
Ask HN: What are your thoughts on launching a SaaS that is 100% open source? - ezekg
For discussion, the main service would be a multi-tenant service with an option for a single-tenant on-premise installation. Given that you had a proper licensing system in place for on-premise installations of your software, do you believe a business model like this could be sustainable?<p>Questions:<p>- Would you expect a lot of individual users to use your software without a license?<p>- Would you expect businesses to use your software with a license?<p>- Would open sourcing your software have a positive or negative impact on marketing&#x2F;customer reach?<p>- Do you know of any open companies that serve as good examples, aside from GitLab?<p>Interested in hearing different opinions on the subject.<p>Edit: I&#x27;d like to clarify that by open source, I mean that all source code that the company runs on would be available for review, contribution, issue reporting, etc. — not that it would abide by an 100% free open source software license.
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dozzie
SaaS that is open source makes sense when you provide something that would be
difficult or troublesome to achieve with running the thing on-premise. Good
network connection with high uptime is one such thing. Keeping the software
updated, populated with plugins, or a management panel for spinning up many
separate instances could be another.

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ezekg
That's my thinking as well. Take GitLab for example: you can self-host private
repos using the community edition of GitLab for free, or have them host it for
$35/mo. Loads of users choose the latter because it's less maintenance and
easier to get started with. Larger companies on the other hand will pay for
the enterprise edition so that they can self-host it.

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ezekg
Benefits of open sourcing: better code review, contributions, increased
community engagement (possibly more employment/customer connections), improved
security. I'm about 90% convinced that open sourcing a business I'm launching
soon would have a positive impact on its success. It's just about getting past
the initial fear of doing it.

