Is open core model a good business strategy for indie hackers?
Open core is a somewhat hybrid model that combines open and closed-source software (Think community edition vs. enterprise edition).
There are many SaaS out there offer open core model, in your opinion do you think it is a good business strategy ? are they worth the trade-off ? have you tried it ? any advice ?
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Haven't tried it, but I have been thinking about it for my application. I guess Mongo and Docker are good examples of businesses that successfully use this model?
Yes exactly and many more too, we need to hear from someone who did implement it.
I think it's great if you're building for a technical audience. I'm personally more likely to use a service, even the hosted version, if I know the code is open source and I could run my own instance of it if needed.
It opens you up to a bit of risk though, as any bugs in your code are visible for all to see and hack on.
Good point Alex, I think it will add a hassle too for maintaining two versions of your software.
Having a fork of your code repo where you add the premuim features could help manage the 2 versions.
Looking at your localXpose service, I think more people would try out the free tier if they could see a Github page, as your audience is developers. I could be wrong though, that's just my feelings on it.