Monetizing an Open- Source Project?

• BatteryBoi

  4 824 8.9 Swift

  The battery app your Mac's been dreaming about behind your back.

A few weeks back I set out on a small venture. The goal was to create something small to get me motivated again and to build something fun. I also wanted to dip my toes into open-source as after 13 years of being a developer it was time I gave something back to the community that made me.

The small app called [BatteryBoi](https://batteryboi.ovatar.io?ref=ycos) was a menu bar to replace the existing battery indicator on macOS.

Since the launch, the project has been what I would consider a huge success. It now sits at *almost 6k downloads and 600 daily active users (in just over 2 weeks).*

I am honestly blown away by the reception. In 13 years (of working in tech) I’ve never had feedback and love on an app quite like this. But with all the time and demand for new features, I simply cannot afford financially to spend any more time on this project as it doesn’t bring in nearly enough money - *In donations the app has pulled in $120. That’s about $0.20 per download.*

I am grateful to every single person for donating to this free open source project but this amount is not enough to keep it alive.

*How do open-source companies do it?* I know many will pull in donations from big companies, but this project is not really aimed at big companies, more so a B2C project. Furthermore, I have very little insight on the user base other than they own a Mac and what country they are in and my knowledge of this space is incredibly limited.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

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