Why Open Source Projects Die: Monetization Secrets

There are millions of open source projects on GitHub, but less than 1% remain truly active for more than 3 years. Why?

Most maintainers think "if you write good code, people will naturally use it." What happens? The project gets popular for a while, issues pile up, server bills keep growing, they still need to work day jobs to support their families, and eventually they have to give up.

The truth is: 99% of maintainers have no idea how to make their projects sustainable. They spend all their energy writing code but ignore the most crucial point—how to make the project "self-sustaining."

This article reveals the monetization strategies behind successful projects and the pitfalls most people fall into.

1. Three Truths About Why Open Source Projects Die

Most maintainers underestimate these hidden costs:

1. Money Issues: Servers, CI/CD, domains—hundreds to thousands per month
2. Time Black Hole: Responding to issues, writing docs, fixing bugs—at least 2-3 hours daily
3. Energy Burnout: Working during the day, maintaining projects at night, handling emergencies on weekends

Without stable income support, 99% of projects stop updating within 1-2 years. This isn't about maintainers being irresponsible—it's reality.

But don't rush to start charging right away. At least these conditions should be met:

1. Project is basically stable, documentation is complete, newcomers can get started smoothly
2. Know who's using your project and what problems they're solving
3. Open source license is chosen, trademark is registered, no legal risks

2. The Secret of That 1% of Successful Projects: Choosing the Right Monetization Strategy

Why do some projects survive? Because they've already figured out these questions:

1. Who are your users? Individual developers, company tech teams, or enterprise procurement?
2. What problems do you solve? Development efficiency, system stability, or data analysis?
3. How painful is the pain point? Is it "can't work without it" or "more convenient with it"?
4. What's the migration cost? How much code do users need to change to switch to you?
5. How to deploy? Do users set it up themselves, or do you provide cloud services?

3. Six Proven Monetization Strategies

1. Open Core + Premium Features

Basic features are free and open source, enterprise features are paid. This is the most common model.

What features can be charged for:

1. Enterprise security: Single sign-on, permission management, audit logs
2. Team collaboration: Multi-tenancy, quota limits, version management
3. Operations monitoring: Advanced charts, auto-scaling, alert notifications

How to do it:

1. Put a comparison table on the website showing free vs paid features at a glance
2. Use feature flags in code to control functionality, don't maintain two codebases
3. Clearly explain the value of paid features: not just more buttons, but saving money and worry

Example: You built a task scheduling tool. The free version can run basic tasks, the paid version adds disaster recovery and detailed reports—enterprise users will pay for that.

2. Technical Support and Services

Code is free to use, but installation, deployment, problem-solving, and custom development are paid.

Suitable for what projects: Complex systems that enterprises need professional guidance to use.

How to charge:

1. Annual technical support: Pay X amount for a year, promise response time
2. Professional services: Help with deployment, migration, performance optimization
3. Custom development: Modify code based on requirements

Important notes:

1. Write clear service standards—what level of problems get resolved in how long
2. Organize common problems and solutions to reduce repetitive work
3. Prepare deployment scripts and checklists to improve delivery efficiency

3. Cloud Hosting Services

Users can self-deploy (free) or use your cloud service (paid).

Who will pay: Users who don't want to set up servers, do backups, or handle monitoring themselves.

How to charge:

1. By usage: API calls, storage space, bandwidth
2. By scale: Number of users, projects, teams
3. Set limits so users don't worry about bill explosions

What's the selling point:

1. Peace of mind: Automatic backups, monitoring alerts, version upgrades
2. Cost savings: Calculate the human cost of self-hosting
3. No lock-in: Can export data and migrate anytime

4. Sponsorship and Donations

Relying on community "powered by love"—lowest barrier but also most unstable.

Where to accept sponsorship: GitHub Sponsors, Open Collective, Patreon all work.

How to improve conversion:

1. Put a sponsorship link at the top of README, explain what the money is used for
2. Give sponsors some benefits: Name on wall, priority issue responses, early access to new features
3. Set a goal like "$500/month to maintain servers" so people know where money goes

5. Training and Content

Create courses, write books, record videos, run training sessions around the project.

Suitable for what projects: Frameworks or tools with steep learning curves.

What you can do:

1. Online courses: Tutorial series from beginner to advanced
2. Corporate training: On-site training for company teams
3. Certification exams: Create certificates to add authority

Note: Course content must stay synchronized with project versions—don't let students learn outdated stuff.

6. Advertising and Brand Partnerships

If the project has some influence, consider advertising monetization.

Suitable for what projects: Projects with many users and industry authority.

How to collaborate:

1. Put sponsor links on website and documentation
2. Insert ads in mailing lists or podcasts
3. Partner with cloud service providers to promote solutions

Be careful: Clearly mark ads as ads, don't affect content objectivity.

7. Other Methods

Two other common strategies:

Dual Licensing: Provide both open source and commercial licenses simultaneously—closed source projects need to buy commercial licenses.

Consulting and Integration: Partner with system integrators to sell packaged solutions, share revenue by project.

