

How do i bill for open source software? - anovikov

Hi,<p>i have an idea of a startup which will change a lot in security field, post-Snowden. The problem is, it will only make sense if it&#x27;s open source (because otherwise it can&#x27;t be trusted). How do i bill for this? It is about 80% for corporate market, rest of privacy-concerned individuals (power users).<p>Any idea is appreciated.<p>without solving this question, i will probably never move past MVP because it&#x27;s hard to get funding without a solid way to bill your users, few will pay if they can cut a few lines from code, run make, and have it for free.
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wikwocket
The same way you bill for any other software services.

Seriously: No startup or SAAS is really charging for their actual software.
The whole reason an MVP works is that you are selling an idea, and a solution
to a business problem, not some code. The actual execution of the solution is
an implementation detail. That's why many people can get paying customers
before they've written a line of code.

Also, I think you overestimate a corporate customer's ability and willingness
to clone a repo, edit and run a build script, and host their own solution.
Corporations pay money to _remove_ problems from their business. Evaluating a
new open source package, ramping up on building/running/customizing it, and
then maintaining it in-house all sounds like _adding_ a pain point to your
average company.

In short, are you meeting a need, and solving a problem that businesses have?
If so, then people will pay you money for that. After that it's just a matter
of marketing.

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mooreds
I would look at this exhaustive list of revenue models and see if you can find
a company that does something similar to what you're contemplating.

[https://hackpad.com/Web-and-Mobile-Revenue-Models-
Ch2paBpUyI...](https://hackpad.com/Web-and-Mobile-Revenue-Models-Ch2paBpUyIU)

There are any number of things you can charge for with an open source project:
commercial use licensing, documentation, support, advanced features,
implementation consulting.

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lbcadden3
GPL3, then charge target market for a different license and upgrades/support.

I saw someone else doing this and they said it was working well for them
(sorry do not remember who).

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J_Darnley
Was it x264? It has a dual GPL2/commercial licence and I believe they have
been pretty successful.

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tonyplee
kickstarter? There are a few projects at kickstarter like this type already.

