I have some experience in this space and I want to strongly encourage the author to reconsider their free as in beer model.
Yes, your target users don’t have a lot of money, but they also deserve a sense of whether or not you’re going to keep maintaining this project. Additionally, they are generally NOT technical and will not have the skills necessary to set up or maintain this platform.
Without a paid offering, they will have to run the software and will not have any clarity about your long term commitment to the project. Feel free to reach out to me. My email address is in my profile.
Hey this is a good comment about the value of something being free that I hadn't thought of before. If it's open on GitHub though couldn't another person fork and continue along if the original author vanishes?
Well, sure. But what if another person doesn't show up to continue along? How does a non-technical customer validate that the fork is going to fit their needs and does what they say?
Yes, your target users don’t have a lot of money, but they also deserve a sense of whether or not you’re going to keep maintaining this project. Additionally, they are generally NOT technical and will not have the skills necessary to set up or maintain this platform.
Without a paid offering, they will have to run the software and will not have any clarity about your long term commitment to the project. Feel free to reach out to me. My email address is in my profile.