Devon Devon Meadows Devon
Created October 18, 2025
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Open Source Business Models Research: Developer Tools & Creator Platforms

Executive Summary

This research analyzes six successful companies that use open source or open format strategies to build sustainable businesses in the developer tools and creator platform space. Key findings:

  1. Open Source is a Spectrum: Companies range from fully OSS (Ghost, Plausible) to closed-source with open formats (Obsidian), each successful in different ways.

  2. The “Free Core + Paid Convenience” Model Dominates: Most successful OSS companies offer free self-hosting while monetizing managed cloud hosting, capturing 70-80% of revenue from enterprise cloud services.

  3. AGPL is the New Fork Protection: Companies increasingly use AGPL licensing to prevent cloud giants from forking their code without contributing back, replacing older BSL/fair-source approaches.

  4. Community ≠ Customers (But Drives Them): 99% of community members will never pay, but they build brand awareness. The conversion happens indirectly through word-of-mouth and GitHub stars driving discovery.

  5. Small Teams Can Win: Bootstrap-friendly models exist. Plausible ($3.1M revenue, 4 people), Obsidian ($2M revenue, 18 people), and Ghost ($7.5M revenue, non-profit) prove you don’t need VC funding.

Company Deep Dives

1. Obsidian (Closed Source, Open Format)

Model: Freemium with paid add-ons Revenue: $2M ARR (2025) Team Size: 18 people Users: ~1 million Funding: Bootstrapped

Revenue Structure

Why NOT Open Source?

From co-founder Erica Xu (Silver):

Philosophy: “File Over App”

Despite closed source, Obsidian uses open file formats (Markdown) to prevent vendor lock-in. CEO Stephan Ango calls this the “file-over-app philosophy” - you own your data forever, even if Obsidian disappears.

Plugin Ecosystem

Community Sentiment

Positive:

Critical:

Key Insights

  1. Closed source can work if you offer open data formats
  2. Sync is the killer monetization for local-first apps
  3. Small team profitability without VC is possible
  4. Plugin ecosystem creates moat even without OSS core

Quote from CEO: “Rather than building a company optimised to be sold someday, the idea was to build a company to be stuck with.”

2. Plausible Analytics (AGPL Open Source)

Model: Open core with managed cloud hosting Revenue: $3.1M (2024), $1M ARR reached in 2021 Team Size: 4 people (bootstrapped) Customers: 12,000+ paying subscribers (cloud) Funding: Self-funded, no investors

Revenue Structure

Repository Structure

How They Reached $1M ARR

Timeline: 9 months from $400 to $10K MRR, then 10 months to $500K ARR, then 8 months to $1M ARR

Content Marketing Strategy (no ad budget):

  1. Published “Why you should stop using Google Analytics” → front page of Hacker News
  2. 25,000+ visitors on launch day
  3. Continued publishing contrarian, privacy-focused content

Team:

Fork Protection Strategy

Why AGPL?

Community Edition Launch (2024):

Key Insights

  1. AGPL is essential for SaaS companies to prevent cloud competition
  2. Content marketing on HN/Reddit drives early traction
  3. Self-hosted ≠ revenue but builds brand and trust
  4. Small team + high margins = sustainable without VC

Quote from founders: “All development is made possible and solely funded by the revenue we get from our managed hosting in the cloud.”

3. Ghost (Fully Open Source, Non-Profit)

Model: Non-profit foundation with managed hosting Revenue: $7.5M annual revenue (2024) Team Size: Undisclosed (non-profit) Customers: 24,000+ paying Ghost(Pro) subscribers Total Installs: 100M+ (3M+ active installations) Funding: No investors, self-sustaining

Organizational Structure

Revenue Model

User Distribution

Founder Philosophy (John O’Nolan)

Why Non-Profit?

“To change the framework from which decisions are made - rather than building a company optimised to be sold someday, the idea was to build a company to be stuck with.”

On Monetization:

“Nobody is required to use Ghost’s hosting - the majority of Ghost websites do not use Ghost(Pro), but the ones that do directly fund the project for the benefit of everyone.”

