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This is something I'm wondering about too. I recently made a piece of software [1] that users can self-host (released under MIT). I also want to offer the exact

by adtac 9y ago

This is something I'm wondering about too. I recently made a piece of software [1] that users can self-host (released under MIT). I also want to offer the exact same thing as a service to users who can't self-host and simply just want a pluggable snippet for their static websites. Obviously, if/when I offer the service, anybody who's tired of paying me money will simply spin up a VPS, install docker, pull my image, and run it themselves. It's fairly straightforward (and I'm happy that it's easy to self-host an instance of Commento). I'm just wondering if it is even worth it for me to offer this as a service. I'm not really looking for a huge profit - I'd be happy if it's simply self-sustainable (including development costs). [1] https://github.com/adtac/commento https://github.com/adtac/commento

KitDuncan 9y ago
It probably will still be worth it. People are incredibly lazy and not everyone can be assed to self-host. You may think about adding another monetization incentive to your self-hosted version though. We are self-hosting a tool called Invoice Ninja, but paid a small one time fee, to not have their logo on our invoices.
saluki 9y ago
Never under estimate the power of SaaS. You providing the service already up and running, maintaining it, will provide value for people wanting to use it. Some will take the time to install/host their own. But many would be happy to subscribe and pay for something that just works. Plus the time they would spend setting it up and maintaining it for most it would be a better value to pay monthly/annually for it. Services can easily grow to eclipse your full time income. Go for it.
KajMagnus 9y ago
I think an open source online commenting system, maybe like Commento, is worth offering as a service. Consider a commenting system that supports login-with-Facebook, Gmail, GitHub etcetera, spam protection, and email notifications (which I think most people leaving comments online want). Then, anyone who self hosts that open-source software, would need to do this, to get the same functionality as the hosted version: - Sign up for e.g. a Digital Ocean Virtual Private Server - Sign up for Akismet spam protection - Sign up for some send-emails service - Login to Gmail, read Google's tech doc about OpenAuth, and create OpenAuth credentials. - Login to Facebook, read tech docs, create OpenAuth credentials. - Github: read docs, create credentials. - Forever onward, upgrade the server and software, to avoid security breaches. This easily takes a whole day, because one will likely want to evaluate and compare different VPS and email providers, and also Google's and Facebook's OpenAuth documentation is not so easy to understand (I think). And a VPS + email service, is going to cost about $20 per month. ... I imagine that for 99.5% of all people, buying a hosted service will be cheaper & save many days of work. Only somewhat large companies will want to self host? (I'm building something similar to you b.t.w., https://www.effectivediscussions.org/blog-comments https://www.effectivediscussions.org/blog-comments )
- detaro 9y ago
  Yes, this is totally something worth offering hosted, especially for people with sites on Github Pages, Netlify etc., but also those that just want it to work and someone else take care of it. With more and more issues with the free options like Disqus, a paid alternative without the bullshit is attractive. On the other hand, your estimation of cost and difficulty only applies to someone that would start hosting stuff just for this (and even then, the cost is still off for small use cases)
- guru4consulting 9y ago
  the last point is more critical and difficult to do it right. Comments are vulnerable to all sorts of xss/injection attacks and the functions that scan for them will have to be updated frequently..

by adtac 9y ago

KitDuncan 9y ago

It probably will still be worth it. People are incredibly lazy and not everyone can be assed to self-host. You may think about adding another monetization incentive to your self-hosted version though. We are self-hosting a tool called Invoice Ninja, but paid a small one time fee, to not have their logo on our invoices.

saluki 9y ago

Never under estimate the power of SaaS. You providing the service already up and running, maintaining it, will provide value for people wanting to use it. Some will take the time to install/host their own. But many would be happy to subscribe and pay for something that just works. Plus the time they would spend setting it up and maintaining it for most it would be a better value to pay monthly/annually for it. Services can easily grow to eclipse your full time income. Go for it.

KajMagnus 9y ago

I think an open source online commenting system, maybe like Commento, is worth offering as a service. Consider a commenting system that supports login-with-Facebook, Gmail, GitHub etcetera, spam protection, and email notifications (which I think most people leaving comments online want). Then, anyone who self hosts that open-source software, would need to do this, to get the same functionality as the hosted version: - Sign up for e.g. a Digital Ocean Virtual Private Server - Sign up for Akismet spam protection - Sign up for some send-emails service - Login to Gmail, read Google's tech doc about OpenAuth, and create OpenAuth credentials. - Login to Facebook, read tech docs, create OpenAuth credentials. - Github: read docs, create credentials. - Forever onward, upgrade the server and software, to avoid security breaches. This easily takes a whole day, because one will likely want to evaluate and compare different VPS and email providers, and also Google's and Facebook's OpenAuth documentation is not so easy to understand (I think). And a VPS + email service, is going to cost about $20 per month. ... I imagine that for 99.5% of all people, buying a hosted service will be cheaper & save many days of work. Only somewhat large companies will want to self host? (I'm building something similar to you b.t.w., https://www.effectivediscussions.org/blog-comments https://www.effectivediscussions.org/blog-comments )

detaro 9y ago
Yes, this is totally something worth offering hosted, especially for people with sites on Github Pages, Netlify etc., but also those that just want it to work and someone else take care of it. With more and more issues with the free options like Disqus, a paid alternative without the bullshit is attractive. On the other hand, your estimation of cost and difficulty only applies to someone that would start hosting stuff just for this (and even then, the cost is still off for small use cases)
guru4consulting 9y ago
the last point is more critical and difficult to do it right. Comments are vulnerable to all sorts of xss/injection attacks and the functions that scan for them will have to be updated frequently..