# How to Make Money From Open Source (Without VC) > How to make money from open source as a solo maintainer: sponsors, sponsorware, pro versions, hosting, dual licensing and support, with fees checked Nov 2026. - Canonical: https://zeroraised.com/blog/how-to-make-money-from-open-source - Published: 2026-11-09T09:30:00Z - Author: ZeroRaised Team (https://zeroraised.com/blog/authors/zeroraised) - Publisher: ZeroRaised (https://zeroraised.com/) - Section: Revenue - Tags: open-source, monetization, revenue, developer-tools **Short answer:** To make money from open source, keep the core free and sell something beside it: a paid pro version, a hosted service, a commercial licence, support, or training. Donations and sponsorships help, but for most solo maintainers they are a top-up, not a salary. Pick one paid offer that matches what your heaviest users already struggle with, and add sponsorship on top. Every fee, price and quote below comes from the platform's or maintainer's own page, checked on 9 Nov 2026. Advice between the facts is ours and is marked as such. ## TL;DR - **Sponsorship is cheap to run.** GitHub Sponsors takes nothing from personal-account sponsorships and up to 6% from organisation sponsorships ([GitHub Docs](https://docs.github.com/en/sponsors/getting-started-with-github-sponsors/about-github-sponsors)). Open Source Collective takes a 10% host fee ([OSC fees](https://docs.oscollective.org/welcome-and-introduction-to-osc/fees.md)). - **Paid tiers earn more.** Sidekiq sells Pro at $99/mo or $995/yr and Enterprise from $269/mo next to its free LGPL edition ([Sidekiq](https://sidekiq.org/)). - **Hosting is a business.** Plausible publishes its code and runs a paid cloud; it describes itself as "self-funded, bootstrapped and profitable" ([Plausible](https://plausible.io/)). - **Dual licensing** (AGPL plus a commercial licence) works only if you control the copyright. - **Do not plan on changing your licence later.** HashiCorp and Redis both did; our read is that solo maintainers should not copy them. **Disclosure:** ZeroRaised is a launch site for bootstrapped products and publishes this guide. We have no commercial relationship with GitHub, Open Collective, Polar, Sidekiq, Plausible or any other company named here, and earn nothing if you use them. ## First, decide what you are selling This guide is about monetisation. If your problem is that nobody has heard of the project yet, start with [how to market an open source project](https://zeroraised.com/blog/how-to-market-an-open-source-project), because every model below needs users first. Our read: open source revenue comes from selling one of four things, and naming which one clarifies the rest. 1. **Gratitude.** People pay because they like you or depend on the project. Sponsorships and donations. 2. **Features.** People pay for capabilities the free version lacks. Pro versions, open core, paid plugins, sponsorware. 3. **Convenience.** People pay so they do not have to run it. Hosted or managed cloud. 4. **Rights and time.** People pay for a licence that fits their legal needs, or for your expertise. Dual licensing, support contracts, consulting, courses. The last three scale with the value businesses get from your code, which is why they tend to pay better. ## The models at a glance The ceilings below are our qualitative read, not data. | Model | Effort to run | Typical ceiling (our read) | Works best when | Example | |---|---|---|---|---| | Sponsorships, donations | Low | Low to medium | Many individual devs love the project | GitHub Sponsors, Open Collective | | Sponsorware | Medium | Medium | You ship new packages often and have an audience | Caleb Porzio | | Pro version / open core | Medium to high | High | Businesses need extra features at scale | Sidekiq Pro and Enterprise | | Hosted cloud | High (you run servers) | High | Self-hosting is painful for most users | Plausible | | Dual licensing | Medium (legal work) | Medium to high | Companies embed or run your code commercially | AGPL plus commercial licence | | Support and consulting | High (your hours) | Medium, capped by time | Enterprises depend on the project | curl via wolfSSL | | Courses, screencasts, books | Medium up front | Medium | Your docs are where users get stuck | Livewire screencasts | ## 1. Sponsorships and donations Sponsorship is the easiest model to switch on and the hardest to grow. It costs you a profile page and some thank-yous. **GitHub Sponsors.** GitHub's docs say it "does not charge any fees for sponsorships from personal accounts, so 100% of these sponsorships go to the sponsored developer or organization." Sponsorships from organisation accounts carry "a fee of up to 6%", split between 3% credit card processing and a 3% GitHub service fee ([GitHub Docs](https://docs.github.com/en/sponsors/getting-started-with-github-sponsors/about-github-sponsors)). **Open Collective.