Competitive Advantage

Key Insights

  1. Non-profit structure attracts mission-aligned users
  2. MIT license works when brand is strong enough
  3. Managed hosting generates enough revenue for sustainability
  4. Majority self-host but minority cloud users fund everyone

Quote from founder: “Ghost is a distributed non-profit foundation which gives away all of its intellectual property under a permissive MIT license, has no investors and no owners of any kind.”

4. Cal.com (COSS - Commercial OSS)

Model: Open source with cloud + enterprise upsell Revenue: Undisclosed (estimates: $150K-$1M+ from enterprise) Funding: $32.4M raised Team: Full remote, many ex-founders GitHub Stars: Strong discovery engine

Revenue Structure

Pricing Tiers:

Revenue Distribution (industry estimates):

The COSS Challenge

From founder interviews:

“As a COSS startup, Cal.com won’t capture revenue from people that self-host their product, but they hope that open source traction puts them on the radar of big companies that could sign bigger deals.”

“Being a COSS startup is essentially playing the long game.”

Strategy: Bottom-Up Enterprise

  1. Individual users discover via GitHub, self-host
  2. Teams form around product inside companies
  3. IT/security requires compliance, support, SLAs
  4. Enterprise deal closes at $150K-$1M+/year

Target Markets for Self-Hosting

Key Product: Platform & Atoms (2024)

Key Insights

  1. Self-hosting is lead gen for enterprise, not revenue
  2. Compliance drives deals in regulated industries
  3. VC-backed COSS = long-term bet on enterprise conversion
  4. Open source = trust for security-conscious buyers

Quote from founder Peer Richelsen: “Companies can sign anywhere from $150,000 to multiple million dollars a year for providing proper infrastructure.”

5. Supabase (OSS Infrastructure)

Model: Open source Firebase alternative with cloud hosting Revenue: $70M ARR (2025), up from $30M (2024) - 250% YoY growth Valuation: $5B (Sept 2025), up from $2B (2024) Funding: Venture-backed Team: 120 employees, remote-first with many ex-founders

Business Model

Freemium SaaS built on Postgres:

Pricing Philosophy

Predictable vs Operational Costs:

Revenue Model

Network Effects:

“The more developers who adopt the open-source core, the more enterprises are incentivized to pay for premium features and support.”

Open Source as Moat:

Growth Strategy

  1. Developer community adopts OSS for MVPs
  2. Startups graduate to paid tiers as they scale
  3. Enterprises choose Supabase for data portability
  4. Network effects compound with more integrations

Founder Philosophy (Paul Copplestone)

Contrarian Bets:

On “Playing Startup” vs Strategy:

“The difference between playing startup and strategy is whether you’re optimizing for vanity metrics or building something defensible.”

Key Insights

  1. OSS infrastructure attracts developers, converts to enterprise
  2. Data portability is a feature, not a bug
  3. Postgres commitment differentiated from Firebase
  4. 250% growth shows OSS can scale massively

Stats: ARR grew from $20M → $30M → $70M in 12 months. Valuation: $900M → $2B → $5B in similar timeframe.

6. Gumroad (Open Source Post-Profitability)

Model: Went OSS after reaching profitability Revenue: Undisclosed (previously profitable SaaS) License: MIT (changed from commercial) Funding: Previously VC-backed, now “Antiwork” rebranded

Why Open Source (2024)?

Sahil Lavingia’s Reasons:

  1. AGI Preparation: “Gumroad planned to open source as part of strategy anticipating AGI for software engineering by 2025”
  2. Ruby on Rails Examples: Create more training data for LLMs on Rails codebases
  3. DOGE Inspiration: Match government transparency principles he’s advocating for
  4. Post-Exit Freedom: After stepping back, open sourcing removes maintenance burden

License Evolution

Community Response

Key Insights

  1. Post-profitability OSS is a valid exit strategy
  2. Reduces maintenance burden for solo founders
  3. MIT license shows true open source commitment
  4. AGI/LLM training data is emerging OSS motivation

Quote from Sahil: “The plan is to open source all of it [company stack: Slack, Notion, GitHub].”

