There is so much celebration in the air now. Different sizes and shapes of gifts are being wrapped and unwrapped at different quarters as a sign of appreciation to loved ones this festive season. Here at foremostsms.com we are not left out of the trend!

We are not even referring to the 20% slash on our prices under the guise of Xmas Bumper Promo. That’s just a token! We will continually reveal to our beloved readers, fans, guests and users those long-concealed secrets of money making including but not limited to Bulk SMS so you can grab the facts at no cost and start your own money-making venture(s). This is our gift to you – an open cheque! So empower yourself and liberate others.

In our previous discussion on the topic “A-Z GUIDE TO A SUCCESSFUL BULK SMS BUSINESS”, we promised to do thorough justice to the difference between SaaS (Software as a Service) and Self-Hosted Bulk SMS Website. Many thanks to some of our ardent readers who dropped us lines of reminder on the topic, appreciation on the discourse and interest in our service.

Let’s quickly do a recap of what we said about SaaS and Self-Hosted Bulk SMS Website in our last discussion.

SaaS (Software as a Service) or Hosted Bulk SMS Website is a system whereby you pay a Gateway Service Provider a fee for the set-up of your domain under their fully hosted Web SMS service. Your domain is mapped into the provider’s master domain thereby operating as a sub-domain. In other words, you have only rented an apartment out of a mansion.

Self-Hosted Bulk SMS Website, as the name implies, refers to the design of your money-making website by a professional Developer fully tailored to your taste, incorporated with an API as link to service gateway, effectively hosted and delivered to you for content administration. It’s like building your own house in the design and architecture of your choice and handling the maintenance yourself.

Now let’s try to look into the advantages and disadvantages of both sides so you know which would adequately suite your business.



The advantages of Hosted or SaaS Bulk SMS Website:

Ease of set-up. If time is a factor to consider in setting up your Bulk SMS Website, this is the right choice for you. Once the set-up fee is paid the provider, you can modify the site with your logo, site name and change colour theme to your taste in no time. simple right?

No back-end hassles. You are definitely free of worries over responsibilities like software updates, site security, content back-up and server management. How the technology works is the provider’s headache!

Low possibility of hacks. Though nothing in the world can stop a determined hacker, the technology here is often managed by professionals who know how to prevent such vices.

No need for coding. You don’t need to know about writing codes either in HTML, CSS or other languages to operate this service.

Provider hosts. The hosting of your website is done with that of your provider’s, so you don’t have to worry about its renewal.



Disadvantages:

Tailoring the site to your taste in terms of look and feel can be a lost dream as you have no access to such design features.

You have no right to content creation or modification. You only take whatever the provider updates.

There, oftentimes, is a limit to your database usage.

It comes with high set-up fee charged by the provider, and sometimes annually renewable.

It is virtually impossible to change providers. If you choose to change your provider, you are going for a complete business overhaul in which case you stand the risk of losing your customers and forfeiting the set-up fee.

Price imposition by providers is the order of the day as it is established that the inconveniences of backing out due to price hike outweigh the benefits of repositioning your website elsewhere on a more fertile ground.

There is no room for any form of advertisement on your website, be it self or third party Ads. You are therefore losing another opportunity of making additional cash.

You cannot have as many pages as you desire on your site.



The Advantages of Self-Hosted Bulk SMS Website:

Absolute Administrative Rights. The site is totally yours so you have every right to add any content, features or components as you so desire through the back-end.

Right to Redesign. You can at any time carry out an overhaul of your site and redesign the whole “workshop” to taste.

Right to Content Creation. It is possible for you to add contents of your choice via blog, RSS feeds, comment block and other features to further engage your users.

Possibility of Extra Income. You can register your site on Affiliate Programmes and Ads Networks as an administrator and make more money. You can even independently place other people’s products on site for a token.

Your site has no visible link to your gateway service provider.

Freedom of Entry and Exit. You can at any time switch your Bulk SMS gateway by changing API when prices are better elsewhere without losing anything.

Unlimited Site Pages. You can create as many pages on your site as you wish. But don’t add too many.



Disadvantages:

The management of your Bulk SMS website via the back-end is your sole responsibility. The renewal of hosting plan can be another issue to a beginner. However, you can outsource these.

Cyber attacks can be your sole nightmare if it happens.

The technicality of the administrative end and some minor coding can threaten a layman.



How to choose

Making a choice among these two can be a difficult task for some people. However, there are some few things to consider which will help your decision making.

If you want a custom website with 100% access and control then Self-Hosted Bulk SMS Website is your choice.

If you wish to do some additional businesses on your Bulk SMS website you still have to choose the Self-Hosted Solution.

If you are a choosy type or a perfectionist who loves to design to taste, go for Self-Hosted.

If you just want to do simple Bulk SMS business without involving in the technicality of the back-end and content creation, go for SaaS.

If you don’t have the time to continually update contents and engage users, try SaaS.

If after all these you still can’t decide then you need to consult a Bulk SMS Specialist for advice.

What and what have I missed or mistakenly added so far? Well, I’m only human. If you have one or two contributions to the article or questions, please feel free to use the comment box.



Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2015 to you all.



Foremostsms.com is Nigeria’s leading Bulk SMS platform owned and developed by a team of experienced developers at REIGNET SYSTEMS – a sister company. If you need the services of a seasoned Bulk SMS website developer as well as reliable Bulk SMS resellership programme that keeps up your profit margin as a Bulk SMS business owner, contact us today or call our 24-hour customer service on +2348093277564.