Challenges and Costs of Implementing Liferay DXP in 2024

Welcome back! In the last blog, we discussed the pros and cons of the Liferay platform. This part will provide tips on implementing Liferay DXP and discuss other aspects, like costs. Keep reading.
 

Table of Contents

1. Challenges of Implementing Liferay
2. Costs of Liferay
3. Final Thoughts

Top 4 Tips for Implementing Liferay DXP for Your Business

Below are the top 9 tips for implementing Liferay DXP for your business.
 

1. Define Your Goals

The first step to implementing Liferay DXP is to define your goals. Once you clearly understand your goals, you can decide which features to implement for your business. Ask yourself the following questions to obtain more clarity.

• What do you intend to achieve by implementing Liferay?
• What problems do you want to solve?
• Who is the target audience?
• What features and functionalities are necessary to achieve your goals?
• Do we have the technical expertise to implement Liferay?
• What is the integration strategy?
• What are the KPIs to measure the success of Liferay implementation?
   

2. Planning

The next step is to develop user personas and determine how different customer groups will engage with your portal. This step will enable better content personalization and a tailored interface. Think about the type of content you will share on the platform and what strategies you will use to hold your audience's attention.
 

3. Implementation and Configuration

Begin a gradual and phase-wise implementation. Introduce the basic features and keep adding new ones based on user feedback. Also, test the portal in a particular department and then move to the others. Such a process will make the implementation process more manageable. Don’t jump to custom development straightaway. Use the prebuilt features like widgets, forums, and documentation.

Security must be your top priority. In addition to user authentication and access control, you must conduct regular security audits to protect confidential files and information.
 

4. User Adoption

Simplicity and accessibility are the hallmarks of a Liferay portal. Ensure your Liferay portal has a clean, intuitive, and user-friendly interface. This will help users navigate through the website and get the information they need.

Many of the portal’s features may be hard to understand. Hence, it is crucial to develop user manuals and training materials to facilitate user adoption. Gather user feedback and address the portal’s shortcomings to enhance customer satisfaction. Lastly, the focus should be on mobile friendliness and integration with other systems.
 

#CTA-1#
 

Liferay DXP Deployment and Other Costs

Liferay DXP is an open-source platform, but premium features cost extra. What are these costs? The community edition is complimentary, while the enterprise edition costs more. The deployment approaches, and their approximate costs are as follows.

Before the deployment costs, let’s look at the basic differences between the free community edition and the subscription-based enterprise edition.

Features	Community Edition	Enterprise Edition
License Costs	Free (GNU License)	Subscription-based (varies)
Stability	Regular updates, but potential delays in addressing vulnerabilities	Immediate updates for vulnerabilities and errors
Support	Limited community support	Subscription includes a dedicated support package
Features	Latest features included	All features of CE, plus additional enterprise-grade functionalities
Implementation Costs	Lower (may require custom coding for specific needs)	Higher (may include infrastructure prep, system integration, customization)
Suitability	Small projects, basic needs, cost-conscious organizations	Large-scale projects, critical applications, and organizations needing robust support and features

Deployment Costs

1. Liferay SaaS

Fully managed and deployment of Liferay DXP and cloud infrastructure. It has three business plans, including pro, business, and enterprise. The pricing starts at $24,700 a year.

1. Liferay PaaS

This DXP plan has Ecommerce and Analytics capabilities. It has three business plans, including pro, business, and enterprise. The pricing starts at $77,300 a year.

1. Self-Hosted

Plan-based with a bundle of instances and environments. It has three business plans, including pro, business, and enterprise. The pricing starts at $40,200 a year.
 

Feature	Liferay Self-Hosted	Liferay PaaS	Liferay SaaS
Infrastructure Management	Customer	Liferay	Liferay
Platform Management	Customer	Liferay	Liferay
Development	Customer	Customer	Liferay
Upgrades & Patches	Customer	Customer (DXP)	Liferay
Cost	Lowest	Medium	Highest
Control	Highest	Medium	Lowest
Customization	Highest	Medium	Limited
Time to Implement	Longest	Medium	Fastest

Implementation Costs
 

Feature	Out-of-the-Box	Custom Development
Cost	Lower	Higher
Development Time	Faster	Slower
Learning Curve	Easier	Steeper
Functionality	Basic	Specialized
Maintenance	Straightforward	Requires ongoing effort
Integration	Limited	Flexible
Scalability	Good for basic needs	More adaptable

Although Liferay doesn’t provide any figures on its website, the approximate implementation costs can range from $10,000 to $100,000 or more, depending on the above features and customization requirements.

Besides the above costs, other costs include the following:

• Staff Training
• Technical Support
• Server Maintenance
• Update Costs
• System Integration
• Customization and Expansion

These expenses could run into hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Closing Thoughts

Liferay DXP has its share of pros and cons, but it is still a powerful platform to build custom applications and ensure effective collaboration. Advanced deployment and configuration may be confusing and require companies to hire additional expertise. Liferay DXP implementation is challenging and expensive. It may not be the right solution for small and emerging companies. However, consulting a professional Liferay consulting company for implementation, deployment, and related aspects is advisable.  The advantages of Liferay DXP far exceed the cons. Regardless of the industry, Liferay is an excellent tool for enterprise app development. Reputed companies such as Volkswagen, Spire, Infosys, Unisys, Fujitsu, and eBay have used Liferay for increased customization, security, integration, and scalability. You can do it too. Consult Tridhya Tech today.