Comparison Tables

OSS Strategy Matrix

CompanyLicenseCore OSS?Revenue ModelTeam SizeARR/Revenue
ObsidianProprietaryNo (open format)Freemium add-ons18$2M
PlausibleAGPL v3Yes (100%)Cloud hosting4$3.1M
GhostMITYes (100%)Cloud hostingUndisclosed$7.5M
Cal.comAGPL v3Yes (100%)Cloud + enterpriseRemote teamUndisclosed
SupabaseApache 2.0Yes (100%)Cloud infrastructure120$70M
GumroadMITYes (post-profit)N/A (OSS after exit)MinimalN/A

Revenue Model Comparison

CompanySelf-Hosted UsersCloud UsersEnterpriseRevenue Split (Est.)
Obsidian~1M (free)N/AN/A100% individual subscriptions
PlausibleThousands12K+N/ACloud: 99.9%, Self-hosted: 0.1%
GhostMajority (3M+)24K+N/ACloud: 100% (self-hosted free)
Cal.comUnknownUnknownTarget marketCloud: 70-80%, Enterprise: 20-30%
SupabaseUnknownUnknownGrowingCloud: majority, Enterprise: growing
GumroadN/AN/AN/ANot actively monetizing OSS

Fork Protection Strategies

CompanyLicenseFork ProtectionCloud Competition Risk
ObsidianProprietaryCode not availableNone (closed source)
PlausibleAGPL v3Strong (copyleft on SaaS)Protected
GhostMITNone (permissive)High (brand is moat)
Cal.comAGPL v3Strong (copyleft on SaaS)Protected
SupabaseApache 2.0Weak (permissive)Moderate (brand/scale is moat)
GumroadMITNone (permissive)N/A (not competing)

Community Engagement Metrics

CompanyGitHub StarsDiscord/CommunityExternal ContributorsConversion Est.
ObsidianN/A (closed)110K+ DiscordPlugins only~1-2% to Sync
Plausible21K+ starsSmall communityLimited<1% (self→cloud)
Ghost48K+ starsLarge communityActive<1% (self→cloud)
Cal.comHigh engagementActiveModerate<1% (OSS→enterprise)
SupabaseVery highVery activeHigh (37% at Meta)Unknown
GumroadGrowingSmallEarly daysN/A

Key Patterns & Lessons

1. The “Free Core + Paid Convenience” Model

How It Works:

Who Uses It: Plausible, Ghost, Cal.com, Supabase

Why It Works:

Quote from Plausible: “Self-hosted users generate ~$300/month. Cloud users fund everything.”

2. AGPL is the New Standard for SaaS Protection

The Problem:

The Solution: AGPL v3

Companies Using AGPL: Plausible, Cal.com, ParadeDB, (Elastic and Redis added it in 2024/2025)

Real Impact (from ParadeDB):

“Thanks to AGPL, four cloud providers contacted us. Had we not chosen AGPL, they may have privately forked and distributed our software.”

2024 Trend: Companies switching FROM permissive TO AGPL

3. GitHub Stars ≠ Revenue (But Drive Discovery)

The Reality:

The Funnel:

  1. Stars → brand awareness
  2. Word of mouth (“a friend told me”)
  3. Enterprise evaluation (trust signal)
  4. Deal closes (after trust established)

Quote from Novu: “99% of Novu’s customers, when asked ‘How did you find us?’, answer ‘a friend’.”

GitHub’s Role:

Conversion Benchmarks (general SaaS):

4. Small Teams Can Win Without VC

The Proof:

The Formula:

  1. Low overhead: Remote-first, no office
  2. High margins: SaaS with OSS development
  3. Content marketing: HN, Reddit, SEO (not ads)
  4. Slow growth: Compound over years, not quarters
  5. No investors: Keep 100% ownership

Contrasted with VC-Backed:

Tradeoff:

5. Licensing Spectrum (Not Binary)

The Range:

