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I maintain an open source push notification service called ntfy [1]. It's 100% open source, but I have recently started offering ntfy Pro, a paid SaaS offering.

I maintain an open source push notification service called ntfy [1]. It's 100% open source, but I have recently started offering ntfy Pro, a paid SaaS offering. I am telling you it's super hard to get people to pay for it. It may be because the free tier is too generous, or because I don't aggressively push or market it, but most likely it's because people can just selfhost it. I have 25k active daily users for the free tier, and probably hundreds or thousands of selfhosted installations, yet as of today, I have only 20 paying subscribers. It's quite brutal. The worst part is that ever since I started offering paid subscriptions, donations have reduced and new donations have pretty much stopped, because people think I'm making bank with the paid stuff. I know this doesn't answer your question, but it gives you the perspective you may be actually seeking. It's definitely hard to pull off. [1] https://ntfy.sh/ https://ntfy.sh/

RileyJames 3y ago
I notice your lowest plan is 2500 daily notifications. So you’re stating you have 25k users that use less than 2500 daily notifications? I’d suggest your free tier is too generous if you’re struggling to convert free to paid. I feel like the value of open source saas is that you’re not locked into the vendors roadmap or pricing in the same way as a closed source saas. If you need feature xx in the future, and they don’t provide it. You add that feature, and move to self hosting (or maybe they’d even accept the PR and it could become part of the hosted service, tho less likely). And if your business / service thrives, and you scale to the highest tiers of the pricing, you have the option to move to a self hosted version. Obviously self hosting has additional dev ops costs, but once you’re at a certain scale, and you have those dev ops resources anyway, it could make sense to take more control over the services you rely on. Those options give me the confidence to deeply integrate and plan for the long term. But it’s not about free, it’s about that flexibility in the future. An overly generous free tier seems more in line with a closed source saas lock-in strategy.
throwaway4738 3y ago
> It may be because the free tier is too generous Yea I also think 250 messages a day is a lot for the free tier. Thanks for sharing! Btw I saw ntfy on HN a couple of months ago and I’m already one of the starrers.
- binwiederhier 3y ago
  It used to be 17k per day, and I've reduced it slowly, but I don't want to screw anyone over. Hehe.
  - aprdm 3y ago
    give a 3 months heads up and email every month then a week before and people should be fine to arrange payment
    - binwiederhier 3y ago
      99% of my users do not sign up. And even the ones with user accounts do not have to provide email addresses. I am quite the privacy junkie, though I realize that's counter productive for a product haha.
  - throwaway4738 3y ago
    Wow, 17k requests per day?! Is that like an enterprise plan or something? Just emailed you with my “real” identity, maybe we can continue from there? :)
v_ignatyev 3y ago
If donations make a sensitive income flow, why switch to paid SaaS offering ever? Keep your OpenSource as a non-profit and develop SaaS as another brand, separately. Offer a premium proprietary product as a separate product under the same brand. Let's talk if I can help you: https://calendly.com/ignatev/coffee-online https://calendly.com/ignatev/coffee-online
tomcam 3y ago
That’s awful, though not surprising. Thanks for sharing.

RileyJames 3y ago

I notice your lowest plan is 2500 daily notifications. So you’re stating you have 25k users that use less than 2500 daily notifications? I’d suggest your free tier is too generous if you’re struggling to convert free to paid. I feel like the value of open source saas is that you’re not locked into the vendors roadmap or pricing in the same way as a closed source saas. If you need feature xx in the future, and they don’t provide it. You add that feature, and move to self hosting (or maybe they’d even accept the PR and it could become part of the hosted service, tho less likely). And if your business / service thrives, and you scale to the highest tiers of the pricing, you have the option to move to a self hosted version. Obviously self hosting has additional dev ops costs, but once you’re at a certain scale, and you have those dev ops resources anyway, it could make sense to take more control over the services you rely on. Those options give me the confidence to deeply integrate and plan for the long term. But it’s not about free, it’s about that flexibility in the future. An overly generous free tier seems more in line with a closed source saas lock-in strategy.

throwaway4738 3y ago

> It may be because the free tier is too generous Yea I also think 250 messages a day is a lot for the free tier. Thanks for sharing! Btw I saw ntfy on HN a couple of months ago and I’m already one of the starrers.

binwiederhier 3y ago
It used to be 17k per day, and I've reduced it slowly, but I don't want to screw anyone over. Hehe.
- aprdm 3y ago
  give a 3 months heads up and email every month then a week before and people should be fine to arrange payment
  - binwiederhier 3y ago
    99% of my users do not sign up. And even the ones with user accounts do not have to provide email addresses. I am quite the privacy junkie, though I realize that's counter productive for a product haha.
- throwaway4738 3y ago
  Wow, 17k requests per day?! Is that like an enterprise plan or something? Just emailed you with my “real” identity, maybe we can continue from there? :)

v_ignatyev 3y ago

If donations make a sensitive income flow, why switch to paid SaaS offering ever? Keep your OpenSource as a non-profit and develop SaaS as another brand, separately. Offer a premium proprietary product as a separate product under the same brand. Let's talk if I can help you: https://calendly.com/ignatev/coffee-online https://calendly.com/ignatev/coffee-online

tomcam 3y ago

That’s awful, though not surprising. Thanks for sharing.