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

by Liuser on 2/24/17, 6:25 AM with 3 comments

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?

  • by TurboHaskal on 2/24/17, 11:48 AM

    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.

  • by jrpt on 2/26/17, 12:59 AM

    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.