Ask HN: Paid app but also want to open source?

7 points by Liuser 9y ago ↗ HN

I've just written my first small paid application and would also like to release the source code publicly on github as a few people have expressed interest.

There's some pros and cons I can see with it:

Cons:

- Potential revenue loss, people wont pay if they can get it for free.

Pros:

- Giving back to community.

- Potential free advertising when technical users use the free code and non-technical users catch wind and pay for not having to be bothered with code.

Anyone do both and can share experiences?

3 comments

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TurboHaskal 9y ago ↗

I would keep the code proprietary and donate 20% of the application's revenue to the open source projects that made it possible. As soon as profit stops, open source it.

You'll be "giving back" way more this way.

jrpt 9y ago ↗

Is it business software or consumer software?

Check out https://supportedsource.org/

You can have your code public on GitHub, while still releasing it under a paid license.

Liuser 9y ago ↗

Thanks for the info -- it's consumer software.