Many open source projects are terribly under-resourced and under-funded. Some open source developers even have to sacrifice their financial security to work on their passion. Written by Marko Saric.
Financial sacrifice to work on an open source product many people use and enjoy should not be required. In order to build and grow great open source alternatives to proprietary software such as Firefox is to Chrome, we do need more people to be able to commit to open source full time.
The article main focus is on:
- Why should open source projects need funding at all?
- Business models aligned with something people are willing to pay for
- Hosted, plug and play solution as a SaaS
- Premium version with additional features and expanded functionality
- Training, support or consulting services from the project’s maintainers
- Crowdfunding, voluntary donations and sponsorship
- Find what works best for your situation and your project
Explore the different options and different examples in this post. The list of funding methods above doesn’t mean that you have to choose and sticky to one business model only. Great read!
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