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Nevo David
Nevo David Subscriber

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I am making $700 monthly with my open-source scheduling tool - you can do it too! 🤯

I am a big advocate of open-source startups. Over the next year, you will see many more of them. You take an existing product and open-source it.

I built a social media scheduling tool (many exist in the market) and created an open-source version.

This is Postiz, an open-source social media scheduling tool.

And of course, if you could help me with a star, it would be amazing.

Postiz MRR


The thing about the source

It's open-source, and everybody can come and take your code, so what's the catch?

Open source is a community; when you start to push your product, thousands of developers will fork and clone it and help you on your journey.

It will bring massive exposure to your product.

So far, the Postiz docker has been downloaded 26k times.

Postiz

On the other hand, everybody can be a competitor and use your open-source solution instead of paying you, and you have to live with this.

Some licenses can save you, such as apache-2 or Agpl-3
It means that people can't compete with you without open-sourcing your code and giving you credit, but it doesn't prevent commercial use.


Support is harder

Having an open-source repository (with docker and all) will attract many self-hosters and require much support.
So far, 3-5 tickets from Coolify, Portainer, and Unraid are received daily. This is only the start; I am sure there will be more deployment platforms soon.

Make sure you give other contributors the respect they deserve. They will help you tremendously with support.

Postiz Support


Revenue is uncertain

If there is one thing developers are known for, it is not to pay for stuff if it's not needed. We were born with this gene, I guess 😂

So don't expect developers to pay you. They'll host you on Raspberry Pi or a $5 Coolify server.

It's important to know this.

The goal of the contributors is:

  • Help you to build the product
  • Help you with exposure
  • Build a fun and active community where everybody can grow

I can't tell you how often I have seen a contributor tagging me on some X post about Postiz.

Or some top trending open-source article.


Enterprise

It depends on your product, but some enterprises can use only self-hosted solutions and will pay you for your support and custom implementation.

This is super important because that's something only open-source solutions can offer.

 

Play with the suitable license

There are no secrets. Monetized open-source (COSS) is sometimes misused in the wrong ways, for example:

  • Adding dual licensing to the open-source, so when you use the code, you use the enterprise version and need to figure out how to remove it from the code base.
     

  • Adding non open-source license. You can put something like BSL, but it is not counted as "open-source," and fewer people see your solution as attractive. You would need to refer to your solution as self-hosted instead.
     

  • Holding out on SSO - having SSO for enterprise is only considered a destructive pattern. I have discovered lately that you can find many websites like SSO.tax because SSO is a security thing. SSO can still be commercialized, but it's better to take a stand like Tailscale, which limits seats or enterprise providers.
     

  • Be a part of the community; don't talk like "We. " Say "I" and connect with your audience; nobody likes communicating with a corporation.


Go open-source. For me, it's the only way to build

Please help me out with a star. It would be awesome ❤️
https://github.com/gitroomhq/postiz-app

Postiz

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Top comments (23)

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anmolbaranwal profile image
Anmol Baranwal

The best way to earn passive income :)

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nevodavid profile image
Nevo David

🚀

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asmyshlyaev177 profile image
Alex

Good for you, need to find a good idea for this, maybe hardest part nowadays.

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nevodavid profile image
Nevo David

Just take something that exists and open source it

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fast profile image
fast-d3v

I talked about Postiz on one of my blogs. It's really awesome!

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nevodavid profile image
Nevo David

Yay! 🚀

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zack-123 profile image
Zack

Will try to self-host it :)

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nevodavid profile image
Nevo David

Go for it!

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david-723 profile image
David

This is a nice way of building SaaS!

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nevodavid profile image
Nevo David

Thank you!

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atkevins profile image
kevin

it seems the title is just for click baiting? when i read the whole post, i don't see anything mentioned about how it generates $700 per month at the very least. am i missing it?

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dsaga profile image
Dusan Petkovic

So don't expect developers to pay you. They'll host you on Raspberry Pi or a $5 Coolify server.

haha this is a good one!

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nevodavid profile image
Nevo David

😂

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dan_maroff profile image
Dan Maroff

“ I am making $700 monthly…”

Really? Cause other than the title, we don’t know how exactly this is occurring. Could you please give some more insight. Thanks

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tiuwill profile image
Willian Ferreira Moya

Excellent post!
This is something I’ve always thought about, and I was considering doing something similar. Thank you for showing that it’s possible.
I always remember that Red Hat has several open-source products and still makes a lot of money.
Excellent tool, by the way—congratulations on the great work.

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gorgeleo1122_c00a98a14b61 profile image
gorgeleo1122 • Edited

It’s great to see how open-source projects like Postiz can lead to both community-driven growth and monetization! The model of creating an open-source product, growing its user base, and offering value through active community engagement is something that can also be applied to other fields, including the gaming industry. Take 111kab, a Pakistani online gaming platform. Much like Postiz, 111kab Sig Up[Sign Up Here] could benefit from open-source elements—such as offering tools or features to the community—while growing its user base and fostering a loyal following. By involving developers and players in the creation and enhancement of game-related features, 111kab could thrive with a similar open-source community approach, leveraging contributions and feedback to improve the gaming experience while also offering monetized options like premium accounts, special in-game items, or tournaments. Just like the success Postiz has achieved, 111kab could further solidify its presence and build a sustainable, community-focused ecosystem. For more 111kab details Visit Here deviantart.com/hamzaaalay/art/1149....

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