Shareware or Open Source with Donation?
I am building a very cool application that I want to make a little cash on the side with. However I still can't decide if the application should be a shareware or make it open source and allow people to donate? With shareware you can at least have the limited version that they are using and when they pay for the application it unlocks the full version. However, with an open source you are providing the source code to the community and rely on them to send you donations to continue working on it. Also any changes that someone makes to the app must be sent back to the community. That does have it's advantages. What is your take on it? If anyone is reading this blog :)
1 Comments:
From what I've read online, it's difficult to really make cash on a shareware product unless you have a lot of time to invest in the product.
With an open source approach, if the app is really compelling, you will get volunteers to add to the code base and produce a nice product more quickly. However, the amount of money you make is probably going to be very small via donations (though I've personally donated to a couple of excellent open source products).
If you look at Telligent, they plan on taking some open source products and making proprietary extensions that they will sell as well as consulting.
Speaking of which, your blog doesn't support the CommentAPI. When you going to move it to .TEXT? ;)
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