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Show HN: DrawDB – open-source online database diagram editor (a retro)

(www.drawdb.app)
263 points 1ilit | 1 comments | 09 Apr 25 00:20 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

One year ago I open-sourced my very first 'real' project and shared it here. I was a college student in my senior year and desperately looking for a job. At the time of sharing it i couldn't even afford a domain and naively let someone buy the one i had my eyes on lol. It's been a hell of a year with this blowing up, me moving to another country, and switching 2 jobs.

In a year we somehow managed to hit 26k stars, grow a 1000+ person discord community, and support 37 languages. I couldn't be more grateful for the community that helped this grow, but now i don't know what direction to take this project in.

All of this was an accident. But now I feel like I'm missing out on not using this success. I have been thinking of monetization options, but not sure if I wanna go down that route. I like the idea of it being free and available for everyone but also can't help but think of everything that could be done if committed full-time or even had a small team. I keep telling myself(and others) i'll do something if i meet a co-founder, but doubt and fear of blowing this up keeps back.

How would you proceed?

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metadata ◴[09 Apr 25 14:11 UTC] No.43632366[source]▶
Just for the context, I've been making (and selling) database (migration/translation) tools for 20-ish years.

What you have built can definitely become a product supporting you with a very nice income. Free version can stay free but you can sell solo licenses and team licenses as subscriptions. Paid license users will also have your support - and that matters to companies.

As others have said, commercial features can be built on top of the OSS product, like Electron desktop client, support for more databases, for views/procedures etc.

There is no downside to trying to commercialize this. Whoever wants to use what you have built so far can continue and I guarantee that many companies would be happy to give you $50/month for a more advanced version with support.

(edit for typo)

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ranger_danger ◴[09 Apr 25 18:23 UTC] No.43635530[source]▶
> There is no downside to trying to commercialize this

I know lots of people in the FOSS community who would stop using it as soon as you "sold out"... but those people probably don't represent the majority of potential users.

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1. j45 ◴[09 Apr 25 21:55 UTC] No.43638454[source]▶
A solo developer trying to find a way to offer something for free and eat shouldn't be mutuals exclusive.

Selling out is relative to having one's living costs somehow subsidized.

Not everyone has the same financial safety nets, and likely most have to create a safety net for themselves.

Maintaining a clear line between the free size and paid should be easier here compared to other tools should the developer decide to go that way.