Buy or Build for web deployment? [closed]

Answer 1

Absolutely agree with poster who said to stay away from InstallAware. They've had a long history of really absurd ethics problems, and they treat their own customers horribly. They can be downright abusive and insulting.

Beware InstallAware!

Answer 2

I would urge caution on Installaware. We recently had a shocking experience with their customer support.

We followed one of their sample projects to the letter which failed miserably. Raised a support ticket with customer support and were told it was going to cost us $199 for them to look at fixing their own code.

We then raised the same issue in the user forums and were promptly banned because this constituted cross posting and was not allowed. Even though this is not mentioned in their terms and conditions. In fact, they banned our IP so no one in our company can post to the forums.

A very poor experience and one we wont repeat. We are now looking to replace Installaware as soon as possible.

Purchase Installaware at your own peril.

Answer 3

I completely agree about InstallAware.

After using WiX, NSIS and InstallAware, I have to humbly admit that they were all overkill for what I really need as a software developer. There are no projects that I've done so far which couldn't be deployed using the Visual Studio deployment project.

Is it limited? Yes.

It is also very simple to learn an use. Moreover, you actually can do really neat things like automatically create patches (.MSP files) by using techniques as described here

I fully understand that you can't do everything inside of a Visual Studio setup project, but it's rather surprising what you can accomplish. It's free, it's easy and, frankly, for general use is a better option than spending endless hours learning WiX's mind-boggling XML (impressive as it is), or InstallAware's verbose scripts...

With VS Setup, it's drag'n'drop & build'n'deploy. Every other solution I've tried had set backs... they can't automatically detect your project output... or need special filters so as not to include unwanted outputs from the build.

My suggestion is thus: If you simply wish to get your project deployed, then learn:

1. How to build a custom installer class, and
2. How to author your own pre-requisite packages

These are both reasonably easy skills to master, and satisfy the needs of most developers.

Answer 4

• If your specific requirements are core to your business; ie part of your business is to provide a smooth and user-friendly deployment/installation and you feel that none of the available deployment libraries can let you achieve this, then certainly go ahead and build your own.
• If your specific requirements would be nice to have but they do not make a significant part of your business; ie the end user will not typically be expecting or needing a smooth installation procedure, or will never need to do that themselves (ie they pass that step onto their IT department), then the need to build your own just for your own specific requirements is likely to be outweighed by the extra effort that would involve.

I think that your impression that you will be needing a custom solution is a sound one; it seems like your requirements are going to be key to the experience of your product, especially if you need really smooth automatic updates and feedback.