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Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

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Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#11

Post by threeseed »

sheetjs wrote: post #10
lazerwalker wrote: post #8

> Unfortunately, our observation is that the ratio of commercial to free users is about 1 to 25. That's a ~4% conversion rate. Anyone have data for any similar OSS software libraries with a free tier?

We ( https://sheetjs.com/ ) started from a series of open source projects (our largest https://github.com/sheetjs/js-xlsx has more than 15K stars) and offer a slew of related solutions, including more advanced builds of our open source offerings as well as complementary software. The ratio of customers to open source users is largely useless. To "convert" users, you need to offer something above and beyond what is av…

Most people simply don't understand how enterprise companies work.

You think you have plenty of money to spend and it's easy to get licenses for software. Nope. It's often harder than being in a small business. Licenses often mean lengthy RFPs with extensive Legal and Procurement involvement.

Need to try and sneak things under the radar if you want to get them to buy your products.

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#12

Post by lixtra »

I used hands on table (free) in an internal project. I would have had the budget to pay a license but the “N developer” option[1] was too confusing. We have interns and outsourcing partners potentially touching the code, how many licenses do I need? Negotiate an enterprise license?

This would have involved legal department and dramatically increased cost and time to resolve.

A “not more than 100 unique users per day” license for 1000 USD I would have bought in a blink of an eye.

[1] https://handsontable.com/pricing

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#14

Post by arcturus17 »

nickstefan12 wrote: post #13

I will never forget what I found when hacking the internals of Handsontable many years ago... JavaScript For loops with - :label (eg go to) - continue - break It was definitely an interesting sperlunk!

What’s so bad about continue and break? I’ve seen it in different languages in what I consider great projects...

Sometimes you really need an exit in the middle of the loop.

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#15

Post by jeena »

sheetjs wrote: post #10
lazerwalker wrote: post #8

> Unfortunately, our observation is that the ratio of commercial to free users is about 1 to 25. That's a ~4% conversion rate. Anyone have data for any similar OSS software libraries with a free tier?

We ( https://sheetjs.com/ ) started from a series of open source projects (our largest https://github.com/sheetjs/js-xlsx has more than 15K stars) and offer a slew of related solutions, including more advanced builds of our open source offerings as well as complementary software. The ratio of customers to open source users is largely useless. To "convert" users, you need to offer something above and beyond what is av…

Dual licensing with AGPLv3 and a commercial license might also work.

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#16

Post by eps »

lazerwalker wrote: post #8

> Unfortunately, our observation is that the ratio of commercial to free users is about 1 to 25. That's a ~4% conversion rate. Anyone have data for any similar OSS software libraries with a free tier?

Not the same area, but the norm for installable user-oriented desktop software with a trial option is between 1-2%. If you get to 5%, it's good. 10-15% is phenomenal.

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#17

Post by [deleted] »

eitland wrote: post #9

Understandable but a bit disappointing, just like Caddy. With Caddy I'm fairly certain I donated (as did others, including Mozilla). I guess my contribution didn't mean much but it still felt weird. With Handsontable we recommended it at a project and made sure to get commercial licenses - because it was open source . That said, when I recommend open source at work it is not because of the price but because of peace…

[deleted]

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#18

Post by jasonkester »

Great to hear.

It's painful to watch so many good developers giving away their best work for free, because they feel it's somehow their duty to do so. It's the same feeling I get watching fresh graduates working 100 hour weeks for these startups because there's free food and everybody else is doing it. You want to help, but the culture is just so well geared towards attracting new kids to exploit and convincing them that the exploitation is a good thing.

It's like a cult. Except that nearly every software developer in the world is in on it.

I'm certainly not helping the situation personally, and will happily use whatever Open Source software product helps my business for free. But I do hope that people come to their senses at some point and stop peer-pressuring each other into continuing to spend so much effort polishing good software only to give it away for free.

The things you build have value. They're making other people billions of dollars. Charge accordingly.

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#19

Post by chrishere »

nickstefan12 wrote: post #13

I will never forget what I found when hacking the internals of Handsontable many years ago... JavaScript For loops with - :label (eg go to) - continue - break It was definitely an interesting sperlunk!

I remember that particular loop. It’s already gone.

Re: Handsontable drops open source for a non-commercial license

#20

Post by chrishere »

sheetjs wrote: post #10
lazerwalker wrote: post #8

> Unfortunately, our observation is that the ratio of commercial to free users is about 1 to 25. That's a ~4% conversion rate. Anyone have data for any similar OSS software libraries with a free tier?

We ( https://sheetjs.com/ ) started from a series of open source projects (our largest https://github.com/sheetjs/js-xlsx has more than 15K stars) and offer a slew of related solutions, including more advanced builds of our open source offerings as well as complementary software. The ratio of customers to open source users is largely useless. To "convert" users, you need to offer something above and beyond what is av…

Maybe they tried to contact but you didn’t reply? This happened to us, twice.
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