Ask HN: Licensing a CSS Framework

[darkhorse13]

Hey HN, I have been developing a CSS framework for quite some time, and it is almost ready to launch.

Ideally, I would like to earn money using it, but don't really like going the ads and sponsorship approach. So I was thinking something like this:

- The framework is completely free (with source available) for usage in free and commercial applications.

- If someone wants to extend it, and sell those assets (specifically themes and templates), a commercial license needs to be purchased for a tiny amount of money, paid once. Not a subscription.

Does this make sense? Would I alienate developers by having this structure of licensing?

[djsumdog]

I think this type of model would be very difficult to enforce. You'd have to have lawyers and enforcement as part of your monetization strategy, and that would just encourage people not to use it.

If you're going to do something like a CSS framework; I'd say just make it open source. There is already so much prior work; it's something you should really only do if you're going to use it for something yourself and maybe contribute back in some way that others might find useful.

[darkhorse13 → djsumdog]

Hmm you are right, it would be impossible to enforce.

[benmarks]

Your timing is auspicious. You might reach out to Adam Wathan, who just launched the paid component to Tailwind CSS. https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1233134358388781080?s=...

[darkhorse13 → benmarks]

This approach may indeed be smarter. Make the core fully open source under MIT license, but have a paid license with extra goodies.