organizations hire external support or sign maintenance contracts, paying for the expertise they once thought they could avoid. At that point, the supposed “savings” disappear. And this isn’t only a financial issue—it’s also about system reliability and technical dependency.
That doesn’t mean open source should be avoided. The problem is not with the software, but with the framing. Open source should be understood not as a shortcut to lower costs, but as a path to technical independence. From the beginning, staffing, maintenance, and training costs must be part of the plan. What you gain in return is autonomy, internalized knowledge, and access to a larger community of engineers who share common tools and standards.
Commercial software offers convenience, but it locks you in. Open source is harder, but it gives you freedom. To make that freedom sustainable, companies must choose projects with active, broad adoption—those with accessible documentation, community experience, and a healthy contributor base. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself running critical infrastructure on technology no one else understands.
Open source is not about saving money. It’s about owning your technology stack. If investing in the necessary expertise feels excessive, then a commercial solution might actually be the safer and more honest choice.