Ask HN: Any programmers making a living off of GitHub Sponsors and/or Patreon?
Are you or do you know of anyone who is doing this? Is it possible?
18 comments
Omar Cornut, who's a full time developer of dear imgui (https://github.com/ocornut/imgui), an immediate-mode UI library primarily used to create content-creation and debug/visualization tools.
He was using Patreon until the end of 2019, but has actually removed it since he already got so much corporate sponsors over the years (His platinum sponsors right now are Blizzard, Google, Nvidia, and Ubisoft... enough said.) And he wholeheartedly deserves all the money, since his UI library is just so monumentally important for anyone doing 3D graphics or gamedev.
He was using Patreon until the end of 2019, but has actually removed it since he already got so much corporate sponsors over the years (His platinum sponsors right now are Blizzard, Google, Nvidia, and Ubisoft... enough said.) And he wholeheartedly deserves all the money, since his UI library is just so monumentally important for anyone doing 3D graphics or gamedev.
Cool! What is it about that library that made it stand out compared to other libraries in the same space?
The novel feature for this is the Immediate Mode GUI paradigm
https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/wiki#about-the-imgui-paradi...
https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/wiki#about-the-imgui-paradi...
https://www.patreon.com/marcan
marcan is pretty close to full time for his asahi linux project. but he's also had a high profile (at least comparatively speaking) for ages now. it's pretty rare from what I can tell
marcan is pretty close to full time for his asahi linux project. but he's also had a high profile (at least comparatively speaking) for ages now. it's pretty rare from what I can tell
Sindre is an example. But I agree with @asddubs. It's pretty rare.
https://github.com/sindresorhus
Evan You(the creator of Vue Js) does, he pulls in $150k+.
https://www.patreon.com/evanyou
https://www.patreon.com/evanyou
He probably pulls 500k+ from the whole ecosystem,but the fact that such a popular product as Vue JS can only bring in $150K in support is a reality check.
Is it really? The guy is making a living thanks to his own personal project and it's bad he's not a millionaire, especially since you note his revenue might not be limited to his Patreon only?
He might earn much more in the golden handcuffs of a FAANG, but his is a pretty incredible scenario by all metrics, especially if you consider the reality of the whole job market, not the SV niche making millions a year working at Google & co.
He might earn much more in the golden handcuffs of a FAANG, but his is a pretty incredible scenario by all metrics, especially if you consider the reality of the whole job market, not the SV niche making millions a year working at Google & co.
I suppose it depends on how you look at it.
Is it a good living? Yes. Is it commensurate with the value Evan has helped create through Vue.js? Not even close.
But that's kind of the deal with open source, isn't it?
Is it a good living? Yes. Is it commensurate with the value Evan has helped create through Vue.js? Not even close.
But that's kind of the deal with open source, isn't it?
Don't get me wrong, I don't equate $150K to peanuts, far from it,but my point is that if a project of such success brings this much,what chances people have with smaller projects that are good but nowhere near to Vue JS popularity.
He also has +150 sponsors on GitHub, but it doesn't changes the reality that a software engineer at his level can cut of a deal from any FAANG company for a Staff SWE role, which will be probably between 450-700K/year band.
As a comparision, these are the top Patreon earners as of Dec. 2020. They range from $190M to $2MM per year.
https://blog.patreon.com/top-patreon-creators
Yeah, haven't followed him in a while, but listened to his podcasts quite a lot few years ago. Really cool guy.
https://calebporzio.com/i-just-hit-dollar-100000yr-on-github...
https://calebporzio.com/i-just-hit-dollar-100000yr-on-github...
I know a lot of people who have projects with 500-5000 stars and zero sponsors.
Realistically the prospect of living off open-source development on github is as likely as living on sales as a book author. It happens, but it doesn't happen easily or often.
If you run a super-popular project you might pickup a sponsor or two, but it seems that the odds are low.
Realistically the prospect of living off open-source development on github is as likely as living on sales as a book author. It happens, but it doesn't happen easily or often.
If you run a super-popular project you might pickup a sponsor or two, but it seems that the odds are low.
Patrick Volkerding, BDFL of Slackware, must be fairly close (or at least I hope he is). He started a Patreon late last year which has built up to a steady monthly stream of cash.
I know a lot of open source project maintainers. Most of the sponsorships are negligible.
The ones that have a bit more sponsorships tend to offer some sort of priority support. But even that is very difficult.
I also maintain an open source project with 4k stars but we didn’t even bother with the sponsorship path and decided to monetize by charging for a hosted version.
For reference https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
The ones that have a bit more sponsorships tend to offer some sort of priority support. But even that is very difficult.
I also maintain an open source project with 4k stars but we didn’t even bother with the sponsorship path and decided to monetize by charging for a hosted version.
For reference https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups
I’m certain it’s possible. But not an easy goal to reach.
The book Working In Public is a good resource for learning more about how open source developers fund their work through sponsors, consulting, etc.