Blog

With ResourceSpace everything's included - but where's the catch?

8th June 2021

One question we often get asked is 'where are the hidden fees?'

ResourceSpace, unlike most Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions, includes 100% of the functionality as standard. It's also open source so there are no license fees whatsoever.

There are no additional fees in our commercial services for implementation, migration, set-up or configuration either. The listed price is the price for all the functionality you need, installed and configured for you. You can also add as many users as you like.

The only things we may need to charge extra for are:

• Additional disk space beyond that provided in the core package
• The Google Vision API automated tagging service (although you can choose to pay this to Google directly yourself, and there's no requirement to actually use this feature - ResourceSpace works fine without it)

So where's the catch?

The open source model

We're committed to a completely open source model.

Some open source projects offer a 'Community' edition that's fully open source but lots of features are missing and only available in a closed source 'Enterprise' edition - or as commercial plugins.

Our 'Enterprise' package refers to response times and consultancy hours - not features.

Most commercial DAM systems have a low starting price. However, once you start using the software you realise you need extra functionality - and that comes at a cost.

With ResourceSpace there's one version for everyone - whether you use our hosting and support services or not - and it includes all features. Even our free 10GB service includes all available functionality.

What's in it for us? ResourceSpace is managed by a commercial business - Montala Limited - and although we're 100% employee owned, like any business, our objective is to be profit-making.

We've developed a significant portion of the code ourselves - a huge investment over the years - surely we'd want to monetise that as much as possible?

But - a large part of ResourceSpace is the result of community effort. Lots of organisations and individuals have contributed functionality or funding - and we're very grateful. What better way to show our gratitude than to release 100% of our own contributions under the same open source license? By showing our thanks in this way we encourage continued contributions and involvement.

Everyone wins

Being open source really helps ResourceSpace gain market share. This benefits everyone involved with the project as those involved help with testing and development.

This increased market share is good for us too. Lots of clients have been using an unsupported ResourceSpace system before they come to us. We take over the hosting, support or development - sometimes all three - since it's generally more cost effective. Of course, they might be ready for a system overhaul and be keen to learn about setting up new functionality to make the system work better for the organisation - that's our forté.

While we miss out on license revenue that commercial DAM vendors get, we benefit from reduced marketing costs and all the great things that come from a large community of users.

It also removes dependency on any one vendor - you're free to host the software with anyone you choose - and although we hope you'll choose our support service, there's absolutely no obligation to.

Transparency

We're always completely transparent with our customers at all times - and a single annual price for our services reflects that.

When you're working with the ResourceSpace team, you'll be dealing with enthusiastic, dedicated consultants as well as joining a community of users and developers across the globe.

Photo by Dex Ezekiel