Make Money With Open Source

CommunityFree software vs. open sourceLicenses: GPL vs. LGPL vs. MIT/ApacheFoundations: Linux, Apache, Eclipse, …Similar: Open Data, Open Hardware, Open Knowledge, ...

What is Open Source?

“cheaper” high customization options transparency innovation (attractive to experts and later employees) education increased trust to young baking companies form standards usually more secure (but can be the opposite like with the

previously underfunded openssl) self-hosted easily possible → increased privacy authors get free marketing

Advantages of OS

Unclear risks e.g. not really cheaper: often not production ready often need in-house expertise no development: 95% of OS projects die after 1 year

hard to create trust better with backing company or foundation

contribution activity not guaranteed authors get free blame, seldom positive feedback

Disadvantages of OS

To earn money you could: ask for donations do advertisement (corporate sponsor) offer consulting and support offer a less restrictive license: dual licensing with (A)GPL hide features (open core) or documentation or executable

binaries or test suite combine with hardware offer software as a service more details at Wikipedia: Business models for OS software

Many options

corporate sponsor: Firefox, Linux, Android, Chromium, Git, Kubernetes, Java, Swift, React, NetBeans, TensorFlow, vscode

offer consulting and support: Red Hat, IBM dual licensing: MySQL, Neo4J, MongoDB, Apple open core: nginx, JetBrains, VirtualBox, Artifactory software as a service: Wordpress, Discourse, GraphHopper donations: Firefox, Piwik mixed: Ubuntu, Elastic, GitHub grow closed: SugarCRM dropped OS license in 2013 fork was created (SuiteCRM)

Story about the only real “open source company” Red Hat

Examples

It dependsWhat kind of software do you have?

A library, an operating system, a end user app?

But my personal impression is: – open core and software as a service or – get acquired by a bit donor

What’s the best option?

In general: making money is hard, often against creating a

viable community around the project avoid launching competitors using the same code

challenges when doing consulting: staying focused to create a product release work for customer under OS license

challenges when creating SaaS out of the OS project: getting time to improve OS and building the SaaS pricing is hard as you “compete” with your own project

What’s the best option?

History of GraphHopper GmbH: Do consulting to increase value of OS project Built SaaS product out of valuable OS project Implement closed source features to grow demand of SaaS Open source features to grow demand of OS project Reduce consulting to stay focused Grow only with customers, not VCs – independence!

We chose SaaS

Our software core is open source

We use open data

Open vs. Closed

Open vs. Closed

make the project lasting for years:1. earn money2. mental health

1. ignore blame, write down praise2. do not promise features or set dead lines3. ignore temporary slow progress

3. focus! 4. marketing: blog posts, speak at conferences like FOSDEM5. strong community: enforce public discussion6. + be gentle dictator

Successful Open Source Project

Make Money With Open SourceMake Money With Open Source

peter.karich@graphhopper.com