The Open Source Sustainability Challenge: From Passion Project to Viable Venture

As open source software becomes increasingly integral to our digital infrastructure, developers face the growing challenge of maintaining passion projects without financial support. This personal journey explores innovative models for making open source sustainable while preserving its collaborative spirit.

The Passion Project Dilemma

For many developers, open source begins as a solution to a personal problem—a niche tool that addresses a specific need in their workflow. Over time, these projects can grow in complexity and user base, demanding more maintenance and feature development. The creator of DASH, a terminal UI for GitHub, exemplifies this journey. After four years of development, the project has evolved from a personal utility to a tool with a dedicated user base, complete with feature requests and technical debt.

"I love working on OSS projects," the author reflects. "I love seeing that what I built is useful to others." Yet this passion competes with the practical need for financial stability and work-life balance. "I would love to put more time into my projects," they admit, "but this competes with my need to have a steady salary and my desire for a certain quality of life."

The Financial Reality of OSS

The financial support for many OSS projects remains minimal. Despite DASH's popularity, the author has received only around $15 in GitHub sponsors over four years—a stark reality check for anyone considering OSS as a viable career path. "This isn't a positive sign if I want to aim for a part time job," they acknowledge.

Yet the author remains optimistic, noting that "every $5 I receive is honestly more rewarding than any raise I get at work." This emotional reward, combined with the potential for financial sustainability, motivates the search for new approaches to OSS funding.

Exploring Monetization Models

The author considered several monetization strategies, each with its own trade-offs:

  • Proprietary Software: Creating a new project and offering it for a flat fee. This approach would generate income but sacrifice the open source nature of the work.
  • Subscription Model: Offering monthly payments for continued access. While potentially more sustainable, this raises questions about how to maintain open source principles while charging for access.
  • Sponsorware: A hybrid model where supporters pay a monthly subscription for access to exclusive, unreleased projects while the core work remains open source.

The sponsorware model, first popularized by Caleb Porzio, resonated most with the author. "It seemed like something I would be comfortable with," they explain. "At least enough to give it a try."

Implementing the Sponsorware Model

Sponsorware operates on a simple premise: supporters pay a monthly subscription in exchange for access to a private GitHub organization containing unreleased projects. Subscribers become full collaborators on these projects, with the same access rights as the maintainer.

Crucially, the model is built on trust. "There's nothing that prevents people from forking and repackaging my projects," the author notes. When enough sponsors join and a target is reached, the project is released to the public, and the cycle begins anew with exclusive content.

The author implemented this model by:
1. Forking Caleb's sponsors project to automate adding sponsors to a private GitHub org
2. Developing ENHANCE, a TUI for GitHub Actions, as the first exclusive project
3. Creating a landing page with a FAQ and transparent progress tracking
4. Setting a public funding goal before open-sourcing the project

Early Results and Reflections

The experiment has been more successful than anticipated but still far from supporting part-time work. "It's a lot better than I expected but nothing close to any trajectory that will ever allow me to commit to a part-time job," the author reports.

At the time of writing, they've reached 60% of their goal—approximately $90 monthly. While modest, this income has tangible benefits: "I get to treat myself with a new gadget, keyboard, fancy dinner etc." More importantly, it validates the sponsorware approach as a viable, if limited, funding model.

The Call for Community Support

The author's journey has sparked reflection on their own role as an OSS consumer. "Asking people for money, I realized I myself wasn't supporting maintainers enough," they admit. This led them to compile a list of OSS contributors whose work they use daily but hadn't been supporting financially.

The article includes an extensive list of deserving maintainers across various projects, from Aerospace (a macOS window manager) to telescope.nvim (a Neovim plugin). "These are personal accounts, of people in a similar situation to mine," the author explains. "There are many maintainers who work under GitHub 'organizations' that should get a lot more support, but listing them all is impossible."

Supporting OSS: Beyond Monetary Contributions

The author emphasizes that financial support isn't the only—or even primary—way to contribute to OSS sustainability. Other valuable contributions include:

  • Spreading awareness through word-of-mouth
  • Opening issues and submitting pull requests
  • Improving documentation
  • Providing feedback and use case examples

"If you use something enough over time, and you're willing to, you can provide monetary support as well," the author suggests. "A small amount can really motivate a maintainer. It's not must. It pays for itself. You get more features, the project is more sustainable and you become a part of a community."

The Future of Open Source Sustainability

The article concludes with a hopeful vision for the future of OSS, one where community support enables the development of tools that corporations might overlook. "If we support each other, just a tiny bit, we could make the stuff corporations won't work on," the author writes. "Stuff that aren't the next big thing, that won't make billions in revenue but are useful to a specific niche group of people."

This vision extends beyond individual support to organizational responsibility. "If you can make your company pay for open source, even better," the author suggests, recognizing that corporate contributions could significantly impact OSS sustainability.

The journey from passion project to potentially sustainable venture remains challenging, but innovative models like sponsorware offer a path forward. As the author concludes, "Hope these ideas bounce off of other people and we can figure out how to sustainably work on open source."

This article is based on a personal reflection originally published at https://www.dlvhdr.me/posts/support-oss