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The Business of Open Source: How Companies Make Money from Free Software

Understanding Open Source Economics Open source doesn't mean free to develop. Companies need sustainable business models to support their open source work. Model 1: Dual Licensing Of…

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belhachemi_admin

June 30, 2026 · 5 min read

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Table of contents

  1. Understanding Open Source Economics
  2. Model 1: Dual Licensing
  3. Model 2: SaaS Offering
  4. Model 3: Support and Consulting

Understanding Open Source Economics

Open source doesn't mean free to develop. Companies need sustainable business models to support their open source work.

Model 1: Dual Licensing

Offer a free open source version and a paid enterprise version with extra features. MongoDB and Redis have used this model successfully.

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Model 2: SaaS Offering

Provide a hosted, managed version of your open source project. This is how companies like Elastic, Confluent, and GitLab monetize.

Model 3: Support and Consulting

Offer paid support, consulting, and training. Red Hat is the classic example here.

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