157 people cloned my open-source mental health toolkit. Zero bought the $4.99 bundle.
This is the honest economics of that gap, and why I think it's working as intended.
The Setup
I built cbt-toolkit — 24 free CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) tools in vanilla JavaScript. Zero dependencies. Zero framework. Each tool detects a specific cognitive distortion and gives a CBT-based intervention.
I also put a $4.99 bundle on Gumroad with 4 things you can't get on GitHub:
- A Notion template for tracking thought records
- A workbook PDF with 30 days of exercises
- An email course (7 days)
- A consumer rights toolkit (Pro version)
The Numbers (Honest)
| Metric | Count |
|---|---|
| GitHub clones | 445 |
| GitHub stars | 2 |
| Bundle sales | 0 |
| Bundle views | 0 |
| Dev.to articles | 80 |
| Dev.to reactions | 24 |
445 people found the tools useful enough to clone. Zero found the bundle useful enough to buy.
What This Actually Means
The free tools are doing their job. 445 clones means the tools have real value to developers. The zero sales means my conversion path is broken, not my product.
The gap is between "I cloned the repo" and "I visited Gumroad." That's a distribution problem, not a pricing problem.
What I'm Testing
- Price drop $9.99 to $4.99 (done, still 0 sales)
- README CTA — prominent bundle link at the top of README (done)
- Dev.to articles — explaining what's in the bundle vs what's free (done, 0 reactions so far)
- GitHub release — v1.3.0 with bundle announcement (done)
The Lesson
Open-source is not a marketing channel. It's a gift. If 445 people clone your tools and zero buy your bundle, the tools are good and the bundle is invisible.
The fix is not to make the bundle cheaper or the tools worse. The fix is to make the bundle visible to the people who already value the tools.
I build free mental health tools and write about the honest reality of indie development. The CBT Thought Analyzer API is live on RapidAPI if you want to add thought analysis to your app.
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