# Open-source and SaaS
Source code and the binary package has been two primary delivery mechanism for Open-source projects. They were probably okay for users 10 years ago, but cloud-based SaaS became the more preferable way nowadays.
However, open-source communities don’t have the capability of doing SaaS. Instead, 3rd party companies are providing doing it.
Especially, cloud platforms, such as AWS, are in an extremely favorable position. They can just plug-in one more open-source project to their platform when it becomes popular. (e.g. ElasticSearch, MongoDB)
# Capturing value
The value created by a software project is usually captured when it is getting delivered. Not when it is being written. (especially the financial value)
Open-source communities don’t deliver SaaS, thus they don’t capture the majority of the value (maybe get some donations), 3rd party companies who do captures the majority of the value (like subscription, usage charge).
# Problem
Captured value from those 3rd party companies goes to their shareholders and employees, not the actual contributors.
Contributors can start a company to become a shareholder, but still,
– still, not all contributors become shareholders or employees of a company who captures the value
– you have to spend time on SaaS delivery mechanism instead of focusing on the open-source itself.
# staroid.com
https://staroid.com is a cloud platform for open-source projects.
Here’s how it works
– Release project by commit ‘staroid.yaml’ that tells how to build and capture value.
– Users launch the project and pay.
– Contributors are funded based on value captured from the project.
Therefore open-source communities can provide SaaS without 3rd party company and contributors directly capture the majority value when users use the project.
What do you think?
