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Ask HN: What are your thoughts on launching a SaaS that is 100% open source?
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?
Questions:
- Would you expect a lot of individual users to use your software without a license?
- Would you expect businesses to use your software with a license?
- Would open sourcing your software have a positive or negative impact on marketing/customer reach?
- Do you know of any open companies that serve as good examples, aside from GitLab?
Interested in hearing different opinions on the subject.
Edit: I'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.
- ezekg 10y agoBenefits 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.
- dozzie 10y agoSaaS 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.
- ezekg 10y agoThat'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.