AKA: Loss Leader, Proprietary Update System
Payment for additional tools, update system, extensions, or plug-ins that help the users work with the OSS or extends the OSS functionality. Can be one-time paymentments for one extension or tools, but recurring payments can be realized by app-stores.
Requires:
- Setup of a payment mechanism (hosted or self-build)
- Setup of a download mechanism (hosted or self-build)
- Development of one or many tools, extensions, or plug-ins
Variants & Options:
- Tool: Development of a tool helping in the use of the OSS (e.g., UI layout designer for a frontend framework such as react.js)
- Extensions & plug-ins: Additional functionality (similar to filters in photoshop, ...)
- Premium Replacement: Selling a second (closed-source) tool far better than the OSS
- Apple's App Store (Hosting Apps for MacOS and iOS)
- Microsoft's App Store (Hosting Apps for Windows)
| Characteristics | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Effort to set-up | Months | Requires development of additional software, hosting and payment |
| Effort to maintain | Medium | Only updates are required from time to time |
| Cost to set-up | Medium | Will require a lawyer to setup the license and contracts |
| Cost to maintain | Low | Will cause costs for legal or tax related stuff (but should be covered by income) |
| One-time Income | Medium | Tools can have higher price, extensions often have lower prices |
| Recurring Income | Low | Might be possible for tools with recurring payments |
| Income Predictability | Medium | Lower for Extensions but higher for recurring paments for tools |
| Full income Threshold | 100+ | |
| Recipient | C | Might be only a sub-group who develop the tools, etc. |
| Additional Work | High | Extra work to develop and maintain tools, etc. |
| Visibility | Medium | Tool will probably contribute to usefullness of OSS |
| Necessity to pay | Low | Extensions often convenient but not necessary |
| Entry Threshold | Low | Credit card is sufficient |
| Countervalue | Work | Additional develoment effort necessary, but multiple sales possible |
| Scalability | Low | Scales with the number of users (who want the extension) |
| Effort for marketing | Medium | Extensions are often convenient and offer a countervalue |
| Competitors | None | Tools would have a proprietary license |
| Software types | Special | Mostly Frameworks that have use for editors or products with an extension mechanism |
NOTE: If external developers create a similar tool or extension this could increase the competition