More Startups Should Consider Source-Available Licenses
... as a middle ground between open- and closed- source.
Companies often prefer to build on top of open-source frameworks. Why? There are multiple reasons. Let’s separate them so that we can examine them in isolation, and perhaps come up with a middle ground that offers some advantages of open-source.
Would this middle ground be right for everyone? Of course not — nothing is. So, as you read this post, think about situations where something is applicable, rather than situations where it’s not.
First, one advantage of open-source is that you can inspect the source code to ensure your security and privacy. But closed-source frameworks like offer this benefit to users, in the form of source available licenses that let customers inspect the code, rather than having to take vendors’ marketing claims at face value.
Second, open-source lets companies add features or otherwise customise the software. But commercial software can also offer this benefit to users, in the form of source-available licenses that permit modification, but not redistribution. As long as customers are paying their subscription fee, if they want to make the product better at their own cost, why not? If anything, the vendor should be grateful to them for doing their work for them! Another variant is to permit redistribution of the modifications only to other licensees of the software 1, to not sabotage the vendor’s revenue.
Third, open-source lets companies host it where they want: in a country of their choice, a cloud provider of their choice, or on-prem. Or they may want single-tenant hosting for extra security. Or run on dedicated servers in AWS, to reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities caused by other parties code on the same server. Source-available licensing and abstractions like Knative can help with all this.
Fourth, one advantage of open-source is that prices can’t suddenly increase. But closed-source software can come with a legally binding agreement to not raise prices 2. If the vendor removes some features from your plan and puts them in a higher plan, you’re grandfathered.
If you’re starting a startup, think about whether any of these middle grounds between fully open and fully closed make sense for you.
Or not to raise them higher than the rate of inflation. Or to raise them only an amount known in advance, like 5% a year.