httptoolkit-ui VS httptoolkit

> Monetization via Paid Premium Version / Open Core

This point is interesting, because it assumes the only way to do premium is with a closed-source version, losing the open-source benefits.

Personally I've had good success (i.e. comfortably enough income as a solo bootstrapped project that I can work on open source full time) doing a freemium approach that's 100% open-source for http://httptoolkit.tech

Yes, anybody can fork the project and remove the payment checks (here: https://github.com/httptoolkit/httptoolkit-ui/blob/5cf0b10c6...) but it's a non-trivial hassle to fork everything and hook it all up, and means ongoing maintenance work to manage a fork forever, so at the price it's not really worth any serious professional's time (and I give out free licenses for everybody would contributes to the code anyway).

Works well, lets you stay 100% open source, which is good for everybody and encourages contributions, and you can still make enough money to fund development (never going to make anybody a billionaire, but that's not the point).

HTTP Toolkit, you will need to install one in your PC and another one in the emulator.

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but if you could side-load on windows this app should work. https://httptoolkit.com/

use https://httptoolkit.com/ but it's getting a bit off-topic :)

I run HTTP Toolkit (https://httptoolkit.com) which passed $2k a couple of years back. No longer a side project, as it's made enough money for me to work on it full time for a fair while now, but it certainly started that way, and it's still a one-man show (plus many wonderful open-source contributors).

I suspect that'll be a common theme in answers here though: if you have a side project making $2k a month, in most of the world that's enough for you to go full-time and try to take it further. If you can make $2k/month on something working only part-time, you can definitely make a lot more if you focus on it.

On your questions: HTTP Toolkit is a desktop app (plus a mobile app and other components for integrations) but it's an Electron app that effectively functions as a SaaS (with a freemium subscription model) that just happens to have a component that runs on your computer. And actually getting to $2k wasn't overnight at all - it took a couple of years of slow steady slog. A few inflection points that made a notable difference (releasing rewriting support & Android support particularly) but mostly it was a matter of "just keep pushing", trusting the trajectory would keep going, and steadily grinding upwards. It's great where it is now, but it's hard work - a solo business is not for the faint of heart!

you can use tools like https://httptoolkit.com/ to check the requests