Frequently Asked Questions
If your question isn’t listed below, consider asking on the Open Source Maintenance Fee Discussions.
Q: Who pays the fee?
Section titled “Q: Who pays the fee?”All individuals and organizations that generate revenue and all government agencies that use an Open Source Project which requires a Maintenance Fee must pay the fee. Also, Open Source Projects that require a Maintenance Fee, must pay any fees required by their dependencies.
Q: How much is the fee?
Section titled “Q: How much is the fee?”$10 per month per project is the norm for most projects. However, projects may set their own pricing tiers, so be sure to check with each project.
Q: Do I have to pay the fee for each product in my organization?
Section titled “Q: Do I have to pay the fee for each product in my organization?”No. An organization only needs to pay the fee once and all of its products are covered.
Q: Do I have to pay the fee if my organization makes money but our product that uses the project is offered for free?
Section titled “Q: Do I have to pay the fee if my organization makes money but our product that uses the project is offered for free?”Yes. The requirement to pay the Maintenance Fee is based on whether the organization generates revenue, not whether the products they offer are free or not. For example, the product may be offered for free but the organization may make money via advertising or selling a service where the product is a loss leader.
Q: If I use a project and that project depends on other projects do I need to pay all of them?
Section titled “Q: If I use a project and that project depends on other projects do I need to pay all of them?”No. You only pay the Maintenance Fee to the projects you directly reference. Your relationship is only with the projects you choose to use. The maintainers of those projects may choose to depend on other projects and, if so, there is a relationship between the maintainer and the next-level of dependencies. And so on, and so on. In the end, the dependency choices other maintainers make do not impact your Maintenance Fee, even though they will impact your product.
Q: Do I have to pay additional for newer versions of the project?
Section titled “Q: Do I have to pay additional for newer versions of the project?”No. As long as you pay the fee, you are entitled to all available versions.
Q: How long do I have to pay the fee?
Section titled “Q: How long do I have to pay the fee?”You pay the Maintenance Fee as long as you use the project.
Q: Can I pay by yearly invoice?
Section titled “Q: Can I pay by yearly invoice?”Every project can decide how it will accept Maintenance Fee payments. GitHub Sponsors is a popular option with very low fees for credit card payments and support for paying by invoice (read the invoice documentation for its requirements).
Q: What if I don’t want to pay the Maintenance Fee?
Section titled “Q: What if I don’t want to pay the Maintenance Fee?”That’s fine. You can download the project’s source code and follow the Open Source license for the software.
Do not download releases. Do not reference packages via a package manager. Do not use anything other than the source code released under the Open Source license.
Also, if you choose to not pay the Maintenance Fee, but find yourself returning to check on the status of issues or review answers to questions others ask, you are still using the project and should pay the Maintenance Fee.
Q: I paid the fee, why aren’t the maintainers fixing my bugs and answering my questions now?
Section titled “Q: I paid the fee, why aren’t the maintainers fixing my bugs and answering my questions now?”The Maintenance Fee keeps the project running. It does NOT pay for support. Some projects do offer additional support programs that provide bug fixes or SLAs for answers, so investigate those options if you need guarantees.
Q: Why not donate to a project?
Section titled “Q: Why not donate to a project?”Donations are a great way to reward maintainers for exemplary work. But donations are like bonuses, you like to get them but you can’t count on them every year. Regular contributions from the Maintenance Fee enables maintainers to make plans how best to keep the project running.
Q: I heard money won’t solve Open Source problems.
Section titled “Q: I heard money won’t solve Open Source problems.”That’s not a question. But it is true that money won’t solve every problem Open Source Projects face. However, paying maintainers is a very direct incentive to encourage them to keep their projects running. By keeping their projects running, more users may start paying the Maintenance Fee, again encouraging the maintainers to keep the project running. It’s a virtuous feedback loop.
Questions from Open Source maintainers that depend on other projects that require a fee.
Section titled “Questions from Open Source maintainers that depend on other projects that require a fee.”Q: Do I have to pay my dependencies if my Open Source project does not make enough revenue?
Section titled “Q: Do I have to pay my dependencies if my Open Source project does not make enough revenue?”Absolutely not. Until your project makes enough revenue to pay Maintenance Fees for your dependencies, you do not need to pay.
Q: My Open Source project takes sponsorships, do I need to pay a fee?
Section titled “Q: My Open Source project takes sponsorships, do I need to pay a fee?”If the sponsorships are donations (i.e. not required in any way), they are not revenue and the Maintenance Fee does not have to be paid. If the sponsorships are required (for example, by requiring a Maintenance Fee), then the sponsorships are revenue and the fee does need to be paid.
Q: Do I need to pay a fee for a revenue generating Open Source project’s dependencies if I’m just a contributor?
Section titled “Q: Do I need to pay a fee for a revenue generating Open Source project’s dependencies if I’m just a contributor?”No. A project that makes revenue must pay its fees, but that is a task for the maintainers of the project. Contributors need not be involved.