Open source vs closed source SaaS

Open source vs closed source SaaS:

When is one better than the other?

Seeing ClarityAI going open source and doing well got me thinking about mine. Especially Lists Kit.

There’s also other classic close vs open source ecosystems:

• Calendly vs Cal.com
• Google Analytics vs Plausible
• React vs Vue
• ClarityAI vs MagnificAI

In particular, I find the business model of having a two tiered system interesting - a free, self-hosted version, and a premium one for managed hosting or convenient UI.

In a way, my Carrd plugins are like that too. The mobile navbar and the dark mode plugins are freemium, comes with a free version and a paid version. They are essentially open source, but in a small way.

The upsides: Open source software is cool, helpful and adds to the common good. This aspect is appealing to me as I like helping people (like how I’m more in my element making social impact products). There’s also the community aspect behind open source which I kinda enjoy, and had been doing all along for every product. Transparency is a key feature of OSS software. It’s great when it’s an important benefit to the customers, like for Plausible, that it doesn’t spy on user behaviour. OSS also means it’s easier to promote it because less likely to be considered as spam (because it’s free!).

I wonder if I should perhaps try open source for Lists Kit? Open source the boilerplate, but provide premium features for managed hosting and customization?

But then again, OSS only makes sense if your target customer is software engineer. Am I competent enough to make software for software engineers? Is Lists Kit something that other SWEs will want? Hmmm.

And OSS makes more sense when every option is closed source and there’s no other way to access it, like what @philz1337x said here about ClarityAI:

I think it took off because it was a good free alternative to Magnific AI, which is fully closed source and has no API so nobody can use it except on their site. The great thing about Clarity AI is: people can use it for FREE without any cost to me, but if they want a more easy to use user interface with image history, simple parameters and extra features, they can use my paid app

That doesn’t sound like a situation that Lists Kit is in. Yes, there’s many paid boilerplates. But also just as many free ones. There doesn’t seem to be any stand-out contrast or unique selling point there by going open source.

Hmmmmmm.

But anyhow… this talk about open source vs closed source really got my creative juices going. This approach appeals to my core. It’s echos of my free social impact products in it’s altruistic tone, but yet there’s an opportunity to still make some money out of it.

Is open source software a path I can take? 🤔

What closed source SaaS right now would benefit from having an open source version?