So many developers would simply like to sell their open source product so customers can run the product themsleves. It's simply impossible. There are some succe

So many developers would simply like to sell their open source product so customers can run the product themsleves. It's simply impossible. There are some success stories, but they are always the exception, not the norm. There is another option - one that some open source advocates dislike: source-only products i.e. you sell your software product to customers to run them themselves. You give them the source code of your product so they can customise it to meet their needs. But the software is not open source and cannot be shared the way open source can. There are successful source-only products. Two examples: Craft CMS and Kirby CMS. Both publish their source code on GitHub and rely on the honesty of their customers to pay (which they do). They have a thriving community of developers making plugins and extensions - proving that you can create a community of developers around a 'source-only' product. By the way, the GNU Project (supported by the Free Software Foundation) has never updated their advice on selling open source software to reflect reality. They still advise developers to charge for support or charge for documentation (unpopular and unappealing with both developers and customers). Or they advise charging for the distribution of software. This might have once made sense in an era of CDs and dial-up internet but makes no sense in an era of broadband and GitHub: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html