6 ms·

I mean, I get what you're trying to say but in no way does a paid subscription "promise" they'll be around any longer than if they were free. Sometimes transit

by watty 10y ago

I mean, I get what you're trying to say but in no way does a paid subscription "promise" they'll be around any longer than if they were free. Sometimes transitioning from free to paid can backfire and actually shorten the lifespan of a product.

jacquesm 10y ago
I don't think that's true. Companies that persist in giving away their product have only one route to safety: an exit. A company that charges for its product has an immediate extension of its runway, corporate credibility and both of those add up to being around longer than if they're free. Transitioning from free to paid can backfire if you depend on the free users for some critical way and gitlab is leaving all that untouched. They're charging for extras such as support and CI minutes, both of which are features that usually will be of use to corporate customers. All in all I see this as a positive move for gitlab in the long run, lack of revenue streams was something that bothered me and made me wonder about their long term viability. For me at least those worries are now gone.
- daxelrod 10y ago
  They've been selling GitLab Enterprise Edition for quite a while. Were you concerned that this wasn't enough of a revenue stream? https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ee/ https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ee/
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Recurring > one time revenue. EDIT: My knowledge of their pricing is inaccurate. I thought EE was one-time on-prem charge.
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      GLE is also recurring ($199 / user / year). But more is better.
    - wasbutatest 10y ago
      Gitlab EE isn't even close to one time, did you even look at their pricing model before replying?
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    Given how fast their free tier was growing, yes. They're in no holds barred exponential growth territory and I don't know the ratio of corporate customers:free customers but I suspect that the free tier is growing faster. So they really need more sources of income, and preferably b2b ones. Companies like gitlab become mission critical for the customers that depend on them (one reason why github (not gitlab) is now in the 'too big to fail' category, if they were to go under there would have to be a rescue operation of sorts). Gitlab has a narrow base and broadening that base is really good.
- mydigitalself 10y ago
  GitLab as a company has had paying customers for a long time. If you take a look at our web site (https://about.gitlab.com/ https://about.gitlab.com/) you can see some amazing companies who license GitLab EE including IBM, NASA, Nasdaq, Sony and Uber to name just a few. GitLab.com has become increasingly popular over time and we want to continue to not only provide a great self-hosted product, but also an amazing hosted (SaaS) solution.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    There is a difference between having paying customers and being a profitable business. Now, you have access to the gitlab books and I don't but from where I'm sitting the more revenue streams you have the better I feel (because I really like gitlab...), on the off chance that you weren't profitable yet.
    - bluGill 10y ago
      Not always. Often a revenue stream costs more time (money) than you get from it. Note that the above is tricky. There are revenue streams that lose money by the books, but are worth having because they help something else. An example is a store sells milk at (or below) cost because people come for the cheap milk and buy lots of other things.
      - jacquesm 10y ago
        Yes, there is probably a contrived counter example for every action a company does that allows you to construe that action as a net negative. But on the whole companies are quite smart at allocating their resources, especially scrappy start-ups and given that bit of data you can make the (safe) assumption that they thought this through to make sure that it would not be a negative. For instance, by first asking their customers whether or not they would pay for such a product.
ascendantlogic 10y ago
I feel like that's an edge case. Presumably given the stated growth of Gitlab they weren't going to get unlimited resources from Digital Ocean forever so they have to do something to cover the costs and, presumably, attempt to become a business that attempts to make a profit.

by watty 10y ago

jacquesm 10y ago

I don't think that's true. Companies that persist in giving away their product have only one route to safety: an exit. A company that charges for its product has an immediate extension of its runway, corporate credibility and both of those add up to being around longer than if they're free. Transitioning from free to paid can backfire if you depend on the free users for some critical way and gitlab is leaving all that untouched. They're charging for extras such as support and CI minutes, both of which are features that usually will be of use to corporate customers. All in all I see this as a positive move for gitlab in the long run, lack of revenue streams was something that bothered me and made me wonder about their long term viability. For me at least those worries are now gone.

daxelrod 10y ago
They've been selling GitLab Enterprise Edition for quite a while. Were you concerned that this wasn't enough of a revenue stream? https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ee/ https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ee/
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Recurring > one time revenue. EDIT: My knowledge of their pricing is inaccurate. I thought EE was one-time on-prem charge.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    GLE is also recurring ($199 / user / year). But more is better.
  - wasbutatest 10y ago
    Gitlab EE isn't even close to one time, did you even look at their pricing model before replying?
- jacquesm 10y ago
  Given how fast their free tier was growing, yes. They're in no holds barred exponential growth territory and I don't know the ratio of corporate customers:free customers but I suspect that the free tier is growing faster. So they really need more sources of income, and preferably b2b ones. Companies like gitlab become mission critical for the customers that depend on them (one reason why github (not gitlab) is now in the 'too big to fail' category, if they were to go under there would have to be a rescue operation of sorts). Gitlab has a narrow base and broadening that base is really good.
mydigitalself 10y ago
GitLab as a company has had paying customers for a long time. If you take a look at our web site (https://about.gitlab.com/ https://about.gitlab.com/) you can see some amazing companies who license GitLab EE including IBM, NASA, Nasdaq, Sony and Uber to name just a few. GitLab.com has become increasingly popular over time and we want to continue to not only provide a great self-hosted product, but also an amazing hosted (SaaS) solution.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  There is a difference between having paying customers and being a profitable business. Now, you have access to the gitlab books and I don't but from where I'm sitting the more revenue streams you have the better I feel (because I really like gitlab...), on the off chance that you weren't profitable yet.
  - bluGill 10y ago
    Not always. Often a revenue stream costs more time (money) than you get from it. Note that the above is tricky. There are revenue streams that lose money by the books, but are worth having because they help something else. An example is a store sells milk at (or below) cost because people come for the cheap milk and buy lots of other things.
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      Yes, there is probably a contrived counter example for every action a company does that allows you to construe that action as a net negative. But on the whole companies are quite smart at allocating their resources, especially scrappy start-ups and given that bit of data you can make the (safe) assumption that they thought this through to make sure that it would not be a negative. For instance, by first asking their customers whether or not they would pay for such a product.

ascendantlogic 10y ago

I feel like that's an edge case. Presumably given the stated growth of Gitlab they weren't going to get unlimited resources from Digital Ocean forever so they have to do something to cover the costs and, presumably, attempt to become a business that attempts to make a profit.