11 Ways you can monetize an open source project
Here are 11 ways you can monetize an open source project.
More details and lots of links/examples here.
- Merchandise - sell branded t-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc.
- Advertising - adds on hosted pages like project documentation
- Donations - patreon, GitHub sponsors, etc.
- SaaS Offering - a hosted version of the OS software
- Professional Services - solve businesses problems with the OS software
- Feature Bounty - accept $ to prioritize features
- Dual-Licensing - use a restrictive license like GPLv3 and offer a more liberally commercial license for a fee
- Open Core - not truly open source, but offer a closed-source enterprise version with advanced features
- Delayed Open Sourcing - give early access to releases for a fee
- Subscription Support - accept a monthly fee to guarantee support services to companies who depend on the project
- Paid Add-Ons - related but separate paid projects.
What is your opinion about option 4 (SaaS offering) combined with open source?
Do you know examples apart from GitLab?
It's a model that I find tempting as many users won't want to go through the hassle of self-hosting the app, and will probably instead use the service. Although it opens the door for third-parties to host and let others access it "for free"..