I'm thinking about turning my product into Open Source 🤔
A few days ago I launched Product Gears (which is a Costumer Feedback Board) and we're still learning a lot about marketing and sales.
But one thing I talk a lot with my cofounder is about the possibility of making it open source and the benefits it can bring to customers.
Although we've used several Open Source tools, we've never created anything like this. Do you guys have any tips or content that would be good for us to study before making the decision or even how we can make this work?
I was also looking into Open Sourcing my product, but in the end decided not to because of the following:
Which open source developers will contribute? If your product is targeting coders, then great. If not, then why would anybody want to spend their spare time coding for your product?
Creating a community around an open source tool is as hard as creating a community around your normal tool. Don't fall into the trap of shifting the problem.
And this was not relevant for me, but maybe for you: A lot of big companies are allergic to Open Source, and want to stay as far away from it as possible. They just want a supplier that is responsible for the solution, and that they can call directly.
"A lot of big companies are allergic to Open Source, and want to stay as far away from it as possible." - Didn't know about that.
"Which open source developers will contribute? If your product is targeting coders, then great. If not, then why would anybody want to spend their spare time coding for your product?" - This was a point I was thinking about, although our target user is the product team. Still, It ain't the developer.
Thanks for your comment 😄
I think the biggest benefit for the customer is transparency, since transparency creates trust.
I’ve made the decision to build my project Keila as Open Source from the very beginning. This has certainly helped get some people interested in it and I’ve even had some folks who ended contributed already. Also, it encourages you to do some building in public ;-)
Choosing the right license is probably crucial for Open Source businesses. I picked the AGPLv3 – a strong copyleft license which makes sure that users always have the full freedom to use the software however they like, but also requires everyone who makes a change and runs it on a network, to make their changes available.
I think that’s preferable over proprietary licenses (looking at you Redis!) Examples like Plausible show that the AGPLv3 can be a great foundation for a successful business.
Can you elaborate on what you see as “the benefits for customers”. 🍻
Of course. We could offer a self hosted plan, which for some of the users that we talked to was interesting.
Furthermore, if we're able to create a community around the product, it would gain speed and give the community freedom to build what they want/need.
I think a great example of this is GitLab. (Obviously we're in a very different market, but we're left wondering if it would bring the same benefits)
I see. So what are the downsides to making it open source do you think?
I would guess that the increase in complexity on development.
Sincerely, I don't know. My intention with the publication was to find out about the experience of other people making open source products. 😋