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Monetization via Paid Versions

AKA: Crowdfunding, Pre-order

Proposals from maintainers to develop major features or new versions of the software. Payments are collected via a crowdfunding platform in various tiers and can offer additional countervalues (e.g., naming the version). Often these are one-time payments for one version, but can be repeated if the community support exists (e.g., for every minor version).

Requires:

  • Setup of project description and payment mechanism (hosted or self-build)
  • Description of the proposed project and description of benefits
  • "Marketing activites" to inform and motivate users to pay for the project

Variants & Options:

  • Single Project: Development of a new version or major feature
  • Recurring Projects: Development of minor versions or features (e.g., quarterly or on demand)

Platforms

Evaluation

Characteristics Value Note
Effort to set-up Days Some descriptions and bank info is sufficient
Effort to maintain Medium New description for every new version & development time
Cost to set-up Low Maybe some costs for making a great video / demo of the future version
Cost to maintain None No cost after if funding goal is reached. But process is repeatable with next version
One-time Income Medium Can work for larger versions
Recurring Income Low Depends on community size & will to fund
Income Predictability Low Depends on the extensibility of the software (plugins could work better)
Full income Threshold 100+
Recipient C Might be only a sub-group who develop the tools, etc.
Additional Work Low New version is probably already on the roadmap
Visibility Low Easy to forget, ignore, or overlook by users
Necessity to pay Low Voluntary
Entry Threshold Low Credit card is sufficient
Countervalue Work
Scalability Low Scales to the time available to develop new version
Effort for marketing High
Competitors None
Software types Progs Harder for Libraries; Easier for Programs, Tools, Databases, etc.