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business Intermediate 21 lessons

Open Source Business Models

Commercialize code. Master Open Core, Support, and SaaS business models for open source software projects.

How do you make money giving code away? This course explores successful Open Source Software (OSS) business models. You will learn the 'Open Core' model (free basics, paid enterprise features), the 'Red Hat' support model, and the managed SaaS model. We cover licensing implications (AGPL vs MIT) for monetization, building a contributor community that doubles as a sales funnel, and navigating the ethics of commercializing community work.

✅ 100% Free & Lifetime Access
⏱️ 5-Minute Lessons (Bite-sized learning)
🚀 21-Lesson Path (Independent modules)
📱 Mobile Friendly (Learn anywhere)
OSS Founders
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Secure Enrollment via SSL

Complete Course Syllabus

  • 1
    Monetization Models
    Open Core vs Hosting (SaaS) vs Support/Service.
  • 2
    Licensing Strategy
    Using AGPL to prevent cloud provider strip-mining.
  • 3
    Community Funnel
    Turning stargazers into leads and customers.
  • 4
    Enterprise Features
    What companies pay for (SSO, Audit Logs, RBAC).
  • 5
    Governance
    Managing contributions and corporate stewardship.

Estimated completion time: 21 lessons • Self-paced learning • Lifetime access

Career Outlook

Estimated Salary
N/A

Career Paths

OSS Founder Equity
Head of Open Source $150k-$220k
Commercial Product Mgr $130k-$180k

What You Will Learn

Design sustainable business models for Open Source projects
Differentiate between Open Core, SaaS, and Support models
Navigate licensing strategy (Copyleft vs Permissive)
Build a developer community that drives adoption
Transition free users to paid enterprise contracts

Skills You Will Gain

Business Strategy Licensing Community Mgmt DevRel Product Strategy

Who Is This For

OSS Maintainers
Founders
Product Managers

Prerequisites

Open Source Knowledge

Open Source Business Models FAQs

Is it ethical?

Yes, sustainability ensures the code survives.

Legal?

Licensing is complex; we cover the business impact.

Donations?

We cover GitHub Sponsors, but it rarely scales.

Examples?

GitLab, MongoDB, HashiCorp, and Confluent.

Need more info?
All Reork courses are 100% free, self-paced, and fully accessible on mobile devices. No prior experience is required. Read our full Platform FAQ.

Tech Stack & Tools

GitHub Sponsors
Common Clauses
License templates

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