Seems like it's already mentioned, but I've also had a great experience with https://cal.com/ :)
Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#12WordPress! Why is it so often forgotten? Automattic created an impressive ecosystem based on GPL code, and SaaS.
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#13To me this sounds a bit like what Sandcats/Sandstorm wanted to be; open-source paas that allowed basically one-click deployment of applications from open-source repository of packages.
Problem is that all parts of this process needs funding, which makes it difficult to make work. Someone needs to run the physical infrastructure, someone needs to operate the paas platfrom, someone needs to develop/maintain the paas platform codebase, someone needs to develop the actual applications, and someone needs to maintain the application packaging/deployment stuff. And all those someones should somehow get fair market-rate compensation for the work they do.
One way of providing compensation is to hand out credits for the service, but in practice it is probably infeasible to make the numbers really work out. And even if all the labor is compensated through service credits, you still need actual real money flowing in to pay for colo and hardware etc, which probably needs to come from the otherwise non-contributing userbase.
Not saying it is completely impossible thing to accomplish, but it is really difficult to bootstrap, and almost as difficult to keep running sustainability, especially when individual people inevitably come and go.
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#14A good example of this is Nextcloud. The SW is FOSS. Over 400K installations are hosted in many ways including on home single board computer servers, Synology NAS, on a VPS, or as a service from providers such as https://ppp.woelkli.com/ or Hetzner.com. The calendar app is very functional and allows booking of appointments based on availability similar to Calendly. This is one of many apps within its large and expand…
> The calendar app is very functional and allows booking of appointments based on availability similar to Calendly. This is one of many apps within its large and expanding suite.
Another noteworthy one is Talk: https://nextcloud.com/talk/
It's not quite as good as something like a self-hosted instance of Mattermost or even Rocket.Chat, but honestly if you already have Nextcloud, then it's pretty cool to be able to get something decent like that up and running quickly.
Ofc that's making Nextcloud a single point of failure in some ways and occasionally things can go sideways with these plugin based platforms (historically applies more to installs of Jenkins, but also have had some performance issues with Nextcloud that had lots of apps, too).
I still rather like Nextcloud because of being able to just run it on my servers and replace a bunch of other third party cloud platforms and still somehow manage to have good enough uptime and security.
I wonder what other cool self-hosted platforms are out there, maybe some of what Odoo has (cool idea but a bit underwhelming last I checked): https://github.com/odoo/odoo and https://www.odoo.com/
Or something in: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#15Check github, I've open sourced my sass as have thousands of others. Look for a project related your niche. Saw a php gym manager sass the other day. So many unique projects are out there
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#16That does already exist to some extent. It's relatively niche for now and unlikely to ever get significant market share, but it warms my heart to know that people are doing just that through CHATONS[1]. I can't speak for them, but as a user it a provides a framework for this type of service to be commoditised, but also independent. Not all the providers offer the same services, but I can fairly easily swap provider knowing that the core philosophy is consistent.
It's a natural extension of Framasoft, where they opened up their concept so that they were not a single point of failure.
The providers are almost exclusivey based in Europe currently[2], likely due to the French origins of Framasoft. But there's no reason it has to stay thay way.
[1] https://www.chatons.org/ [2] https://www.chatons.org/search/near-me
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#17A good example of this is Nextcloud. The SW is FOSS. Over 400K installations are hosted in many ways including on home single board computer servers, Synology NAS, on a VPS, or as a service from providers such as https://ppp.woelkli.com/ or Hetzner.com. The calendar app is very functional and allows booking of appointments based on availability similar to Calendly. This is one of many apps within its large and expand…
> The calendar app is very functional and allows booking of appointments based on availability similar to Calendly. This is one of many apps within its large and expanding suite. Another noteworthy one is Talk: https://nextcloud.com/talk/ It's not quite as good as something like a self-hosted instance of Mattermost or even Rocket.Chat, but honestly if you already have Nextcloud, then it's pretty cool to be able to ge…
Yes Talk is awesome. I have a link on my personal web page to book a meeting with me based on availability on my multiple calendars. The person booking the meeting automatically gets a calendar invite by email with a Nextcloud Talk conference link.
I do have a lot of eggs in one basket with NC, but I have never had any issues. After running it for years, I am impressed with the rate of development of new features and apps. Whatever someone's experience was with it a year ago or so should be revisited with the latest version.
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#18No, we don't have the technology.
Running a SaaS reliably involves a lot more than just the open source app.
Who's going to handle DevOps and Security, product road map, paying for hosting, transactional emails, etc.
A SaaS is a business, has expenses, needs revenue.
Re: Ask HN: Does a framework exist for “open-source SaaS”?
#19The alternative is non-profit SAAS. It will operate like a company and continously improving based on user feedback. But the goal of the company is not to maximize sharehoder profit but to bring delights to both users and employees with minimal cost to users while taking care of the employees.