Small Business Websites Should Belong to Small Businesses

Author: Jeffery L. Paris
Date: August 10, 2026
Time: 2:37 PM EDT
Website: https://phpog.com/

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I have been thinking a lot lately about how much control small business owners have actually lost over their own websites.

And this isn't actually a new thought for me.

Back in 2004, I was already pretty passionate about this idea. I wanted people to have control over their own websites and their own little corner of the internet. I didn't want small businesses and individuals to have to bend to whatever some big company decided they were allowed to do.

At the time, I probably would have described it as wanting to "fight the man."

Then I went corporate.

I built a career, got busy, and gradually put that idea on the shelf. Somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking about that particular dream and started thinking more about doing my job, paying the bills and moving forward.

But I don't think the idea ever really went away.

Because here I am, more than twenty years later, looking at the same basic problem and realizing that I still feel the same way about it.

In fact, I probably understand the problem a lot better now.

I remember when building a website meant buying some hosting, putting your files on a server, connecting your domain and being in control of the thing you had built. It wasn't always easy, but there was something very satisfying about knowing it was yours.

Today, we've built an entire industry around putting small businesses on monthly subscriptions for things they should arguably be able to own outright.

And I understand why it happened. Hosted platforms are convenient. They make getting started easier. If you don't know anything about servers or databases, being able to sign up, pick a template and start selling is pretty damn convenient.

The problem starts when convenience turns into dependence.

You start with one plan and eventually discover that the feature you need is on another plan. Maybe you need more products, more storage, another integration, better reporting or some other little piece of functionality that suddenly adds another monthly charge.

None of those charges necessarily seem outrageous by themselves.

But they have a way of adding up.

And once your business is built around the system, leaving isn't always simple.

That bothers me.

I Think We Can Do Better

That's a big part of why I'm changing the direction of my main CMS.

I don't want to build another system that puts a small business owner in that position. I want to build something that gives them more control, not less.