4. License and Legal Issues

Before monetizing, clarify these legal issues:

Open Source License Selection:

1. Apache-2.0 / MIT: Most permissive, everyone can use, good for promotion
2. GPL/AGPL: "Viral" nature—projects using your code must also be open source
3. MPL: File-level open source, more balanced
4. Dual licensing: Open source version free, commercial version paid

Other things to note:

1. CLA (Contributor License Agreement): Let contributors agree you can commercialize their code
2. Trademark protection: Register project name and logo to prevent misuse
3. Dependency checking: Ensure third-party library licenses are compatible

Practical operations:

1. Create a separate "License" page on website, clarify common questions
2. Mark in documentation which features require commercial licensing

5. How to Price

Most projects have three versions:

Free Version: Has all core features, sufficient for individuals and small teams.

Professional Version: For company teams, adds collaboration and management features, charged per user or monthly.

Enterprise Version: Security, compliance, private deployment—usually annual contracts.

How to calculate pricing:

1. See how much users would spend without you (hiring people, buying servers, using other tools)
2. Choose an easy billing method: per user, per project, per API call
3. Set limits so users don't worry about runaway bills
4. Focus on explaining how upgrading saves hassle, not just more features

Example:

• Professional: $50/user/month: Multi-project support, Git integration, permission management
• Enterprise: $50,000/year: Single sign-on, dedicated support, private deployment

6. 90-Day Action Plan

Week 1: Figure out direction

1. Determine who target users are and what pain points they have
2. Decide which features are free and which are paid
3. Write a simple pricing page

Weeks 2-3: Prepare infrastructure

1. Add "Business Cooperation" and "License" pages to website
2. Add feature flags in code to distinguish free vs paid versions
3. If doing cloud service, start with simplest version

Weeks 4-6: Start promotion

1. Release product roadmap so users know what you're building
2. Prepare demo materials and trial process
3. Set up user feedback collection system

Weeks 7-12: Validate and adjust

1. Find 5-10 users to trial, collect real feedback
2. Adjust features and pricing based on feedback
3. Start pushing annual contracts and auto-renewal

7. If Mainly Selling to Enterprises

Enterprise procurement processes are complex—be mentally prepared:

Trial Phase: Give time limits (like 30 days), meet regularly to understand usage.

Procurement Phase: Fill out various security questionnaires, negotiate contract terms, create implementation plans.

Renewal and Expansion: Start with one department, gradually expand to other teams.

Important Metrics:

1. Trial-to-paid conversion rate
2. Time from contact to contract signing
3. User activity and satisfaction

8. Community Operations

Long-term things to do:

Write useful content: More case studies and tutorials, fewer ads.

Build ecosystem: Open plugin interfaces so others can build on your project.

Respond to users seriously: Categorize and regularly respond to issues so users feel the project is alive.

9. Common Pitfalls

Knowing these pitfalls in advance can save detours:

1. Unclear boundaries between free and paid versions—users will complain
2. Free and paid version code too tightly coupled—releases affect each other
3. Cloud service pricing unreasonable—lose money on small customers, big customers won't buy
4. Legal issues not handled in advance—get stuck during partnerships
5. Customer service workload too heavy but not charged—team gets dragged down

10. Typical Strategies of Domestic and International Projects (Summary Table)

Project Name	Country/Region	Profit Model	Representative Approach	Advantages	Potential Risks
GitLab	USA	Open Core + Cloud Hosting	Free core, enterprise features	Flexible tiers, wide coverage	Free/paid boundaries need care
ElasticSearch	USA	Open Core + Commercial Plugins	Advanced features paid	Strong enterprise appeal	License changes or forks
Red Hat	USA	Commercial Support	System free, support paid	Stable revenue	Long conversion cycle
MongoDB	USA	Cloud Hosting + Commercial License	Cloud service pay-per-use	Easy deployment, stable cash flow	Intense cloud competition
Vue.js	China	Sponsorship + Training	Donations, courses, books	Active community	Depends on personal influence
TiDB (PingCAP)	China	Open Core + Commercial Support	Enterprise enhanced version paid	High technical barrier	High pre-sales cost
MinIO	USA	Commercial License + Support	Enterprise needs paid support	Stable customers	Competition from giants
Ant Design Pro	China	Consulting + Brand Partnerships	Enterprise customization	Ecosystem advantage	Limited revenue
Grafana	Sweden	Open Core + Cloud Service	Advanced plugins/hosting paid	Good community-commercial balance	Hard to improve conversion

11. Common Questions

Will charging hurt the community? The key is transparency. Explain what the money is used for, keep free versions for individual users, communicate changes in advance.

How to divide free vs paid versions? Security, compliance, enterprise management features can be paid—keep basic development features free.

Will big companies "copy" us? Do differentiation well—better user experience, technical support, ecosystem integration. Protect trademarks and licenses in advance.

12. README Sponsorship Template

You can copy this directly to your project:

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If this project helped you, consider sponsoring:

💰 What the money is used for:

• Server and CI costs
• Documentation maintenance and community management
• New feature development

🎁 Sponsor benefits:

• Name appears in acknowledgments
• Priority issue responses
• Voting rights on new features

💳 Sponsorship methods: GitHub Sponsors | Open Collective | Patreon

Thanks to every user and contributor!

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