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

Post by stevekemp » Wed, May 31, 2017, 3:28 AM UTC

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…

Post by simplehuman » Wed, May 31, 2017, 5:07 AM UTC

antaviana wrote: post #101

Mz wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's almost better for the group if nobody gets paid. Relatedly: Studies show that paying people zero money and giving them respect gets better results than paying some pittance well below market rate. The study conclusion was to the effect of "Pay enough (market rates) or pay nothing. Don't pay some pittance because it is all your project can afford."

We used to have a freeware product that a few years after became a commercial product sold as a subscription. When it was a freeware product, several people wanted to donate but we never accepted any donation, just to avoid the feeling of getting paid too low. Also I guess we were a bit equalitarian: we wanted that either nobody paid or that everybody paid.

Post by flukus » Wed, May 31, 2017, 8:40 AM UTC

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…

Post by thibaut_barrere » Wed, May 31, 2017, 9:39 AM UTC

deedubaya wrote: post #69

thibaut_barrere wrote: post #37

Following the example of Sidekiq (with Sidekiq Pro), I'm in the process of launching a commercial offering for Kiba ETL (OSS Ruby ETL framework - http://www.kiba-etl.org ), dubbed "Kiba Pro". My take on this is that more developers could try to follow that path, but we lack a bit of guidance (I'm lucky Mike Perham provided some useful insights to guide me actually) to reduce the anxiety & uncertainty associated with…

This is a process nearly every Enterprise oriented SaaS, a lot of which are built with Ruby/Rails. I think there is a lot of room for this to take off for you! http://www.kiba-etl.org/ could use some work in stating the business problem and how Kiba can ease the pain of growing your own ETL. If you're not sure what an ETL is (or what problem they solve), the landing page provides 0 justification into reading more.

Post by techspring » Wed, May 31, 2017, 9:48 AM UTC

flukus wrote: post #116

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…

> Run a Kickstarter (Light Table, Diaspora). Pro: you can gauge demand and you don't have a boss. Cons: it's one-time revenue, you have potentially inflated expectations, and just kidding, now you have 1,000 bosses. Has anyone tried running a kickstarter for a version 2? I think I'd be happier doing that because there is a lot less risk, the pitch is "you like v1, would you like me to add features x, y and z?".