New Commercial License (2.x)

[bkrencker]

I am sad to read that this open source project has changed its license terms and only offers a commercial edition for future releases, even tough this project has had benefits from the open source contributions over the years and within the free open source OpenUI5 and CAP ecosystem.

It's a common practice: make something free until it is widely used, then add a pricing model. Of course there is a lot of effort from your side, but you can for example offer support to enterprise customers that is paid but leave the use free in terms of community support. This is in my opinion the best practice for open source projects.

Besides having said my opinion, please put some pricing information on the website, at least some reference prices. Is the pricing depending on number of users, number of calls or is it a fix price?

Best regards

[marianfoo]

Hi @bkrencker
I agree with you, I'm also sad that it turned out this way, but I don't see any other option at the moment.
The version 1.X stays free under Apache and i still will releases fixes.

With the birth of my second child, I simply have much less time and need to manage my time well. Without financial motivation, I can only abandon the project, and since I have already invested hundreds of hours in it, I would like to continue trying.

I offered GitHub sponsorship: Only @wridgeu did that (Thanks!).
I offered paid help with integration: No response.
I offered support packages: No response.
I offered a Pro version: No response
Furthermore, I have always offered support free of charge.

Why are no prices displayed? I haven’t published exact numbers yet because I want feedback first.
If you and your company are interested, we would be happy to discuss it.

[bkrencker]

Hi @marianfoo
The options you tried seem promising, it's sad that it did not work out. Maybe you can put a paid option to prioritize bug fixes or feature requests and for priority support for integration and customizing? And also to get more contributors that can help you with the implementation.

I am curious of other inputs to this discussion.

[marianfoo]

Those are good suggestions, but in comparison to the work I already put in, this is not worth the effort. Especially because I earn more with my current work
So either the commercial licence works out or I put the development to a minimum or zero, simply because I can't afford it.
More contributions would not work either because someone has to manage and review the code.
It's not a new problem to monetize open source products. Lots of projects move to commercial licenses because no other way working out