** If you want a transparent budget, or need a legal entity to hold the money, Open Source Collective acts as fiscal host. It "charges a fixed 10% host fee on incoming funds" and says it does not charge for its other services; Stripe, PayPal and Wise apply their own processing fees ([OSC fees](https://docs.oscollective.org/welcome-and-introduction-to-osc/fees.md)). From 15 October 2026, OSC shows donors an optional tip to keep the platform sustainable ([OSC update](https://opencollective.com/opensource/updates/why-osc-is-moving-forward-with-optional-tips)). **Worked example (illustrative):** a company sponsors you at $500 a month. Through GitHub Sponsors from an organisation account, the fee is up to 6%, so you receive at least $470. Through Open Source Collective, the 10% host fee leaves $450 before processor fees. Our read: sponsorship grows when you give companies something they can justify to finance: a logo in the README, a priority issue label, a proper invoice. Our guide on [ways to fund a product without venture capital](https://zeroraised.com/blog/ways-to-fund-a-product-without-venture-capital) covers how to pitch sponsors without handing anyone control of the roadmap. ## 2. Sponsorware Caleb Porzio described sponsorware in a June 2020 post about reaching $100k a year on GitHub Sponsors. In his words, it works like this: "Create a cool piece of software", "Make it exclusive to people who sponsor you until you reach a certain number of sponsors", "Then open source the project to the world." He wrote that it increased his yearly revenue "by $11k in a matter of days" ([Caleb Porzio](https://calebporzio.com/i-just-hit-dollar-100000yr-on-github-sponsors-heres-how-i-did-it)). The same post explains that the bigger jump, from about $40k to over $100k in roughly three months, came from screencasts (see section 7), not sponsorware alone. Our read: sponsorware suits maintainers who ship a steady stream of small packages to an existing audience. It does not work for a single library with no following, because nobody sponsors to unlock something they have never heard of. Be clear up front about the sponsor target and the open source date, and keep both promises. ## 3. Paid pro version or open core This is the model with the clearest pricing page in open source. Sidekiq, the Ruby background job library, runs three tiers ([Sidekiq](https://sidekiq.org/)): | Edition | Licence | Support | Price | |---|---|---|---| | Sidekiq (OSS) | LGPL | None | Free | | Sidekiq Pro | Commercial | Email | $99/mo or $995/yr | | Sidekiq Enterprise | Commercial | Email | Starting at $269/mo | Pro adds features such as batches and enhanced reliability; Enterprise adds rate limiting, unique jobs, encryption and Web UI authorisation. The page labels the audiences plainly: hobbyists, small business, medium to large companies. Our read: the split that works is "free for building, paid for operating at scale". Features a hobbyist never needs (multi-cluster dashboards, audit, SSO, rate limiting) are fair to charge for. Crippling the free version to force upgrades tends to push users to a fork. A paid plugin or pro add-on is the lighter version of this model: ship it as a separate package with a licence key. A merchant of record can handle tax and keys for you. [Polar's pricing](https://polar.sh/resources/pricing) lists a free Starter plan at 5% + 50¢ per transaction and Pro at $20/mo with 3.8% + 40¢, with +1.5% for non-US cards. On a $99 sale on Starter, that is $5.45 in fees, or about $6.94 on a non-US card (illustrative). Our guide on [how to sell software online](https://zeroraised.com/blog/how-to-sell-software-online) compares payment routes and licence keys in detail. ## 4. Hosted or managed cloud If your project is a server application, many users would rather pay you than run it. Plausible is the standard bootstrapped example: its site says "The code is public and auditable" and invites you to "run it yourself if you want to", while the company sells a hosted, EU-based service. It calls itself "a completely independent, self-funded, bootstrapped and profitable team of 11, running since 2018" and says it is "funded entirely by our subscribers" ([Plausible](https://plausible.io/)). Our read: hosting makes you an operations company (uptime, backups, patches, support), but revenue grows with usage rather than your hours. Keep self-hosting genuinely possible; it is why people trust the hosted version. ## 5. Dual licensing: AGPL plus a commercial licence Dual licensing means you publish the code under a strong copyleft licence and sell a separate commercial licence to anyone who does not want those obligations. The GNU Affero GPL is the usual choice for server software. The FSF explains that it adds one requirement to GPLv3: "if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate with it there, your server must also allow them to download the source code corresponding to the modified version running there" ([GNU](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html)). The AGPLv3 is an OSI-approved open source licence ([OSI](https://opensource.org/license/agpl-v3)). Charging money is compatible with free software; the FSF says "we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can" ([GNU](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html)). The catch: you can only sell a second licence