“A GitHub star is great. An email subscriber is someone you can reach directly.”
Lately I've been thinking about email lists and whether open source projects should start building one much earlier.
GitHub stars, downloads, website traffic, and social media followers are all useful metrics, but none of them give you a direct way to reach people who are interested in your project.
That's where email becomes interesting.
If someone voluntarily gives you their email address, they are usually interested enough to hear about:
- new releases
- important updates
- major features
- roadmap changes
And that feels much more valuable than a random website visit.
One question I'm currently asking myself is:
At what stage should a project start collecting emails?
Should it happen:
- immediately after launch
- after finding product-market fit
- after reaching a certain number of users
I'm not sure there is a single correct answer.
For my own project, DebugProbe, I plan to collect emails through the project website.
The idea is simple.
Users can subscribe and receive updates only when something important happens around the project.
No marketing emails.
No spam.
Only meaningful updates.
Interestingly, I accidentally discovered another way to collect emails.
I published the project on Gumroad as a free product.
The project itself costs nothing, but Gumroad gives me one useful thing:
Information that someone was interested enough to download it.
That creates another channel for understanding who is actually engaging with the project.
And it made me wonder whether relying on a single source for collecting emails is enough.
Maybe projects should have multiple entry points:
- website subscriptions
- free downloads
- newsletters
- community signups
while still keeping everything simple and respectful.
Because at the end of the day, email feels different.
Algorithms change.
Social media platforms change.
But an email list remains a direct connection between a project and its audience.
Final Thought
I'm still very early in this journey, so I'd love to hear from developers who have already gone through it.
Do you think collecting emails is important for open source projects?
And if so, when is the right time to start?
At the moment, the only way to join the DebugProbe email list is through the free Gumroad page.
Top comments (3)
I believe it never hurts, even for an open-source project. For you it is a way to get validation indeed, and reach out to the user base directly potentially. For users it is at least the way to show support (I often consider it to be this way when I subscribe myself) and to get news/insights about the product (or even to get in touch in response as an option, why not). Win-win.
I completely agree.
Even if only a small percentage subscribe, it creates a direct connection with people who genuinely care about the project.
And as a builder, getting that validation and feedback can be very motivating.
Stay tuned for today's follow-up post and the website update 🙂. I'd be grateful if you became the first subscriber.
Small update: the subscription form is actually live now :)
If you'd like to follow the project, you can already subscribe on the website. Thanks again for the encouragement and feedback. 🙏
Email Subscription Update