AgilePress

Tag: Vendor Lock-in

  • Who Owns Your Website? The Hidden Trap of Developer Licenses

    Imagine you buy a house. You pay the mortgage, you paint the walls, and you move your furniture in.

    But six months later, you decide to change the locks. The architect shows up and says: “I’m sorry, but if you change the locks, the roof will disappear, and the heating will stop working. I own the blueprints.”

    This sounds absurd in real life. Yet, this is exactly how 80% of web design agencies operate.

    They build your business on leased land. They use “Developer Licenses” that tie your website’s survival to their monthly invoice.

    At AgilePress, we believe this is unethical. Here is why we build with Open Standards and why we hand you the keys from Day One.

    The “Developer License” Trap

    Most agencies use premium tools (Page Builders, Form Plugins, Galleries) that cost money. To save costs, they buy an “Unlimited Agency License” for $500 and use it on 100 client sites.

    It seems like a good deal. You get premium tools for free, right?

    The Trap: The license belongs to the agency, not you. The moment you decide to leave that agency, cancel your maintenance plan, or bring your site in-house, they revoke the license key.

    The Consequences:

    1. Security Holes: Your plugins stop updating. A security vulnerability is found in Elementor or WP Rocket, and you cannot patch it. Your site gets hacked.
    2. Broken Features: Some plugins simply stop working or display “License Expired” banners on your front end.
    3. The Ransom: You are forced to scramble and buy hundreds of dollars worth of individual licenses just to keep the site you “own” running.

    You are not a client; you are a hostage.

    The Code Trap (Proprietary Junk)

    It’s not just about licenses. It’s about the code itself.

    If your agency built your site using a proprietary theme or a heavy page builder (like Divi or Avada), they have locked you into their ecosystem. If you try to move that content to a clean, modern theme later, you will find that your database is full of “shortcodes” ([et_pb_section]...[/et_pb_section]).

    Your content is trapped inside their software. To leave them, you have to rebuild the website from scratch.

    The AgilePress Standard: Open Ownership

    We build differently. We build so that you can fire us.

    It sounds counter-intuitive. Why would we make it easy for you to leave? Because we want you to stay with AgilePress because our service is excellent, not because you are locked in a cage.

    A. The “Bus Factor” (Standard Code)

    We use Native WordPress Blocks (Gutenberg) and standard PHP/HTML.

    • We don’t use obscure, proprietary builders.
    • The Benefit: If AgilePress disappears tomorrow (or gets hit by a bus), any competent WordPress developer in the world can look at your site and understand it in 5 minutes. You are never dependent on one person.

    B. Client-First Licensing

    • The Core: We use high-quality free/open-source tools (FluentSMTP, The SEO Framework, AgilePress Content Block) whenever possible.
    • The Premium: If your project absolutely requires a paid plugin (e.g., a specific WooCommerce extension), we are transparent. We recommend you buy the license in your name.
      • Result: You own the asset. If we part ways, you keep your license. Your business continues without interruption.

    C. Full Admin Access

    Many agencies give you an “Editor” role and hide the “Plugins” menu so you “don’t break anything.” We treat you like an adult. It is your business. You get Administrator access. We are here to guide you and protect the site, not to hide secrets from you.

    Conclusion: Retention by Quality, Not Force

    Your website is likely your most valuable digital asset. It should appear on your balance sheet, not your agency’s.

    When you hire a developer, ask them this question: “If I stop working with you tomorrow, what happens to my software licenses?”

    If the answer is “They get deactivated,” run.

    At AgilePress, we hand you the keys. We bet on our quality to keep you as a partner. That is true freedom.

  • The Page Builder Trap: Why We Said Goodbye to Elementor and Divi

    If you ask 10 WordPress agencies for a quote, 8 of them will propose a website built with Elementor, Divi, or WPBakery.

    It is easy to see why. These tools are visual, they allow for rapid prototyping, and they lower the barrier to entry for designers who don’t know how to code. For the agency, it is profitable: they can drag-and-drop a site together in a few days.

    But at AgilePress, we don’t build for our convenience. We build for your long-term success.

    And that is why we have banned heavy page builders from our development stack. Here is why reliance on these tools is a business risk.

    The Performance Penalty (DOM Bloat)

    Page builders work by wrapping content in layers of code. To display a simple headline, a builder like Elementor might wrap the text in a section, a column, a widget, and an inner-section.

    This creates what developers call Excessive DOM Size.

    Instead of clean HTML, your browser has to render thousands of nested tags.

    • The Result: Slower rendering times, lower scores on Google Core Web Vitals, and a sluggish experience on mobile devices.
    • The AgilePress Way: We use native WordPress blocks. If we need a headline, we render a headline. No wrappers, no bloat, just the code required to show the content.

    The “Shortcode Graveyard” (Vendor Lock-in)

    This is the most dangerous trap for a business owner.

    Page builders often store your content inside proprietary “shortcodes.” If you build your site with Divi or WPBakery today, and two years from now you decide to switch themes or uninstall the plugin, your content disappears.

    Instead of your beautiful text, you will see a mess like this: [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]...[/vc_column_text][/vc_row]

    This is called Vendor Lock-in. You are held hostage by the software. To leave, you have to rebuild your website from scratch.

    AgilePress builds natively. We use the standard WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg). This means your content is stored as clean HTML. If you stop working with us, or if you change your theme, your content remains perfectly readable and editable. You own your data, not the plugin developer.

    The Security and Maintenance Headache

    A page builder is a massive piece of software sitting on top of WordPress. It introduces:

    1. More Attack Vectors: Popular builders are frequent targets for hackers because they are installed on millions of sites.
    2. Dependency Hell: When WordPress releases a major update, you have to wait for the page builder to update. If they break compatibility, your site breaks.

    By removing this massive dependency, we reduce the surface area for bugs. We rely on WordPress Core, which is maintained by the best engineers in the world.

    The Future is Native (Gutenberg)

    Years ago, page builders were necessary because the default WordPress editor was too simple. That is no longer true.

    With Full Site Editing (FSE) and the modern Block Editor, WordPress now offers a powerful, visual way to build layouts natively.

    • It is faster.
    • It is built into the core (no extra plugins).
    • It is the standard that every future WordPress update will support.

    Using Elementor in the era of modern WordPress is like installing a separate operating system on top of Windows just to open a folder. It’s redundant and resource-heavy.

    Conclusion: Engineering vs. Assembling

    There is a place for page builders. If you are a DIY hobbyist building a personal blog on a Sunday afternoon, they are great tools.

    But for a professional business website where ROI, speed, and longevity matter, they are a liability.

    At AgilePress, we don’t just assemble parts. We engineer solutions using the native power of WordPress. It takes more skill on our end, but it delivers a faster, safer, and more profitable asset for you.