Just a few weeks ago, I launched pkgstore as a directory. Today, I am announcing the beta availability for the .NET marketplace feature.
My personal experience with software marketplaces
I have published software and various products on many different platforms over the years.
The App Store by Apple and the Play Store by Google, early in my career, were my first encounters with such stores, as a publisher. And then the Windows Store when I started working on the now defunct VLC for UWP app back in 2017.
Up until somewhat recently, through my work on the VLC SDK integration with game engines, I have had the absolute pleasure to use the Unity Store as a publisher, a game developer focused marketplace for the Unity ecosystem. That did not go so well, but that's a story for another time.
During a few years managing releases and publishing an asset on the Unity Store, though, I began to make notes of what I liked and disliked about that experience with the Unity Store, from a developer and business point of view.
The industry standard 30% fees are a well known ripoff, but did you know that in the case of the Unity Store, the marketplace keeps all the customer data away from the publisher? No customer email, no name, no buyer company information... nothing.
This kind of marketplace is a black box.
The open .NET marketplace based on NuGet and Stripe
My vision for pkgstore is in many ways totally opposite to the shady practices of Unity, and targeted to all .NET developers. I want to empower developers and publishers, not lock them in.
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Full NuGet protocol integration
dotnet push/restorejust like any other source. - Full Stripe integration for easy and secure payments.
- Reasonable and low fees (no platform fees during beta).
- Automated access control for your customers. NuGet feed access credentials are linked to the buyer's Stripe subscription. This saves time.
- Full customer data transparency. No black box. You own your customer data.
- Fast onboarding and setup to get you selling quickly.
- Subscription business model because software maintenance does not stop.
- Human support by the founder.
Turn dependencies into partnerships
Pkgstore isn't just for sellers. It is for developers who need reliable dependencies. When you purchase a package here, you are often buying more than just the DLLs.
You are buying a direct line to the maintainer. This often means commercial support, long-term maintenance guarantees, priority security fixes, and potential consulting services. It turns a "dependency" into a "partnership".
Sustainability for all software
I welcome both proprietary and open-source software. The license distinction is irrelevant when it comes to long-term viability of important software.
A note for the OSS makers and consumers. I wrote about this 5 years ago, but I feel it bears repeating: Free software does not maintain itself for free forever (until our AI overlords take over, at least).
Someone always pays the cost, whether it is through personal time, corporate sponsorship or burnout (definitely not donations!).
Pkgstore provides one sustainable path for maintainers to get compensated for their work through a commercial approach. Going commercial is not for everyone and not for every type of software, and that's okay. There are many types of software and I expect sustainability models to be varied as well.
Join the Beta
I have talked with several publishers already. Onboarding is ongoing for the open beta.
What's next?
Lots more new exciting features are coming, for both publishers and customers. I have a vision but I remain open to feedback. I will build what the community wants and needs.
Stay tuned for more updates and follow the journey on LinkedIn.
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