Gone are the days when the entrepreneurs used to risk their investments and ideas by offering the right product to the wrong market. Now, entrepreneurs are getting advanced with technology. They are using open-source software to build Minimum Viable Product (MVP) after coming up with a startup idea. MVP helps them test business ideas and evaluate if their product will actually succeed in the market.
Eric Ries developed the concept of Minimum Viable Product. According to this concept, one should first build a basic version of a product, gather user feedback, and improve the product further accordingly. A number of options for free to low-cost tech and software are available in the market that entrepreneur can opt for to build MVP. The most popular options are:
WordPress – The Best Open-Source Content Management System (CMS)
Created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little back in May 27, 2003, WordPress is considered the best open-source CMS that has changed the way how websites used to get build. This robust, user-friendly, and leading CMS gets updated regularly.
Thousands of themes and plugins are available to increase the functionality of websites build on WordPress. Small blogs, artists, personal photography sites, startups, and even the world’s top companies are all enjoying the ease of WordPress.
Here is an example of three big sites built on WordPress:
- ratemybarber.com
Back in the day, getting a haircut done by a new barber was a hit-or-miss as we were unaware of the barber’s experience and work. Entrepreneurs took advantage of this problem and filled this gap by providing a solution in the form of this WordPress website, ratemybarber, where you can find awesome barbers or barbershops near me.
You can read reviews, see photos, and check the ratings of the barber you are going to appoint for your next haircut. If you have had a good/bad experience with the barber, you can also share it with the world so everyone can see and admire you for your honest review.
The website uses:
- Elementor Page Builder
- WP Tour Builder
- SEO by rank math
- WooCommerce
- BJ Lazy Load
- Official mailerlite sign up forms
- elementor pro
- Cloudflare Web Hosting
- My Listing Theme
Katy Perry isn’t just a pop queen who has won 13 Grammy awards and many others, but she also owns an amazing official website built on WordPress. The website is user-friendly, easily scrollable, and showcases a lot of information and interesting data, including her upcoming tours, top news, music videos, photos, and top products.
She, being an entrepreneur, isn’t just earning as a singer but also running successful online stores that sell several types of products. The technical secret of her website’s success hides in free to low-cost iconic theme and plugins, such as:
- WordPress SEO by YOAST
- Wordfence Security
- WP Google Maps
- Advanced Custom Fields
- nextGEN gallery
- WP-PageNavi.
- The Event Calendar
- User Role Editor
- Meta Slider
- W3 Total Cache
- Contact Form 7
TechCrunch is another excellent example of using free to low-cost software to build a weblog that is dedicated to reviewing the latest products and companies. It is a minimalistic, well-organized website of the world’s leading tech blog that is also based on WordPress.
The site uses TechCrunch 2017 custom theme and some of the world’s most famous free to low-cost plugins, including:
- Akismet
- Jetpack
- WordPress Importer, and others.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) – The World’s Most Comprehensive and Broadly Adopted Cloud Platform
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a secure cloud services platform, known for offering the best compute power, content delivery, database storage, and other functionality to help startups and businesses scale and grow.
AWS also provides businesses, non-profits, and governmental organizations low-cost cloud web hosting solutions for a marketing, rich-media, or e-commerce website.
Types of website hosting offered by AWS:
- Simple Website Hosting
- Single Page Web App Hosting
- Simple Static Website Hosting
- Enterprise Web Hosting
Envato.com – A One-Stop Shop to Buy Low-cost Coded Scripts
The best ways to save time when building a website is by using code scripts. Envato is one of the best platforms that provide a range of low-cost code scripts from PHP to bootstrap. The platform has amazing code snippets and scripts for almost every purpose, such as:
- WooCommerce Thank You Page Customizer
- WooCommerce Colors and Swatches for Variations
- Bold Timeline – WordPress Timeline Plugin
- Click to Call
- Super Product Variation Swatches
- Liker – WordPress Rating Plugin
Conclusion
The advancement in technology has made it possible for entrepreneurs to test their business ideas and evaluate their products in an affordable way, with the help of open-source software. WordPress, AWS, and Envato are examples of some great platforms that can help startups and businesses get started for free or at a minimal cost.