Basically an open source software is the one that is available free of cost for its users. Then, how does the developer or say owner of such a software earn for his investments? How can anyone earn by offering their product free of cost? These questions are sure to arise in the mind of a novice individual who has no idea about software monetization strategies or models existing these days. This article is to help those individuals as well as start-up firms who are unaware of strategies being employed by the modern businesses for earning revenue from their free or open source software.

There are various ways to make money from free software. Today, open source software is being used for applications in main stream business projects. These projects may utilize either complete or a few parts of the open source code for their needs. So, open source software is on demand for various reasons in the market and hence, one can definitely take the advantage of this and leverage best strategies to make money out of it. Some of the best software monetization strategies to make money from open source software are as follows.

Sell a Support Service
As your software is really good, then it can definitely earn revenue for you as it will be on demand because of two factors – one is its free availability and the other being its awesome features. Hence, your open source software will definitely get best customer attention. You can hence sell out the support services for your software like its installation and other things that can help customers take the best possible advantage of the software. By selling out the support services of an on-demand software you are sure to get enough money for your investments made in software development.

Hosting the Software
By hosting the software yourself, you are selling access to it but not selling its license for use. You are providing the support and hosting required to access your software. You can earn money from hosting of the open source software.

Sell the ‘Pro’ Version
Initially, you need to get a good, loyal user base for your open source software, before you actually invest in development of its pro version. Once you are successful in gathering a good user base for your free software, you can go for development of its Pro version with much more effective features than any of its competitors. This way you can lure your already established user base to buy your product thereby giving you more profits.

So, even with an open source or a free software the developers can earn to make possible returns for their investments. All that is required is a cleverly-planned and a fair strategy that can help them make maximum profits. For the start-ups or novice individuals with no idea of how to make profits from their software, software monetization services can be of the best help. Check out Total toolbar’s software monetization services to earn maximum revenue from your software.