OSSGuard: SaaS Open Source Viability Simulator

Thinking about open source vs closed source

I've done open-source in the past in the pre-AI era so my knowledge might be slightly wrong/outdated. So take it with a grain of salt. Open-source is good for transparency and easier community adaptation. While you can gain faster momentum with open-source, the downside is that it's difficult to monetize. You can do everything right and everyone can love your product but fall short on how to monetize the thing to make your living. It's not impossible to make a living with it but often you have to be in the top percentile or have funding to even consider it a real long-term option. Don't get me wrong though. Open-source is amazing and lots of us wouldn't be here without it. But if you're thinking about building a product in the open-source space, you really have to take consideration of all angles. You do open-source because you're passionate about it and the space that it entails. But if you're doing open-source for the wrong reasons, it'll certainly bite back at you. If you're still content on doing open-source, my recommendation would be keep the things you want closed-source and then open-source the things that the community can benefit from. So everyone gets a slice of the pie at the end of the day. But there's nothing stopping you from fully open-sourcing your project though. Just have a plan if you do decide to have some kind of monetization. It's harder to add monetization after you've established the foundation, so having a plan from the start is the most ideal. Hope that helps!

I've done open-source in the past in the pre-AI era so my knowledge might be slightly wrong/outdated. So take it with a grain of salt. Open-source is good for transparency and easier community adaptation. While you can gain faster momentum with open-source, the downside is that it's difficult to monetize. You can do everything right and everyone can love your product but fall short on how to monetize the thing to make your living. It's not impossible to make a living with it but often you have to be in the top percentile or have funding to even consider it a real long-term option. Don't get me wrong though. Open-source is amazing and lots of us wouldn't be here without it. But if you're thinking about building a product in the open-source space, you really have to take consideration of all angles. You do open-source because you're passionate about it and the space that it entails. But if you're doing open-source for the wrong reasons, it'll certainly bite back at you. If you're still content on doing open-source, my recommendation would be keep the things you want closed-source and then open-source the things that the community can benefit from. So everyone gets a slice of the pie at the end of the day. But there's nothing stopping you from fully open-sourcing your project though. Just have a plan if you do decide to have some kind of monetization. It's harder to add monetization after you've established the foundation, so having a plan from the start is the most ideal. Hope that helps!