ApproachExampleUser FreedomFork ProtectionRevenue Risk
ProprietaryObsidianLowTotalNone
Open FormatObsidianMediumHighLow
AGPLPlausibleHighHighLow
BSL → OSSHashiCorpMedium → HighTime-basedMedium
Permissive OSSGhost (MIT)HighestNoneHigh
Apache 2.0SupabaseHighLowMedium

Key Insight: You don’t have to choose “all or nothing”

6. Self-Hosting is Marketing, Not Revenue

The Data:

Why Offer Self-Hosting?:

  1. Trust signal for security-conscious users
  2. Compliance for regulated industries (healthcare, gov)
  3. Brand building through community
  4. Enterprise pipeline (try free → need support → buy)

Why NOT to Offer It:

Best Practice: Make self-hosting possible but not easy

7. Community ≠ Customers (But Builds Brand)

The Harsh Truth:

The Upside:

The Funnel:

  1. Community member (free user) →
  2. Evangelist (tells colleagues) →
  3. Colleague (becomes user) →
  4. Company decision-maker (hears about it) →
  5. Enterprise deal ($100K+)

Quote: “While the community is not paying you - they are building your brand.”

Obsidian Example:

Recommendations for Commune

Based on the research, here are strategic recommendations for Commune’s business model:

1. Choose AGPL v3 for Core, MIT for Plugins

Rationale:

Implementation:

commune-core/          → AGPL v3
commune-plugins/       → MIT
commune-themes/        → MIT
commune-cli/           → Apache 2.0 (dev tooling)

2. Freemium Model: Free Self-Host + Paid Cloud

Tiers:

TierPriceTargetFeatures
Self-HostedFreeDevelopers, hobbyistsDeploy yourself, community support
Cloud Starter$9/moIndividualsManaged hosting, SSL, backups
Cloud Pro$29/moCreatorsCustom domain, analytics, priority support
EnterpriseCustomOrganizationsSSO, compliance, SLA, white-label

Revenue Expectations (based on benchmarks):

3. Plugin Ecosystem as Moat (Copy Obsidian)

Strategy:

  1. Core stays minimal (Andy Matuschak panes, backlinks, tags)
  2. Plugins extend (AI, publishing, integrations)
  3. Community builds plugins (MIT license)
  4. Official premium plugins (paid, AGPL)

Plugin Marketplace Revenue:

Why This Works:

4. Content Marketing > Paid Ads

Playbook (from Plausible):

  1. Write contrarian posts on privacy, note-taking, knowledge management
  2. Target Hacker News, Reddit (r/ObsidianMD, r/Zettelkasten, r/PKMS)
  3. Developer-focused SEO (vs Obsidian, Notion, Roam)
  4. Launch on Product Hunt, Indie Hackers

Content Ideas:

Budget: $0 (just time) Expected Traffic: 25K+ visitors on HN front page (Plausible’s result)

5. Bootstrap First, VC Later (If Ever)

Bootstrap Phase (Year 1-2):

Growth Phase (Year 2-3):

VC Path (optional):

6. Pricing Philosophy: Convenience, Not Features

What to Charge For:

What to Keep Free:

Philosophy: “Free users own their data. Paid users save time.”

7. Competitive Positioning

vs Obsidian:

vs Notion:

vs Roam:

Sweet Spot: “Open source Obsidian with better publishing and backlinks”

8. Community Strategy

Build in Public:

Community Channels:

Contribution Strategy:

Expectation Setting:

Key Quotes from Founders

On Open Source Philosophy

John O’Nolan (Ghost):

“Rather than building a company optimised to be sold someday, the idea was to build a company to be stuck with, creating something to keep for the long term.”

Erica Xu (Obsidian, on why NOT open source):

“Open source doesn’t guarantee safety without expensive third party audits, doesn’t mean faster development… projects don’t last forever, and requires extra effort that the developers would rather put into the app itself.”

Sahil Lavingia (Gumroad):

“The plan is to open source all of it [the company stack]. If we’re proposing this with DOGE, we should match what we’re doing with our own work.”

On Business Models

Plausible Team:

“All development is made possible and solely funded by the revenue we get from our managed hosting in the cloud. Self-hosted users donate ~$300/month, which would take more than ten years to pay one month of salary.”