for code you own. Our read: if you accept outside contributions, you need a contributor licence agreement or copyright assignment from day one, which some contributors refuse. Get a lawyer to write the commercial licence; this is not a place for a template you found in a gist. ## 6. Support, consulting and contracts Companies that depend on your project will pay for someone who can fix it fast. curl is the best-known example. Its site says "Commercial curl support is offered via wolfSSL" and that Daniel Stenberg, curl's founder and lead developer, "works for and with wolfSSL" to provide it, covering customisation, ports, feature development, patch maintenance and backporting fixes ([curl](https://curl.se/support.html)). Our read: support is the fastest model to start (a pricing page and a contact form) and the hardest to scale, because you sell hours. Sell fixed-scope retainers ("response within one business day, up to X hours a month") rather than open-ended hourly work, and publish what is and is not included. ## 7. Courses, screencasts and books Your documentation shows you where users struggle, and that is where paid education fits. Caleb Porzio wrote that he released free screencasts on Livewire basics, linked to them from the docs, then added a "private" group of screencasts a few weeks later, and that approach took him from about $40k to over $100k a year in about three months ([Caleb Porzio](https://calebporzio.com/i-just-hit-dollar-100000yr-on-github-sponsors-heres-how-i-did-it)). Our read: keep the reference docs free and complete. Charge for the guided path: a course, a book of patterns, or a workshop for teams. ## What about bounties and maintainer-subscription platforms? **Bounties** pay for closing one specific issue. They fund one-off work, not maintenance, and we could not confirm a current platform fee today, so check live pricing first. **Tidelift** paid maintainers on behalf of enterprise subscribers. Sonar announced on 17 December 2024 that it had "signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tidelift" ([Sonar](https://www.sonarsource.com/company/press-releases/sonar-to-acquire-tidelift/)), and tidelift.com now redirects to Sonar's site, so confirm current terms with Sonar directly. ## A caution on changing your licence later Some well-known projects changed licence years after building a community. - **HashiCorp** announced in August 2023 that it was "changing its source code license from Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPL 2.0) to the Business Source License" for future releases, with use allowed "except where providing a competitive offering to HashiCorp" ([HashiCorp](https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-adopts-business-source-license)). - **Redis** announced on 20 March 2024 a move from the BSD 3-Clause License to dual RSALv2 and SSPLv1 licences starting with Redis 7.4 ([Redis](https://redis.io/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/)). On 1 May 2025 it added "the OSI-approved AGPL as an additional licensing option for Redis, starting with Redis 8" ([Redis](https://redis.io/blog/agplv3/)). Our read: both were large companies reacting to competitors offering their code as a service, and Redis later added an open source option back. For a solo maintainer, the lesson is to choose your business model and licence together at the start. If you want a commercial licence later, start with the AGPL and contributor agreements now. If you want a permissive licence, plan to sell hosting, features or time, not rights. ## A 90-day plan for a solo maintainer (ours) 1. **Week 1:** Turn on GitHub Sponsors with two or three tiers, including a company tier that comes with an invoice and a README logo. 2. **Weeks 2 to 3:** Read your last 50 issues and discussions. List the requests that come from businesses rather than hobbyists. That list is your paid offer. 3. **Weeks 4 to 8:** Ship one paid thing: a pro add-on, a hosted beta, a support retainer or a short course. Use a merchant of record so tax is handled. 4. **Weeks 9 to 12:** Add a "Commercial" or "Pro" link to the README, docs sidebar and release notes. Measure which page sends paying users. Then [launch the paid version on ZeroRaised](https://zeroraised.com/submit), where bootstrapped products get in front of makers who pay for tools. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can you actually make money from open source as a solo developer? Yes, but rarely from donations alone. Solo maintainers who earn a living usually sell something beside the free code: a paid pro version, a hosted service, a commercial licence, support, or courses. Sponsorship works best as one income line among several. ### Does GitHub Sponsors take a cut? Not from personal accounts. GitHub's docs say it does not charge any fees for sponsorships from personal accounts, so 100% goes to the developer. Sponsorships from organisation accounts carry a fee of up to 6%, split between 3% credit card processing and a 3% GitHub service fee. ### What does Open Collective charge open source projects? Projects hosted by Open Source Collective pay