3 ms·

It's interesting to compare the revenue model of Curl to SQLite. Both are permissively licensed. Both are embedded in billions of offerings. Both launched ar

It's interesting to compare the revenue model of Curl to SQLite. Both are permissively licensed. Both are embedded in billions of offerings. Both launched around the same time. SQLite has built a multi-million dollar annual business supporting it, while Curl I believe has not.

mkl95 4y ago
> SQLite has built a multi-million dollar annual business supporting it, while Curl I believe has not. Curl's founder works for a small American company called WolfSSL. AFAIK he works on Curl-related stuff full time.
- faitswulff 4y ago
  A database is also an artifact that requires maintenance, unlike curl.
  - codewiz 4y ago
    That's true for many DBs, but how much maintenance did you have to perform on the dozens of SQLite databases living in your phone and your $HOME?
    - faitswulff 4y ago
      It may not be me, but someone has to maintain those databases unless the software that uses it stops changing. Where curl has to maintain compatibility with every call to curl, I would wager that sqlite has to maintain compatibility with a larger surface area of APIs.
  - ilyt 4y ago
    Maybe read what SQLite is first
  - TingPing 4y ago
    HTTP regularly changes. 2 and 3 are very big enhancements for some use cases.
- wodenokoto 4y ago
  Didn’t Mozilla also used to fund him?
justinclift 4y ago
> SQLite has built a multi-million dollar annual business ... Interesting, where'd you hear that? :) Haven't heard figures regarding SQLite's business side of things (yet), and doing some online searching isn't turning up anything useful.
- cryptonector 4y ago
  The SQLite Consortium clearly has enough employees and importance that that's a fair estimate. You could talk to them about joining the consortium and see if you can manage to get a quote, then extrapolate from that, but really, the members are deep pocket types who are utterly dependent on SQLite3 and who want improvements (not just support).
- wahern 4y ago
  Your challenge piqued my curiosity. ;) SQLite sells support, licensing, and services using a small staff of engineers. See https://sqlite.org/prosupport.html https://sqlite.org/prosupport.html The premium support contract is $120k/year, and it appears from the website that they have at least 4 such clients. See https://www.sqlite.org/index.html#consortium_members https://www.sqlite.org/index.html#consortium_members But even if those are all past clients, all things considered--support tiers, US domestic engineering staff, etc--it seems likely their annual revenue is at least $500K, and would not be surprising if more than $2M. It would be interesting to hear concrete sources, though.

mkl95 4y ago

> SQLite has built a multi-million dollar annual business supporting it, while Curl I believe has not. Curl's founder works for a small American company called WolfSSL. AFAIK he works on Curl-related stuff full time.

faitswulff 4y ago
A database is also an artifact that requires maintenance, unlike curl.
- codewiz 4y ago
  That's true for many DBs, but how much maintenance did you have to perform on the dozens of SQLite databases living in your phone and your $HOME?
  - faitswulff 4y ago
    It may not be me, but someone has to maintain those databases unless the software that uses it stops changing. Where curl has to maintain compatibility with every call to curl, I would wager that sqlite has to maintain compatibility with a larger surface area of APIs.
- ilyt 4y ago
  Maybe read what SQLite is first
- TingPing 4y ago
  HTTP regularly changes. 2 and 3 are very big enhancements for some use cases.
wodenokoto 4y ago
Didn’t Mozilla also used to fund him?

justinclift 4y ago

> SQLite has built a multi-million dollar annual business ... Interesting, where'd you hear that? :) Haven't heard figures regarding SQLite's business side of things (yet), and doing some online searching isn't turning up anything useful.

cryptonector 4y ago
The SQLite Consortium clearly has enough employees and importance that that's a fair estimate. You could talk to them about joining the consortium and see if you can manage to get a quote, then extrapolate from that, but really, the members are deep pocket types who are utterly dependent on SQLite3 and who want improvements (not just support).
wahern 4y ago
Your challenge piqued my curiosity. ;) SQLite sells support, licensing, and services using a small staff of engineers. See https://sqlite.org/prosupport.html https://sqlite.org/prosupport.html The premium support contract is $120k/year, and it appears from the website that they have at least 4 such clients. See https://www.sqlite.org/index.html#consortium_members https://www.sqlite.org/index.html#consortium_members But even if those are all past clients, all things considered--support tiers, US domestic engineering staff, etc--it seems likely their annual revenue is at least $500K, and would not be surprising if more than $2M. It would be interesting to hear concrete sources, though.