Open sourcing our project was one of the pivotal decisions for crowd.dev’s growth. We made crowd.dev open source from early on, which might sound counterintuitive for a startup seeking revenue. But the benefits in the developer tool space are profound. Developers inherently trust open-source software more – they can inspect the code, contribute, and they know it won’t suddenly disappear or lock them in. By aligning with open source, you tap into the collaborative energy of the dev community and significantly broaden your reach.
Now, not every dev tool can or should be fully open source (there are business considerations), but there are many ways to embrace open source values. Here’s how:
Open Source (If Feasible): If you can open source your core product (fully or a core subset), it can be a rocket boost for adoption. Many successful dev tools have an open-core model: the core is free and open source, and they sell hosted services or premium features. Examples include PostHog, Sentry, Kong, and countless others. Open source lowers adoption friction because a developer or company can try it without a sales process and even run it internally if needed. It also often gets you organic inbound interest – devs might stumble on your GitHub repository, or your project gets stars/trending which acts as marketing.
We believed that a community-focused tool should itself be open source. As I wrote back then, “There are, of course, common reasons around data privacy, customizability, code longevity, and avoiding vendor lock-in. But the main driver to go open-source was to create our own community where developers and companies come together to build ‘community-led software’.” That is, open source was a strategy to foster community collaboration around our vision. Indeed, after open-sourcing, we saw outside contributions and a sense of shared ownership emerge.
Opensource Your SDKs/Clients: Even if your main product is closed-source, consider open sourcing tools: client libraries, CLI tools, integration plugins, sample apps, etc. This allows developers to tinker and trust those components. For example, if you have a proprietary API service, provide an open-source CLI on GitHub that devs can use and even contribute to. It signals transparency.
Contribute to Other Projects: Show your commitment to open source by contributing to projects you integrate with. If your tool has a bug with a popular open-source framework, submit a PR to fix it. Or build an extension and contribute it upstream. This not only raises awareness (“who is this [YourCompany] making good contributions?”) but also builds goodwill.
Build Trust Through Transparency: Developers appreciate when you’re open about your roadmap, issues, and development. Even if your product isn’t fully open source, you can have a public issue tracker or roadmap repo where the community can see what’s happening and suggest changes. Some companies open-source their docs or website, inviting contributions. This fosters a sense of inclusion.
Use Open Source for Bottom-Up Adoption: Open source can be a great wedge into companies. Often a developer at a company will try the open-source version of a tool (because it’s free and they can just install it). If it delivers value, the company might later decide to get a supported or hosted version. This bottom-up path is how many dev-focused companies (MongoDB, Docker, etc.) got into large enterprises – the devs were already using the OSS version. We saw companies self-hosting our open source, and while they didn’t pay us initially, it expanded our user base and some of them eventually became commercial customers when they needed more support or features.
Leverage Community Contributions: If you have active users, some will be willing to contribute features, plugins, or fixes. Encourage this! Have clear contributing guidelines. Treat external contributors like heroes – quick code reviews, thank them in release notes. Each contribution is essentially free R&D and also locks that contributor in as an advocate (they’re now personally invested in the project). Some might even become maintainers or part-time contributors, extending what your small team can do.
Join Foundations or Collectives: To boost credibility, you can associate with known open-source organizations. For instance, getting your project accepted into the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) sandbox, or another relevant foundation, can assure large companies that the project is neutral and here to stay. Now, that’s a big step and not applicable to everyone, but consider smaller steps like listing your project on opensource directories or taking part in open-source conferences.
Balance Open and Commercial Thoughtfully: If you do go open-source, be mindful of your business model. The usual strategy is to keep core usage free and monetize extras (hosting, support, advanced features for enterprise, etc.). Don’t open source something and then make the community feel bait-and-switched by suddenly closing it or withholding all the useful parts. There’s a delicate dance in being a good open-source steward while running a business – many have done it successfully by focusing on building a huge user base first (through free usage) and monetizing a fraction of them later with value-add services.
Use Open Source as Marketing: A perhaps cynical but effective angle – release a smaller open-source tool or library as a side project that relates to your space. It can gain attention on its own and lead people to discover your main product. For example, a company that has a paid platform might open source a nifty developer utility (maybe a VS Code extension or a debugging tool) to get GitHub stars and recognition, which then funnels some devs to check out the company behind it. This works if the utility is genuinely useful on its own.
Highlight Open Source Values in Messaging: Even to non-users, emphasizing that you’re open source can be a selling point. On your website, stating “100% open source” or “Built in the open” or showing your GitHub stars count is social proof. A survey might say, X% of devs prefer open source for better security and quality (indeed, one survey found 77% believe open source leads to better software security). Use that to your advantage: by being open, you imply higher quality and no lock-in.
A short anecdote: One large company was hesitant to try crowd.dev initially because they worried about vendor lock-in and data ownership. When they learned we were open source and they could self-host with data privacy, their stance flipped. Open source was the trust signal that got our foot in the door. We later built a commercial relationship, but it started with the open source codebase.
Action plan
- If you haven’t already, evaluate which parts of your product can be open sourced.
- If feasible, set up a GitHub repository, choose a license (MIT, Apache 2.0, etc. – something business-friendly to encourage adoption), and do an initial code release.
- If fully open-sourcing is off the table, then open source supporting components (SDKs, etc.) or perhaps maintain an open source “lite” version.
- Announce your open source launch on places like Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter, etc. – these communities will amplify interesting projects especially if they solve a real need.
- Prepare to respond to community PRs and issues – open sourcing is like opening the front door to feedback (often very candid feedback – devs might file issues about code quality, etc., don’t take it personally, use it to improve).
- Integrate open source into your growth metrics: track stars, forks, contributions. They are a form of traction. And don’t be afraid to use them: “5,000 developers have starred our project on GitHub” is something you can mention in pitches or on your site – it tells people that the community sees value.
In summary, open source in dev tools is almost a cheat code for growth: it aligns with how developers choose technology (meritocracy and transparency), it can dramatically increase your adoption and community size, and it builds trust that’s hard to achieve in any other way. Use it wisely, and it can carry your product to places you couldn’t reach alone.