a fixed 10% host fee on incoming funds, plus whatever the payment processor (Stripe, PayPal or Wise) charges. Since 15 October 2026 donors also see an optional tip that supports the platform. ### Is dual licensing with the AGPL still a good model? It can be, if you own the copyright to all the code. The AGPL requires anyone who runs a modified version on a server to let its users download the source, which many companies avoid by buying a commercial licence instead. You need contributor agreements or sole authorship to sell that second licence. ### Should I change my open source licence to stop cloud providers reselling my project? Think hard first. HashiCorp moved to the Business Source License in 2023 and Redis moved to source-available licences in 2024 before adding the AGPLv3 in 2025. Our read: a licence change is a major trust event for users and contributors, so choose the model you can live with on day one. ## Launch the paid version ZeroRaised is a launch directory for products built without institutional VC, including open source projects with a paid tier. [Submit your product](https://zeroraised.com/submit) for free when your pro version or hosted plan is ready. For more guides on earning from what you build, [join the ZeroRaised newsletter](https://zeroraised.com/newsletter). ## Sources - [GitHub Docs: About GitHub Sponsors](https://docs.github.com/en/sponsors/getting-started-with-github-sponsors/about-github-sponsors), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Open Source Collective: Fees](https://docs.oscollective.org/welcome-and-introduction-to-osc/fees.md), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Open Source Collective: Why OSC is moving forward with optional tips](https://opencollective.com/opensource/updates/why-osc-is-moving-forward-with-optional-tips), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Caleb Porzio: I Just Hit $100k/yr On GitHub Sponsors](https://calebporzio.com/i-just-hit-dollar-100000yr-on-github-sponsors-heres-how-i-did-it), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Sidekiq editions and pricing](https://sidekiq.org/), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Polar pricing](https://polar.sh/resources/pricing), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Plausible homepage](https://plausible.io/), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [GNU: Why the Affero GPL](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [GNU: Selling Free Software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [OSI: GNU Affero General Public License version 3](https://opensource.org/license/agpl-v3), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [curl: Commercial Support](https://curl.se/support.html), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Sonar: Sonar to Acquire Tidelift](https://www.sonarsource.com/company/press-releases/sonar-to-acquire-tidelift/), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [HashiCorp: HashiCorp adopts Business Source License](https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-adopts-business-source-license), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Redis: Redis Adopts Dual Source-Available Licensing](https://redis.io/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/), last checked 9 Nov 2026 - [Redis: Redis is now available under the AGPLv3 open source license](https://redis.io/blog/agplv3/), last checked 9 Nov 2026 ## Frequently asked questions ### Can you actually make money from open source as a solo developer? Yes, but rarely from donations alone. Solo maintainers who earn a living usually sell something beside the free code: a paid pro version, a hosted service, a commercial licence, support, or courses. Sponsorship works best as one income line among several. ### Does GitHub Sponsors take a cut? Not from personal accounts. GitHub's docs say it does not charge any fees for sponsorships from personal accounts, so 100% goes to the developer. Sponsorships from organisation accounts carry a fee of up to 6%, split between 3% credit card processing and a 3% GitHub service fee. ### What does Open Collective charge open source projects? Projects hosted by Open Source Collective pay a fixed 10% host fee on incoming funds, plus whatever the payment processor (Stripe, PayPal or Wise) charges. Since 15 October 2026 donors also see an optional tip that supports the platform. ### Is dual licensing with the AGPL still a good model? It can be, if you own the copyright to all the code. The AGPL requires anyone who runs a modified version on a server to let its users download the source, which many companies avoid by buying a commercial licence instead. You need contributor agreements or sole authorship to sell that second licence. ### Should I change my open source licence to stop cloud providers reselling my project? Think hard first. HashiCorp moved to the Business Source License in 2023 and Redis moved to source-available licences in 2024 before adding the AGPLv3 in 2025. Our read: a licence change is a major trust event for users and contributors, so choose the model you can live with on day one.