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Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

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Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#71

Post by mobitar »

tastyham wrote: post #67
mobitar wrote: post #56

Because monetizing any business is really really hard. I work on Standard Notes ( https://standardnotes.org ), which is an encrypted notes app (think of it as an encrypted Evernote alternative). It's fully open source, and I'm monetizing it through paid upgrades. While the progress is promising enough for me to continue working on it full time, nothing could have prepared me for how difficult this was going to be. I…

Your app looks sweet. Can I try out the extended version before purchasing?

Hey, thanks! The closest to a free trial right now would be the monthly plan, which you can cancel at any time and request a refund. I hope to build in free trials some time soon.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#72

Post by nolanl »

jashmenn wrote: post #59
dlandis wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * Run a Patreon (Vue). Pro: you have autonomy and recurring revenue (yay!). Con: now you're a personality. This is limited to celebs who are good at marketing _themselves_ as much as their software I don't see this one as necessarily true. And it doesn't even seem to hold up in the one example you gave of Vue. Looking over the patreon page, Evan seems to be totally marketing the technology and not marketing "himsel…

Ah sorry! I absolutely did not mean this to disparage Evan. I think very highly of him and love Vue. So in that case, my example may not fit my point, which is that it's hard to become a personality (and/or brand) that is known well enough to support a full time income. One might say that other open-source projects don't make a significant income because they don't have value, but I think you only need to look at e.g…

Maybe it's more accurate to say that, when you're on Patreon, part of your job suddenly becomes a "hustle"? E.g. in Evan's case I get the feeling that without a constant stream of conference appearances and blog posts it would be harder to drive Patreon donations.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#73

Post by [deleted] »

acdha wrote: post #41
jashmenn wrote: post #31

Because monetizing your open-source project means you take on a second job. Here are your choices: * Turn your OSS project into a company (Docker). The pro is that you can capture a lot of the value, the con is that you're splitting your project into CE/EE and also now you're a CEO * Give the software away for free and charge for the hosting (Gitlab). Pro here is that you get recurring revenue, but the con is that no…

> it's one-time revenue, you have potentially inflated expectations, and just kidding, now you have 1,000 bosses. I think this dynamic applies pretty widely and it's part of a major problem throughout the open-source community. There are many people who feel entitled to custom development tailored to their exact needs for free or close to it; that population is both considerably larger than the number of people who w…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#74

Post by imhoguy »

jashmenn wrote: post #31

Because monetizing your open-source project means you take on a second job. Here are your choices: * Turn your OSS project into a company (Docker). The pro is that you can capture a lot of the value, the con is that you're splitting your project into CE/EE and also now you're a CEO * Give the software away for free and charge for the hosting (Gitlab). Pro here is that you get recurring revenue, but the con is that no…

> * Charge for support (Ubuntu, Nginx-ish). Pro here is that by helping folks implement your software, you'll have a long line of success stories. Con here is that it isn't scalable - you're upside is bounded by the hours you can bill.

If a project has active community then the owner can scale support by sharing workload and money with the contributors. In general I agree with you monetization is a job/business.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#75

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

JoelSanchez wrote: post #54
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #19

I've tried it. I've failed at it. Halite is a libsodium wrapper for PHP projects that emphasizes ease-of-use and difficulty to misuse: https://github.com/paragonie/halite CMS Airship is a secure-by-default content management system (think WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.): https://github.com/paragonie/airship Both projects are released under GPL but offer commercial licenses. In two years, I've only had one person eve…

I'm a Laravel developer and I know about random_compat because of the infamous "There is no suitable CSPRNG installed on your system" message. So I guess it's Wordpress, Laravel, and maybe Symfony too?

Laravel and Symfony get counted through Packagist. WordPress does not.

Basically, 28 million + (number of WordPress 4.4+ installs) = total installed base of random_compat

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#76

Post by akavel »

pkamb wrote: post #51

I have a little open-source Mac utility where the source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/pkamb/PowerKey I then sell a compiled version signed with my Apple Developer ID via Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/l/powerkey This model works pretty well for small apps that you otherwise want to keep in a public repo. The hassle of compiling + signing the app is worth $5 to many people. For anyone dabbling with th…

There's also a quite well known sprite/pixel art editing/drawing application, named Aseprite, which has a similar model - the author sells it as a paid app in its compiled form, though he also makes the full source available on GitHub. I have huge respect for him for that, and that it seems to work for him!

https://www.aseprite.org/

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#77

Post by Gracana »

mobitar wrote: post #56

Because monetizing any business is really really hard. I work on Standard Notes ( https://standardnotes.org ), which is an encrypted notes app (think of it as an encrypted Evernote alternative). It's fully open source, and I'm monetizing it through paid upgrades. While the progress is promising enough for me to continue working on it full time, nothing could have prepared me for how difficult this was going to be. I…

Just a heads-up, standardnotes.org is very broken (big area of overlapping text) in IE11.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#78

Post by mobitar »

Gracana wrote: post #77
mobitar wrote: post #56

Because monetizing any business is really really hard. I work on Standard Notes ( https://standardnotes.org ), which is an encrypted notes app (think of it as an encrypted Evernote alternative). It's fully open source, and I'm monetizing it through paid upgrades. While the progress is promising enough for me to continue working on it full time, nothing could have prepared me for how difficult this was going to be. I…

Just a heads-up, standardnotes.org is very broken (big area of overlapping text) in IE11.

Oh no, thanks for the heads up. Will take a look.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#79

Post by orthecreedence »

iamwil wrote: post #49
orthecreedence wrote: post #34

I run an open source project (turtlapp.com). I want to monetize. I have people who tell me fairly often they want to pay for it. There are two things that hold me back. First is never quite feeling like it's ready to charge for (perfect being the enemy of good). Second is I don't know how much time I can devote to supporting it. Both are stupid reasons. I know this. I'm hoping to launch a premium service soon, and we…

Just start charging. You'll want to know earlier rather than later which one it is. Life is short. If it turns out this is not the thing you should be working on, knowing which one it is will free your mind up to do something else you should be doing.

Great advice. It's funny because I already know this, it's logical and the decision makes sense in every way, but I still have trouble doing it. I've got a nice chunk of nights/weekends in July, maybe I'll make the final push then.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more open-source projects monetize?

#80

Post by bsears »

Our startup is in the process of launching an open source product and monetizing (currently) by offering it as a SaaS solution. People will be willing to pay for something if it's going to make their life easier

The trouble with monetizing open source is that if your project isn't a "full product" like wordpress, gitlab, or discourse with a well designed interface and plugin support you don't really have a way to sell the product as a service which I think is the most lucrative way and you can then start adding premium features to this service if you want to go down the open core route.

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