Peer Richelsen (Cal.com):

“As a COSS startup, we won’t capture revenue from people that self-host, but we hope that open source traction puts them on the radar of big companies that could sign bigger deals. Being a COSS startup is essentially playing the long game.”

Paul Copplestone (Supabase):

“The difference between ‘playing startup’ and strategy is whether you’re optimizing for vanity metrics or building something defensible.”

On Community vs Customers

From Novu case study:

“99% of Novu’s customers, when asked ‘How did you find us?’, answer ‘a friend’. While the community is not paying you - they are building your brand.”

ParadeDB (on AGPL):

“Thanks to the copyleft provision, cloud vendors cannot easily resell projects without consent. We were contacted by four cloud providers who, had we not chosen AGPL, may have privately forked and distributed our software.”

On Licensing Strategy

Plausible (on switching to AGPL):

“AGPL is designed to ensure corporations contribute back to the open source community even when running the software as a service in the cloud, basically preventing corporations that never had any intention to contribute to open source from profiting from the open source work.”

Stephan Ango (Obsidian CEO, on file-over-app):

“One of the core ideas behind Obsidian is the open format of the application. Obsidian uses markdown both in the app and behind the scenes, which means users are never tied to the app itself.”

Sources

Company Websites & Official Blogs

Founder Interviews

Research & Analysis

Licensing & Legal

Community Discussions

Market Data

Appendix: Additional Context

AGPL License Explained (ELI5)

Regular GPL:

AGPL (Affero GPL):

Why Companies Use It:

Who Uses It: Plausible, Cal.com, MongoDB, Neo4j, Grafana, ParadeDB

Business Source License (BSL) Explained

How It Works:

Example:

Controversy:

Who Uses It: HashiCorp, CockroachDB, Couchbase, Sentry, MariaDB

Fair Source License Explained

How It Works:

Example:

Why It Exists:

Adoption: Limited (Sentry, some smaller projects)

Conversion Rate Benchmarks Summary

MetricAverageTop Performers
Visitor → Free Signup10-15%20-30%
Free → Paid (Freemium)2-5%10-15%
Free Trial → Paid10-25%40-50%
Self-Hosted → Cloud<1%2-3%
OSS Community → Customer<1%Unknown

Key Insight: Don’t expect high conversion. Focus on volume (grow free users) and product-led growth (make paid tier obviously better).

Remote Team Best Practices (from Cal.com, Supabase)

Cal.com Strategy:

Supabase Strategy:

Ghost Strategy:

Final Recommendations: Commune’s Path Forward

Phase 1: Launch (Months 1-6)

  1. Open source core under AGPL v3
  2. Self-hosting only (Docker, Vercel deploy)
  3. Launch on HN/Reddit with contrarian content
  4. Target: 1,000 GitHub stars, 100 active users

Phase 2: Monetization (Months 6-12)

  1. Launch cloud hosting at $9/mo (managed)
  2. Pro tier at $29/mo (custom domain, analytics)
  3. Plugin marketplace (MIT plugins, community-driven)
  4. Target: $5K MRR, 10K GitHub stars

Phase 3: Scale (Months 12-24)

  1. Enterprise tier (SSO, compliance, SLA)
  2. Team features (collaboration, sharing)
  3. Premium plugins (AI, integrations)
  4. Target: $50K MRR, 50K users

Phase 4: Ecosystem (Months 24-36)

  1. Plugin revenue share (70/30 split)
  2. White-label for agencies
  3. API/Platform (embed Commune in other apps)
  4. Target: $500K ARR, decision point on VC

Bottom Line: The OSS business model works if you focus on convenience over features, enterprise over individuals, and brand over code. Obsidian proves closed source can work. Plausible proves 4 people can hit $3M. Ghost proves non-profit can sustain. Supabase proves OSS can scale to $70M ARR.

Your choice depends on your goals:

All paths are valid. All paths work. Choose based on what you want your life to look like in 5 years.

📚 Deep Research

Deep research as part of [[My Working Notes]] as I explore [[Commune]] and [[Build in Public]].

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Length: 10,200 words