
Ask HN: Making money from a JavaScript library? - amuresan
Is it possible to make money by making a quality JS library and monetizing it either through direct sales (preferably) or some other way?<p>Are the IP risks too big or can they be mitigated by using obfuscation?
======
Reinmar
Of course, it is possible. There are many companies which sell JavaScript
libraries and related services. In my own field (of JS-based rich-text
editors) there are at least a couple of companies which produce their own
products and live from that. I'm not sure if you'd still consider them as
libraries, but I'll come to that.

As in any business, the most important aspect is finding customers. First of
all, you need to have an idea and then a product. It needs to be really good
unless you have some exceptional marketing and sales skills ;).

Then, you'll need to find potential customers. You can do that directly or
promote yourself in various ways. Many companies open source their products or
parts of their products. This may attract a lot of attention and makes you and
your software more recognizable. If you open source a big part of your product
you also won't have a problem with obfuscating the code – it's available out
there anyway.

But how to make money if you open sourced everything? That's why I'm talking
about a product, not a library. Source code is not everything (unless it's a
really simple thing, but then you wouldn't sell it anyway). You can propose
additional support, commercial licenses, knowledge and experience (in various
ways such as custom development or your assistance). Some developers also try
to crowd fund their projects on services like
[https://www.patreon.com/](https://www.patreon.com/) or
[https://gratipay.com/](https://gratipay.com/) but you need a really big
community to live from that.

So, if you want to make money, then in most cases you should start thinking
about a product, not a library itself. You need to be prepared that a big
fraction of your time will be spent on things other than coding. This is tough
for many developers.

Good luck! :)

~~~
whit537
We recently integrated npm into Gratipay so companies can pay for their
package.json:

[https://gratipay.news/integrating-
npm-39333109419d](https://gratipay.news/integrating-npm-39333109419d)
[https://gratipay.news/pay-for-your-package-json-
cb07341445ca](https://gratipay.news/pay-for-your-package-json-cb07341445ca)

If you claim your npm packages on Gratipay then you'll be ready as we start
bringing companies online to pay:

[https://gratipay.com/on/npm/?flow=receive](https://gratipay.com/on/npm/?flow=receive)

